It has been true for years: Mile for mile, it is cheaper — typically less expensive — to recharge an electrical car than it’s to refuel one with an internal-combustion engine.

That has been a key promoting level for Tesla and different EV makers, notably in instances when fuel costs have soared, reminiscent of now. However this time there is a wrinkle: Whereas fuel costs have certainly soared within the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, so have electrical energy costs — notably in some elements of the U.S. which have been large markets for Tesla’s EVs.

That raises a query: Is it nonetheless true that it is less expensive to “refuel” an EV? The charts beneath assist us discover the reply.

The primary chart, utilizing nationwide figures, offers a baseline. The others use information particular to Boston and San Francisco, two markets the place EVs are standard — and the place electrical energy tends to be costlier than the nationwide common.

The reply in all three instances is that — even with regional surges within the worth of electrical energy — it is nonetheless fairly a bit costlier to fill your fuel tank than it’s to cost your EV’s battery.

Electrical energy charges have roughly saved tempo with fuel worth will increase in Boston and San Francisco. But, on common throughout the U.S., including 100 miles of vary in your internal-combustion car has turn into costlier, relative to charging an EV an equal quantity, during the last couple of months.

Is that more likely to change? Whereas oil costs are almost sure to fall in coming months as producers enhance output, it is unlikely that the value of electrical energy will rise sufficient to make EVs much less reasonably priced over their life cycles than internal-combustion options.

Utilizing February information, Jeffries analyst David Kelley lately calculated that the overall lifetime price of possession of an EV is about $4,700 lower than that of an internal-combustion car. He stated that price distinction is more likely to enhance as extra EVs come to market — and as battery costs proceed to fall — over the subsequent couple of years.

We had three questions in thoughts after we put collectively these charts:

• How a lot does it price so as to add 100 miles of vary to the common ICE car and the common EV?
• How have these prices modified during the last three years? (Going again three years to February of 2019 provides us a prepandemic baseline.)
• How have these prices diverse between totally different elements of the U.S.?

For gasoline, the Environmental Safety Company reported that the common new car bought within the U.S. in 2020 had a mixed fuel-economy score of 25.7 miles per gallon. Driving 100 miles in that common car would use 3.9 gallons of fuel. (Figures for 2021 have not been launched but.)

On the electric-vehicle aspect, the EPA’s effectivity score for EVs — known as “MPGe”, for miles per gallon equal — provides shoppers an concept of how far an EV can journey on 33.7 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of cost. Why 33.7 kWh? That is the quantity of electrical energy that’s chemically equal to the power in a gallon of normal gasoline.

The typical MPGe score for 2022-model-year EVs bought within the U.S. is about 97, so driving 100 miles in that hypothetical common car would use 34.7 kWh of electrical energy.

The charts above evaluate how the value of three.9 gallons of fuel has modified relative to the value of 34.7 kWh over time, utilizing month-to-month information from the U.S. Power Info Administration (for fuel costs) and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (for electrical energy charges) from February 2019 by way of February 2022.

– CNBC’s Crystal Mercedes contributed to this text.