Stock available · Santiago +56 9 8404 5450 · +56 9 9758 2299 · +56 9 3420 2292 be-electric@e-auto.global
Distributors INALCO After-sales
e-auto · Electric Vehicles
Quote my fleet Book a meeting
e-auto/Cost methodology

One number, with the formula in plain sight

This page exists because e-auto once published three different cost-per-kilometer pairs in three different places on the same site. They weren't calculation errors: they were two different quantities sharing one name. Here they're kept apart, with their formula and source.

Published: Diesel: pump average, Santiago metro, CNE, Aug 1 2026

Energy cost is what it costs to move the vehicle: fuel or electricity, nothing else. It doesn't depend on annual mileage. Total operating cost adds maintenance, tires, insurance and circulation permit — and it does depend on mileage, because those fixed costs get spread over more or fewer kilometers. Conflating the two names is what produced the contradictory versions.

1. Energy cost per kilometer — verifiable, mileage-independent

Formula: input price ÷ certified performance
VariableValueSource
Diesel price$1388/LSantiago metro pump average, 505 stations, National Energy Commission, Aug 1 2026
Reference diesel performance10.1 km/LMedian of 3CV registry, MC3D diesel vans, n=453, homologated since 2023
Diesel cost$137/km1388 ÷ 10.1
GECKO EV48 certified performance6.2 km/kWh3CV, certificate C.H. 6940
AC/DC charging losses10%Billed at the meter, never reaches the battery
Commercial electricity tariff$130/kWhMarket reference
EV48 cost, commercial tariff$23.1/km(130 ÷ 6.2) × 1.10
Free-market client tariff$85/kWhNegotiated, not every company has it
EV48 cost, free-market tariff$15.1/km(85 ÷ 6.2) × 1.10

At commercial tariff, the EV48 costs 6.0 times less in energy than the reference diesel. At free-market client tariff, 9.1 times less. The first figure is always published as the conservative one.

2. Total operating cost — an estimate, mileage-dependent

Adds energy to maintenance, tires, insurance and circulation permit (plus AdBlue for diesel). Since fixed costs get spread over the kilometers driven, the result changes with how much the vehicle is used — that's why it's never published without stating the mileage.

Total operating cost, at two reference mileages
Annual mileageDieselGECKO EV48
30,000 km/year$222/km$77/km
40,000 km/year$201/km$63/km

Where each one is used

  • Energy cost: to compare vehicles against each other, since it doesn't depend on usage assumptions.
  • Total operating cost: for a specific client's business case, always with their real mileage.

Interactive calculator with these same assumptions, editable: /tco. Efficiency and registry data: /eficiencia.

e-auto · E-Auto SpA · Santiago, Chile · be-electric@e-auto.global