An EV doesn't have mileage. It has a ledger.
Electric cars break the old metrics — no litres, no km/L — and replace them with better ones: kWh per charge, price per kWh, and cost per km. Here's how to track all of it, including the EV-specific expenses that surprise people: fast-charging premiums, battery health, and tyres.
kWh is the new litre — log charges like fills
The whole fuel-tracking system translates directly: instead of litres at a price per litre, you log kWh at a price per kWh, with the odometer. Same two taps at the "pump" — whether that pump is your wallbox or a highway fast charger. From those entries, everything computes: energy used, cost per charge, and the number that actually matters, cost per km — the honest headline metric for an EV, where distance-per-energy means little to a wallet.
FuelCap treats electricity as a first-class fuel: kWh units with their own tank capacity, cost-per-km as the headline efficiency figure. Log every charge, home or public, and the numbers stay true.
Home vs fast charging: the price gap is the story
Residential tariffs and DC fast-charging prices commonly differ by a factor of several. What that means in practice:
- Home charging is the economics. Charge overnight, and your cost per km undercuts any petrol car comfortably.
- Fast charging is the tax on impatience. Fine on road trips; as a daily habit it can push your cost per km into petrol-car territory.
- Your blended rate is what you actually pay. Log every session at its real price — the mix of home and public in your real life is your true number, and it's usually nobody's headline figure.
The EV expenses nobody adds up
The purchase-decision spreadsheets compare electricity vs petrol and stop. The ledger that actually runs an EV has more lines:
- Battery health & eventual replacement. Degradation is slow and warrantied for years, but it's the big tail-risk expense. Track it: note usable range after a full charge now and then, watch it over seasons. Slow decline is normal; a data point beats an anxiety. If a replacement or module repair ever looms, your notes — capacity trend, charging history — are the evidence.
- Tyres. EVs are heavy and torquey, and they eat tyres faster. Rotation every 8,000 km or so matters more than for a petrol car; log fit dates and brands (here's the habit).
- Insurance. Often higher for EVs — repair networks and battery costs drive it. It belongs in the same ledger as the charging costs.
- Accessories & home hardware. The wallbox, the cable, the adapter set — capital expenses of EV life that never show up in "₹/km vs ₹/km" comparisons.
- What you save: no oil changes, fewer fluids, less brake wear (regen does the braking). The maintenance line drops — which is exactly why it should be tracked, not assumed.
Settling the EV-vs-petrol argument with your own data
Brochure comparisons use average tariffs and average driving. You are not average. If you already tracked a petrol car, you have its true cost per km. Log the EV for a few months and you have the other side — measured on your routes, your charging mix, your climate. That comparison, from one ledger, beats every online calculator.
Common questions
How do I calculate my EV's cost per km?
Log each charging session — kWh, cost, odometer — and divide. FuelCap computes it continuously, across home and public charging at their real prices.
Is fast charging really that expensive?
Commonly several times the home tariff per kWh. Great on trips, costly as a habit — your logged blended rate will show it plainly.
Can I track both a petrol car and an EV in one app?
Yes — FuelCap supports kWh as a fuel with its own capacity per vehicle, alongside petrol, diesel, CNG and LPG. Each vehicle keeps its own metrics.