Due to the Iran war, fuel prices are still at their highest level. How much can you save by charging instead of refueling? The Handelsblatt calculator shows it.
Prices at the pumps reach new heights almost every day. Costs have been rising for months as a result of the Iran war and the associated blockage of one of the most important shipping routes, the Strait of Hormuz. The price for a liter of E10 gasoline recently rose to a nationwide daily average of 2.286 euros, reaching a record value, as the ADAC announced. Diesel cost 2.412 euros per liter and was therefore just four cents away from its peak reached in April.
For drivers who are thinking about a new car, this brings another question to the fore: How much money could I currently save with an electric car?
The Handelsblatt has built a calculator that makes it possible to understand the annual savings when charging compared to refueling. All you have to do is select the number of kilometers driven and the consumption of the combustion engine compared to the electric car of your choice, as well as a year as a basis for the fuel and electricity prices.
As a guideline: According to ADAC, a Tesla Model Y consumes around 16 kilowatt hours (kWh) per 100 kilometers. The Mercedes CLA Coupé is around 13 kWh and a BMW iX3 50 xDrive is around 16 kWh.
According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, the average driver covers up to 14,000 kilometers a year. However, this depends heavily on the type of drive. Most Germans use a gasoline-powered car that consumes an average of between five and eight liters per 100 kilometers and drive around 10,000 kilometers. The cost savings compared to an average electric car are currently over 1000 euros.
Given the escalation in the Middle East, this gap could become even larger in the coming weeks. The reason for the high fuel prices lies in the global crises and wars of recent years.
What the comparison between electric and petrol cars shows
An escalation in the Iran war is currently causing rising oil and gas prices. The background is reports that Saudi Arabia also had to shut down an important pipeline after the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the increasing threat to the Bab al-Mandab Strait from the Houthi militia in Yemen.
Since the attack by the USA and Israel on Iran, the price of a barrel of US WTI crude oil has risen by more than 65 percent. However, because there have been shortages of crude oil, diesel and natural gas exports since Russia broke out in the Ukraine war in 2022, prices were already under pressure.
Diesel drivers currently have to dig particularly deep into their pockets. The savings when switching to an electric car are therefore even higher. But it's not just the savings on refueling that is currently driving a real rush to electric cars.
The number of new registrations of electric cars has been rising significantly for the past year. In March, more electric vehicles than combustion engines were newly registered in Germany for the first time. According to the current figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority, electric cars also dominated in August. A total of 68,930 new electric cars were put on the roads - over 75 percent more than a year before.
It's not just high fuel prices that are likely to be driving the boom in electric cars. In terms of purchase price, electric vehicles are still more expensive than comparable combustion engines, but the difference is becoming smaller. A larger range of models is also likely to influence some purchasing decisions.
Foreign competition in particular is bringing more and more affordable models onto the market. Renault offers a compact electric car with its R5, and Chinese suppliers such as BYD and Geely also want to significantly expand their involvement in Europe. The range, which can now be more than 700 kilometers for some models, is no longer an obstacle.
Government funding programs also boost sales figures. Since the beginning of the year, Germany has been paying households a premium of up to 6,000 euros.
Another important point is the significantly improved charging infrastructure. According to the Federal Network Agency, 212,064 publicly accessible charging points were already in operation nationwide as of August 1, 2026, including more than 66,665 fast charging points. Just a few years ago, the lack of charging options was considered one of the biggest obstacles to electromobility. There can no longer be any question of this. More and more charging points and entire fast-charging parks are being built along many highways, in cities and increasingly in rural regions.
