Vehicle Ownership Cost Calculator

About this calculator

The largest cost of owning a vehicle is one nobody ever writes a cheque for. Depreciation — the value the vehicle quietly loses while it sits there — commonly exceeds fuel, insurance and servicing put together in the first few years, and it is invisible until you sell.

This page counts it. Fuel is worked out from your distance and mileage; everything else, depreciation included, is entered with the period you pay it over.

How to use this calculator

1. Enter the distance you cover in a year.
2. Enter your mileage and the fuel price.
3. Estimate depreciation: what you paid, minus what a similar vehicle of the same age fetches now, divided by the years you have owned it.
4. Add insurance, loan interest, servicing and anything else you pay.

Enter loan interest rather than the whole instalment. The principal is not a cost of ownership — it is the purchase, and the vehicle's remaining value is the other side of it.

The formula

Fuel a year   = (Distance / Mileage) x Price per litre
Each cost     = Amount x (times a year)
Total a year  = Fuel + everything else, depreciation included
Cost per km   = Total a year / Distance a year

The breakdown lists the heaviest cost first. On a newer vehicle that is almost always depreciation, which is the point of the page.

Worked example

15,000 km a year at 15 km/L with petrol at ₹105; depreciation ₹90,000, insurance ₹22,000, servicing ₹8,000, all yearly:

Fuel         = 15,000 / 15 x 105 = 1,05,000
Depreciation                      =   90,000
Insurance                         =   22,000
Servicing                         =    8,000
Total a year                      = 2,25,000
Per month                         =   18,750
Per kilometre                     =       15.00

₹15 a kilometre, of which fuel is less than half.

Notes and limits

• Depreciation is steepest in the first years and flattens later. An older vehicle bought second-hand has a much lower figure, which is the main reason it is cheaper to own.
• A vehicle driven very little still depreciates, still needs insurance and still occupies a parking space. Low distance means a high cost per kilometre, not a low cost.
• Comparing this per-kilometre figure against taxi fares is a genuinely useful exercise, and for low-distance urban owners the result is often uncomfortable.
• Nothing here is assumed. There is no depreciation rate built into this page, because the right figure depends on the model, the year, the condition and the market.
• For running cost without ownership, the car running cost calculator is the same engine with a different emphasis.

What this calculation assumes

• Every figure is one you entered. No depreciation rate, insurance premium or service cost is assumed.
• Loan interest is a cost; loan principal is not, and entering it would double-count against depreciation.
• Anything left blank is not in the total.