On average, maintenance and repair costs 9.55 cents per mile and fuel costs average 10.72 cents per mile; EVs are less expensive in both categories
Heathrow, Fla.—According to the latest research from AAA, the average annual cost of new vehicle ownership is $9,666, or $805.50 per month. The biggest factor pushing the nearly $10,000 annual price tag is depreciation, which accounts for 40 percent of all ownership expenses outpacing additional costs such as fuel and maintenance.
The 2021 AAA Your Driving Cost study reviewed nine categories of vehicles — consisting of 45 models — to determine the average annual operating and ownership costs of each. AAA selects top-selling, mid-priced models and compares them across six expense categories: fuel, maintenance/repair/tire costs, insurance, license/registration/taxes, depreciation and finance charges.
In addition to depreciation, other key findings of the analysis include:
- Fuel Costs: on average, fuel costs 10.72 cents per mile. This is based on data from May 2020 – May 2021, which does not include recent spikes in gas prices. Fuel costs vary widely by vehicle type, ranging from a low of 3.66 cents per mile for electric vehicles, to 15.81 cents per mile for pickup trucks.
- Maintenance, repair and tire costs: on average, maintenance and repair costs 9.55 cents per mile. Just like fuel, electric vehicles are on the lower end of the spectrum, costing 7.70 cents per mile, while medium sedans are the most expensive at 10.43 cents per mile.
- Finance charges: the cost of vehicle loans decreased due to a drop in the prime lending rate. The average interest rate in 2021 is 4.12%, which is 1.056 percentage points lower than last year.
For several years now, buyers have moved away from previously popular categories such as sedans to newer styles like compact SUVs. For 2021, AAA added two new categories: subcompact SUVs and midsize pickup trucks. These replaced large sedans and minivans, both of which no longer offer enough new models to be tracked.
The average price of a new vehicle for 2021 is $32,903, which is $1,502 (4.78 percent) higher than last year, but is mostly due to the addition of new models to the Your Driving Costs study. Models in the small sedan, medium sedan, medium SUV and hybrid categories averaged an increase in vehicle price of $3,064, led by hybrids as consumers opt for larger (hence more expensive) models in this category.
Pickup trucks saw an increase of $4,684 (an average of 11 percent); however, this has not affected their popularity, as they remain the best-selling category of those included in the study.
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