Total Cost of Ownership Estimator
The primary objective of this tool is to offer transit agencies a simple and efficient way to calculate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for converting their fleet to Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV). The tool compares the lifetime cost of owning internal combustion vehicles of a baseline fuel type (diesel, compressed natural gas, gasoline, or low NOx) with the lifetime cost of owning zero emission vehicles (electric battery).
Step 1: đźš› Fleet Details
Please enter the information regarding the existing ICE vehicles, fuel types, fleet, and replacement ZEV you are interested in.
Step 3: 🔋 Charging Infrastructure
Please enter the following information about the charging/refueling infrastructure updates you plan to make.
Step 4: đźš› đź’µ Review Vehicle and Financial Assumptions
Please provide detailed information regarding the chosen baseline and ZEV vehicles, including annual mileage, fuel efficiency, cost, and other relevant factors for the calculation. In addition, please review all the default inputs. If any updates are necessary, please use the override column to change the tab.
Results
This section shows the TCO results based on your input selections above. The “Payback Period Clean vs Baseline” figure shows the estimated payback period (in years) on the incremental purchase price of the clean fuel vehicle which is above and beyond the baseline vehicle. The “Cost Breakdown” figure shows an itemized breakdown of costs over the stated service life of both vehicles.
Financials
This section shows the TCO results in more detail, including estimated annual fuel and maintenance cost savings for the clean fuel vehicle (if any), purchase prices, total costs over the service life of the vehicle, and an estimated payback period for the incremental purchase price of the clean fuel vehicle.
Estimated Annual Fuel Cost Savings
Estimated Annual Maintenance Cost Savings
Purchase Price (including tax + Infrastructure Costs)
Total Real Cost
Sales Taxes
Incentives
Infrastructure
HVIP TCO Estimator V2.0 Disclaimers
Questions? Updates? Contact us at [email protected].
This Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) estimator is meant to be used as a guide for understanding the comprehensive expenses associated with owning and operating fleets of vehicles. While the creators have made every effort to ensure accurate estimates, the results yielded from use of this tool are not guaranteed to be exact. Actual results may vary with regard to the total cost of owning and operating various gasoline, diesel, compressed natural gas, and zero- and near-zero emission vehicles.
The input data which this calculator uses to estimate TCO is based upon a variety of sources and assumptions. In some instances, assumptions were made regarding input data due to a lack of available data as some vehicle technology included in this tool is nascent.
Note: To simplify cost comparison, the tool assumes that each fossil fuel vehicle is replaced with a zero-emission vehicle on a one-to-one replacement ratio.
The electric vehicle charger catalog is pulled from CALSTART’s Infrastructure Insite tool. The data in the catalog is based upon Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) providers websites, specification sheets and personal communication with the EVSE providers. This catalog can be found at https://insitetool.org/equipment_catalog.
Pre-set MSRP costs for zero-emission vehicles are based on various sources such as PG&E’s vehicle catalog and OEM catalogs. PG&E’s vehicle catalog can be found at https://fleets.pge.com/vehicle-catalog/. Pre-set costs for internal combustion engine vehicles are based on various sources, including personal communication with vehicle OEMs, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), and CommercialTruckTrader.com. Where MSRP values were not readily available, projections were made based on similar vehicle types, sizes, OEM, and fuel types.
Within the TCO Estimator, all users have the option to either rely on pre-set purchase prices or override those pre-set purchase prices to customize and improve the precision of TCO estimates. These overrides are also available for pre-set fuel economy estimates, maintenance costs, and fuel prices.
Pre-set fuel economy estimates for baseline and zero-emission vehicles are based on the “Cost Data and Methodology Discussion Draft” produced by the CARB. This draft can be found at https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2020-12/201207costdisc_ADA.pdf.
In addition to the CARB report, pre-set fuel economy estimates for internal combustion engine vehicles were also estimated based on the Department of Energy’s “Average Fuel Economy by Major Vehicle Category” (https://afdc.energy.gov/data/10310). Where fuel economy estimates were not readily available, estimates were made based on other similar vehicle types, sizes, and fuel types. As with pre-set purchase prices, maintenance costs, and fuel prices, all users have the option to either rely on pre-set fuel economy estimates or override those pre-sets to customize and improve the precision of TCO estimates.
The maintenance costs per mile estimates for zero-emission vehicles are based on the Alternative Fuel Life-Cycle Environmental and Economic Transportation (AFLEET) Tool. This tool was developed by Argonne National Laboratory to examine environmental and economic costs of alternative fuel vehicles. You can learn more about the tool at https://greet.es.anl.gov/afleet.
Pre-set maintenance estimates for internal combustion engine vehicles are based on various sources, including personal communication with vehicle OEMs and fleets, CARB, and crowd sourced estimates as logged on FleetAnswers.com.
As with pre-set purchase prices, fuel economy estimates, and fuel prices, all users have the option to either rely on pre-set fuel maintenance costs or override those pre-sets to customize and improve the precision of TCO estimates.
Average state and region level fuel price projections are used for every fuel type. The tool’s creators sourced fuel price data for all fuel types from the Energy Information Administration and the Alternative Fuels Data Center’s Alternative Fuel Price Report. For the projections of prices, 2023 was used as a baseline year and projections run through year 2042. This data can be found at https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/ and https://cleancities.energy.gov/.
As with pre-set purchase prices, fuel economy estimates, and maintenance costs, all users have the option to either rely on pre-set fuel prices or override those pre-sets to customize and improve the precision of TCO estimates.
To incorporate the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard into TCO estimations, the creators relied on CARB’s LCFS Credit Price Calculator (https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/fuels/lcfs/dashboard/creditvaluecalculator.xlsx). This calculator contains the assumptions made by CARB for calculating potential LCFS revenue.
Since LCFS credit prices fluctuate, every user has the ability to view CARB’s weekly LCFS credit price webpage and override the pre-set LCFS credit price as needed to improve the precision of TCO estimates.