Winner 🏆

Internal combustion engine vehicles

Traditional gasoline cars usually have the lowest sticker price compared to their electrified counterparts. These types of vehicles have long-established supply chains and economies of scale that make them cheaper to manufacture, according to Antuan Goodwin, CNET’s EV senior writer.

Runner-up 🥈

Hybrid vehicles

Hybrid-electric vehicles often have a slight premium over pure gas cars due to the dual gas and electric powertrain, but are usually still more affordable than most pure EVs.

Loser 💸

Electric vehicles

Electric cars are typically at the top end for sticker price. “The battery is going to be the biggest reason that EVs are more expensive,” Goodwin says. EVs also don’t benefit as much from economies of scale. Plus, consumers are still subsidizing the research and development that legacy automakers are doing to design electric cars, according to Amelia Dalgaard, an automotive expert known online as Motorhead Mama.

Winner 🏆

Electric vehicles

The cost of charging an EV depends a lot on your local electricity rates, and on where you charge your vehicle. Charging at home with a Level 2 charger is usually the cheapest way to fuel your EV, while public Level 3 fast-chargers are usually the most expensive. Generally speaking, charging an EV at home is cheaper than fueling a comparable car with gasoline, according to Goodwin and Dalgaard. For that average 11,000 miles per year, at the national average electricity rate, you’d spend $550 on charging.

Runner-up 🥈

Hybrid vehicles

The fuel costs for passive hybrids are usually lower than regular gas cars because they get better overall gas mileage. Some models, like the Toyota Prius, get an average 54 miles per gallon. So while their upfront cost might be higher than a pure gasoline car, hybrids have a much lower cost per mile, and therefore lower refueling costs.

Loser 💸

Internal combustion engine vehicles

Gasoline is usually the more expensive way to fuel a car when compared to an electric battery. “Electricity has historically been less expensive than gasoline by a significant chunk,” Goodwin says. The average gasoline car gets 26 miles per gallon, which accounts to a $1,320 annual fuel cost for the average 11,000 miles driven per year.

Winner 🏆

Electric vehicles

Whereas gas engines have plenty of things that can break, electric powertrains hardly ever do. “Typically, it’s set it and forget it,” Goodwin says. (No oil changes, spark plugs or exhaust system here.) That makes EV maintenance costs a lot lower than their gas counterparts. That being said, tires on EVs generally wear faster because the vehicle is heavier. And if you do need to make a significant repair on an EV (say, after a collision), it’s generally more expensive because the batteries and technology in an EV are costly to replace.

Runner-up 🥈

Internal combustion engine vehicles

Gasoline cars require a lot more maintenance than electric cars. That’s because gasoline engines have a lot more moving parts, and a lot more things that can break, compared to an electric powertrain. Regular oil and fluid changes, plus replacements of brakes and other mechanical parts, can add up to a lot of frequent maintenance costs.

Loser 💸

Hybrid vehicles

Passive hybrid vehicles require basically all of the same maintenance that pure gasoline vehicles do, but maybe less often because the engine runs less of the time. Meanwhile, plug-in hybrids, which have both a full gasoline engine and a hefty electric battery powertrain, are basically the worst of both worlds when it comes to maintenance costs, Dalgaard says.

Winner 🏆

Internal combustion engine vehicles

These usually have the lowest insurance costs, because they’re cheaper to replace and repair after collisions.

Runner-up 🥈

Hybrid vehicles

Generally, these cars are more expensive to insure compared to pure gasoline vehicles because they’re more expensive to begin with.

Loser 💸

Electric vehicles

These cars are the most expensive to insure because they have the highest sticker price, and because components such as batteries are more expensive to replace, according to Goodwin and Dalgaard.

Winner 🏆

Internal combustion engine vehicles

Because gasoline cars have been around for so long, their resale value follows a predictable and well-established depreciation curve. Currently, that usually means gas cars depreciate more slowly than electric cars.

Runner-up 🥈

Hybrid vehicles

These cars have traditionally held their value well due to strong demand and fuel efficiency.

Loser 💸

Electric vehicles

Historically, EVs have experienced higher and faster depreciation than gas vehicles. That’s partly because the EV technology improves so quickly (leading to better battery range and faster charging) that older models become undesirable more rapidly (very much like the old , Dalgaard says). That said, as the EV market matures, this effect might begin to lessen, Goodwin observes, leading to better resale value for EVs.

Brand/model/year

2026 Chevrolet Equinox EV

2026 Chevrolet Equinox

MSRP (sticker price) at purchase

$36,495

$30,495

Fuel/charging cost 

$0.05 per mile

$0.12 per mile

Cost of gasoline or electricity

$0.175 per kWh

$3.20 per gallon (US average) 

Maintenance costs 

6 cents per mile 

10 cents per mile 

Cost over 5 years 

$42,792

$43,088

Cost over 10 years

$49,744

$56,994

Cost over 15 years

$57,420

$72,345