Ute, 4WD & Car — Total Cost of Ownership AU / illustrative

Two driving contexts, not one blended average. "Around the valley" is short local/work driving (default 12,000km/yr) — always well within any of these vehicles' range, so it's charged/fuelled at home. "The trip to the city" is a small number of long return trips a year (default 6/yr at 350km each way, 700km return) — long enough that an EV or PHEV may need public fast-charging or switch to its engine partway. Running cost is calculated separately for each context because the economics genuinely differ, not just in $/km but in which energy source gets used.

EVs get worse, not better, on the highway. Battery-electric efficiency (kWh/100km) is dominated by aerodynamic drag at speed, so real-world highway consumption at 110km/h typically runs 30-45% higher than the combined/urban figure (Tesla Model Y: combined ~13.9kWh/100km vs real-world highway reports of ~20kWh/100km — about +40%, which is the default "highway efficiency penalty" below, editable). Diesel/petrol/hybrid vehicles are modelled the other way — a fixed 8% better on the highway than around the valley, reflecting the well-known real-world pattern of steady-speed cruising beating stop-start/low-range work driving for an internal combustion engine. Neither manufacturer publishes a clean highway/urban split for the ute range below, so both adjustments are modelling assumptions, not sourced figures — tune the highway penalty % to match your own experience.

PHEV utes/cars blend two energy sources on a long trip. Up to the electric range (BYD Shark 6: ~85km: Outlander PHEV: ~84km) the trip runs on grid electricity; every km beyond that runs the petrol engine at its own L/100km rate. A 700km city round trip on a Shark 6 is therefore roughly 85km of cheap electric plus 615km of petrol — nowhere near the "2L/100km" headline figure some PHEVs are marketed on, which only holds when trips stay under the electric range. Valley trips are assumed short enough to comfortably stay under the electric range and recharge at home between trips, so valley driving on a PHEV is modelled as effectively all-electric.

The home charger toggle matters more than it looks. With a home charger installed, all valley charging and the first battery-full of any city trip is charged at the home electricity rate; only the top-up beyond one battery on a long trip uses the (much pricier) public fast-charging rate. Switch the charger off and every kWh — valley and city — is priced at the fast-charging rate instead, which is the realistic cost of relying entirely on public charging. The one-off install cost is added once per scenario if any vehicle in it plugs in.

Two modes, same head-to-head comparison underneath. Toggle between "Single vehicle" (Option A vs Option B, each one vehicle doing 100% of your valley + city driving) and "Two-car setup" (Combo A vs Combo B, each a dedicated work vehicle for valley driving plus a dedicated city car for city trips). Both modes run through the same cost engine, so you can just as easily ask "would an EV ute beat my 70 Series outright" (single mode) as "would an EV-leaning two-car setup beat a traditional diesel-work-ute-plus-petrol-SUV two-car setup" (two-car mode).

Break-even. Because each extra city trip costs the same amount on a given option, total cost is a straight line against annual city-trip count for both Option A and Option B — so the break-even point (the annual city km at which the two options swap which one is cheaper) can be solved exactly, not just eyeballed off a chart. That figure is the "break-even" KPI below, and it works the same way whether you're comparing two single vehicles or two two-car combos.

Total cost of ownership = purchase price + (annual servicing + annual running cost) × ownership years + one-off charger cost (if applicable) − residual value at the end of the period. Residual % is a 5-year rule-of-thumb applied flatly regardless of the years you set (diesel utes hold value exceptionally well in Australia — LandCruiser 70 and Hilux are commonly cited in the 60-80%-after-5-years range; EVs and PHEVs have generally depreciated faster here, though this is improving and the local resale data is still thin, so treat those residuals as the roughest numbers in the model). Nothing is discounted to present value — this is nominal dollars over the period, which is the right level of rigour for a straightforward ownership comparison.

Where the vehicle picks came from. KGM's Musso EV is a genuine, currently-on-sale model (not a concept) — AWD dual-motor pick used. Toyota's Camry and RAV4 are hybrid-only in Australia in 2026, so a Mazda CX-5 (2.5L, no hybrid/turbo) stands in as the "large 4-cylinder" car. Figures flagged as estimates in the table below rather than sourced directly: KGM Musso EV tow rating and servicing; Hilux Hybrid's exact mid-spec drive-away price; Outlander PHEV's post-electric-range fuel consumption (no published figure — estimated from comparable non-plug-in hybrid SUVs) and servicing cost; Model Y and CX-5 servicing costs. Everything else (prices, battery sizes, ranges, published combined consumption, tow ratings, capped-price servicing) is sourced from manufacturer pages, dealer listings and outlets including CarExpert, CarsGuide, Drive, Chasing Cars and EV-specific trackers as of Aug 2026.

Aug 2026 expansion (round 1) — 8 vehicles added. To cover more PHEVs, more long-range EVs, and typical rural diesel/petrol-only vehicles: Ford Ranger PHEV and GWM Cannon Alpha PHEV (a second and third PHEV ute, alongside the Shark 6 — the Cannon Alpha has the largest battery and longest EV range of any PHEV ute on sale) and BYD Sealion 6 (a third PHEV car, Australia's cheapest PHEV wagon); Tesla Model 3 Long Range RWD, currently Australia's longest-range EV (750km WLTP) and its most efficient (107Wh/km) — the strongest single pick for the long city run; and four plain diesel/petrol utility vehicles with no electrification at all, representative of typical rural buying: Ford Ranger XLT diesel (Australia's best-selling vehicle overall) and Isuzu D-MAX diesel as work utes, plus Nissan Patrol (new-generation Y63, now a 3.5L twin-turbo V6 rather than the old 5.6L V8, but still petrol-only) and Toyota Prado GXL diesel as family/touring wagons. One modelling note worth flagging: the global EV highway-penalty input was calibrated off the Model Y's real-world highway reports, and the more aerodynamic Model 3 likely sees a smaller highway penalty in practice — tune that input down if you're focused on the Model 3 specifically.

Aug 2026 expansion (round 2) — 13 more vehicles added, mainstream AWD wagons and ute rivals. Two more diesel utes: Mitsubishi Triton GSR and Nissan Navara Pro-4X — genuine mechanical twins since the 2025-26 Nissan/Mitsubishi Alliance update (identical platform, engine and fuel figure), included together specifically to show that the Nissan badge costs noticeably more for the same underlying vehicle. Eleven AWD wagons/SUVs, split into two tiers: large family vehicles — Toyota RAV4 Cruiser Hybrid AWD (the vehicle this cowculator originally substituted a CX-5 for, since RAV4 was hybrid-only), Toyota Kluger Grande Hybrid AWD, GWM Tank 500 Lux petrol (a second plain-petrol wagon, sibling to the Cannon Alpha PHEV ute), Mitsubishi Pajero Sport GSR diesel, Subaru Outback AWD, Kia Sorento Hybrid AWD and Hyundai Santa Fe Hybrid AWD — and compact/entry AWD — Subaru Forester Hybrid AWD, Subaru Crosstrek AWD, Kia Sportage AWD and Hyundai Tucson AWD. Worth flagging: none of Subaru, Kia or Hyundai currently sell a diesel in this segment in Australia — their rural-relevant options are now petrol or non-plug-in hybrid only, which the residual/fuel figures reflect. Also worth flagging: the Subaru Forester Hybrid's braked tow rating (1200kg) is notably lower than the petrol Outback or Crosstrek — a real trade-off of that drivetrain, not a data-entry inconsistency.

Estimated vs sourced, across all rounds. Prices, fuel/energy consumption and towing are sourced from manufacturer pages, dealer listings and outlets including CarExpert, CarsGuide, Drive, Chasing Cars, Whichcar and EV-specific trackers unless a vehicle's own tooltip says otherwise. Servicing cost is estimated for the large majority of vehicles in this table — very few brands publish a clean annual capped-price figure — so treat servicing as the roughest line item throughout, not just for the newest additions. Residual % is likewise an estimate for every vehicle without long-run Australian resale data (most PHEVs, GWM/Isuzu/Kia in this segment); it's a considered estimate, not a published figure, for any vehicle where the table doesn't say "sourced."