The Shockingly High Price of Gasoline: What It Takes to Spark an Electric Vehicle U-Turn

Last month, gas prices skyrocketed, and coincidentally, used EV sales were up in Q1. We won’t know the full impact of Trump’s senseless war in Iran on EV sales until we see the Q2 numbers, but lower prices on used EVs may have boosted those numbers anyway. It’s nice to see.

With that in mind, last Thursday, we asked our readers how expensive gas would have to get before they went electric. Fuel prices aren’t the only reason people buy EVs, but it felt like a good starting point for an interesting discussion. Did we get many answers that named a specific price? Nope, but that’s okay.

Many of the comments we did get were still pretty interesting. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular answers.

The Math Behind It

We leased an EV two years ago and it was transformative for us in many ways. When it came time to turn in the lease, we bought another EV to replace it (residual value/resale value was way too far off on our lease to buy it out). I did some math when we first bought the car and calculated that gasoline would have to be nearly under $1/gallon for it to be cheaper to drive an ICE vehicle before you even figure in the lower maintenance costs that come with it. If you can charge at home, the economics have made sense for a while.

A Different Perspective

As an EV owner, I won’t be going back to gas no matter what the gas prices are. The EV is simply better to drive, better in every way. Quieter, faster, way smoother, no gas smell, no warm-up, instant heater, and no pumping gas. And much cheaper.

The Pickup Truck Enthusiast

For me, it’s not the price of gasoline that would make me buy an EV. I’m really looking at getting a Slate pickup in a few years. Not because it’s an EV, but because it’s a small, simple regular-cab pickup and nobody makes them anymore. Since 1991 I’ve driven regular cab, base model, manual transmission pickups.

The Hybrid Future

I am currently driving two gas vehicles but they are getting old and I will replace them with an electric and hybrid car. Possibly only one electric. The price of gas will be irrelevant.

A Slick Deal

I literally had a perfect storm develop. A new job with a lot more local driving, a GF that lives 2 hours away, freshly-installed solar panels, a ridiculous trade-in value on my old (paid for) Colorado, and an unreal deal on a Mach-E. With 72 months at 0% and no money down on the car (stickered at $60k) my monthly payment is less than what I was spending on gas every month, and that was when gas was under $3/gallon. It was strictly an economic decision, with a very quick and noticeable ROI.

A Range Anxiety Story

I’ve had several rental EVs ranging from a Bolt to a Polestar (so far my favorite) to a couple of Teslas and I’ve come away impressed, but did have range anxiety a few times when I couldn’t find a working or available charger. I own a condo with covered parking but no charger availability, nor outlets or available space to have a charger installed. No chargers at work as well. The only chargers available are two at the end of my street where it turns onto a busy street and since the chargers are in a public parking lot, they are frequently in use.

So that can get tough if people don’t move their charged EVs in time. So, gas could hit $10/gallon and I’d still have to at least use some form of an ICE powertrain. Probably a plug-in hybrid where I can get some EV mode out of it when I’m near a charger. But for my sanity, and there was once where I was almost stuck on I-71 due to my EV battery range plunging severely and quickly, I can’t rely on just a pure EV just yet.

A Unique Perspective

At free gas, I’m in for the EV. Never having to visit a greasy gas station or go for regular service is worth whatever it costs. Own 2 EV’s, the first one at 3 years now, and have never visited a charging station with either one. Fortunately, able to charge at home and wouldn’t dream of taking a “road trip”…which just sounds like an unpleasant activity involving stops at horrific gas stations or desolate charging stations.

A School Run

I want an EV because I only drive a handful of miles every day to get my kids to and from school. Driving around in my SHO is just brutal at this point because if the turbos spool up then it just starts chugging fuel.

I drive so little these days that I could keep it topped off by plugging it in at home. But it seems that dealers are seeing the possible demand for EVs and in my area the prices have gone up on CPO EVs by 30-50%.

The Engineer’s Perspective

No one who’s good at math should even remotely consider changing out their vehicles with our current gas pricing. With 12,000 miles per year at 25 MPGs, the extra $1 per gallon we’re paying amounts to $480 annually. Even if gas doubled to $8 per gallon, we’re talking under $2,500.

I would suspect we would need fuel costs to triple or quadruple before people would take depreciation hits to buy high-MPGs, assuming this would be a permanent increase and not a temporary spike.

A Historical Context

What’s interesting is that even with the current average at $4.12 per gallon or so, the U.S. still has amongst the cheapest gasoline in the developed world, aside from select oil-producing nations like Venezuela, Iran, Libya, Kuwait, etc.

In Western Europe, $9-10 dollars per gallon has been the norm for years. We could look to those countries and project what we would all eventually be driving if fuel costs doubled permanently.

A Different Kind of Vehicle

I drive a 1971 Chevy C10 pickup. It has no computers, no injectors, no oxygen sensors….and it doesn’t need gasoline.

It merely needs a flammable liquid that can be ignited by a spark once atomized. This is key; it will burn a huge variety of fuels other than gasoline quite readily.

A Personal Opinion

Honestly? It’d have to be really, really high. I drive about 4,000 miles per year, and ride my ebike about 4,000 miles per year as well. Since my Outback gets about 25mpg, I really only use 160 gallons of gas every year.

If gas goes up by $1/gallon, that’s only an extra $160 per year more that I’d be spending. If gas went up by $2/gallon, that’s still only an extra $320, or less than $30/month. Hell, if gas went up to $10/gallon I’d still only be spending a total of $160/month on it.

And the issue is that EVs are still stupidly expensive since there aren’t many used ones, and so the idea of a $400 car payment just to avoid paying $160 on the vehicle that I have would be the definition of stupidity.

A Math-Driven Decision

I’m an engineer. I have the technology (Excel).

In my case, I have two vehicles.

Vehicle 1:

Current is a paid-off 2007 Sienna with 300k miles. The gas cost would have to be over $16/gallon to make the payments plus electricity be less than the gas plus routine maintenance on the Sienna, if I assume an ID.Buzz.

Conclusion

We asked our readers how expensive gas would have to get before they’d buy an EV. We got some interesting answers that ranged from “I’ll never go back to gas” to “it’d have to be really, really high”. The math behind it is straightforward: if you can charge at home and drive fewer miles, the economics are already in your favor.

But what about those who need to rely on public charging infrastructure? What about those who still prefer the benefits of an ICE powertrain?

As we continue to navigate the world of EVs, one thing is clear: there’s no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to switching from gas to electric.