If you’re still not convinced about the benefits of opting for an electric vehicle instead of a diesel-powered one, consider the following finding from a recent report: Drivers of electric vehicles spend half as much on maintenance and repair costs over their vehicle’s lifetime compared to owners of gas-powered vehicles.

The findings are part of the latest report issued by Consumer Reports (CR), an organization dedicated to helping consumers make informed choices about products, services, and safety. Their most recent report looked at data from its 2019 and 2020 reliability survey of electric and gasoline-powered vehicles.

“Electrics just don’t need as much maintenance as gas-powered cars, and even though repairs won’t necessarily be less expensive, they are less frequently needed,” explains Gabe Shenhar, associate director of CR’s Auto Test Center, which specializes in electric vehicle testing. “In addition to being easier and cheaper to maintain, many EVs deliver better acceleration compared to gas-powered vehicles and don’t pump harmful pollution into our air.”

For the purpose of its research, CR regarded the normal service life of an electric car to be 200,000 miles and assessed the cost per mile of repairs for battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles, and gasoline-powered vehicles.

In addition to finding that the maintenance and repair costs of an EV are 50 percent less than those for cars with internal combustion engines, the report also found that the same savings are achieved by plug-in hybrids (PHEV). This finding lends support to the idea of driving a PHEV if you are not yet ready to make the fully-electric switch.

In a separate study, Consumer Reports stated that, on average, electric cars emit 60 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than oil and gas-powered ones. This goes to show that opting for an EV is not only an economically sensible choice but also an environmental one.