Gas-powered vehicles are cheaper than electric vehicles (EVs) when calculating total costs, according to a new American Automobile Association (AAA) analysis.
As electricity costs rise and gas prices fall, EVs top the market as the priciest kind of car in 2025, according to the AAA report. While former President Joe Biden pushed for EVs, blocked oil and gas leasing across the country and saw a huge spike in gasoline prices, the Trump administration has unlocked opportunities for oil and gas development and has seen drops in petrol costs.
“This new assessment by AAA creates one of the true ironies in our recent obsession with ‘clean’ energy. Dramatically raising the cost of energy to consumers has long been the central goal of the climate alarm lobby, in the belief that it would render their hugely costly ‘solutions’ more competitive in the marketplace,” David Blackmon, an energy and policy writer who spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “But now it is becoming increasingly obvious that, as the public figures out the real reasons why their costs have risen so rapidly, what the alarmists have really created is rising resentment towards themselves and making their favored alternative to gas-power car less competitive.”
The report also notes that the costs of operating a new vehicle have dropped by $719 since 2024, from $12,297 to $11,577, or $964.78 per month, according to AAA.
“While EVs remain more expensive in ‘ownership costs’ (depreciation, insurance, fees, and financing), they have lower ‘operating costs,’ particularly in fuel and maintenance. Last year, EV fuel costs were about one-third of gas vehicle costs,” the analysis states. “This year, however, gasoline prices have significantly decreased, while electricity prices have slightly increased. Although EVs still offer fuel savings — less than half of gas vehicle costs — this does not sufficiently offset their higher ownership costs. Consequently, EVs are now more expensive overall across all vehicle categories in this study.”
While the Biden administration loaded the technology with subsidies and supported California’s de facto national EV mandate, Congress and President Donald Trump have since blocked those polices. Notably, some EV tax credits are sunsetting on Sept. 30.
Electricity costs have been climbing as aging infrastructure strains the grid and several states shutter coal plants at an accelerated pace to meet green energy goals, tightening supply, while artificial intelligence data centers drive a demand spike. Meanwhile, gasoline prices have been dropping as supply expectations remain high and are projected to hit a 20-year low — excluding 2020 — according data from the Energy Information Administration.
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