A £42 ($55) petrol bill for roughly 200 miles in a U.K. hire car prompted Tesla owner and content creator Gary to compare the same journey in his Tesla Model Y.
Using more than 8,300 miles of tracked driving in the SUV, he set out to estimate what that trip might have cost in an electric vehicle.
Here's what to know
Gary's YouTube video uses that rental-car fuel bill as the starting point for a side-by-side look at petrol and Tesla ownership. Using Tessie logs covering more than 8,300 miles, Gary said his Model Y was averaging 3.68 miles per kilowatt-hour.
Gary said he based the gas-car side of the comparison on "a petrol car doing 40 UK mpg at £1.75 per litre." That gave him a real-world benchmark rather than a manufacturer estimate or lab-tested figure.
Rather than presenting a penny-perfect tally, he described the exercise as a snapshot of typical use. "This is a real-world look at Tesla running costs vs. petrol, using my own car, my own driving and my actual data," Gary said, adding that "the difference is pretty surprising."
More background
"I'm not pretending these figures are a perfect record of every penny I've spent," he said. He said some charging sessions cost nothing and that Tessie only partially covered the car during that stretch. Gary did not present his Tesla numbers as exact or universally applicable.
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The video focuses on real ownership experience, not theoretical savings.
At its core, the comparison turns a broad cost debate into a simple question about the price of an ordinary trip.
What can be done?
Rather than relying solely on automaker claims, he used Tessie's long-term efficiency data, paired it with a clear gas-car assumption of 40 UK mpg, and measured both against a specific 200-mile journey that had already cost him £42 ($55).
With more than 8,300 miles logged, Gary based his Model Y estimate on more than one efficient drive or a best-case charging scenario. Instead, he used a broad sample from his own ownership experience.
He also encouraged other motorists to broaden the discussion with their own real-world figures, asking for numbers from Tesla drivers, other EV owners, and petrol or diesel drivers. He said he wanted to know what "MPG or miles/kWh" people are actually getting.
Where can I learn more?
For more real-world context on Tesla and EV running costs, these stories look at ownership and charging from a few different angles. They cover Model Y ownership costs, home charging bills, broader EV-versus-gas fuel comparisons, and Tesla range updates.
• Kelley Blue Book gave Tesla's Model Y a 5-year cost win among premium EVs.
• Using a high-tech home charger, one Tesla owner found charging at home is cheaper day after day.
• At Yale, researchers mapped the fueling cost gap between EV charging and gasoline.
• Tesla's updated Model 3 showed promising range figures without forcing major charging changes.
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