"Yeah, but you have to mine the battery." True, once. A gas car needs a new delivery of fuel every week for as long as it drives. This page skips the one-time stuff (the car, the battery) and compares the continuous inputs: everything that has to keep running so you can drive tomorrow. Gasoline, an EV on nuclear power, an EV on solar panels you own, and an EV on a wind turbine you own.
⚙️ Your driving: 12,000 mi/yr · 25.6 mpg gas car · 30 kWh/100 mi EVChange
How far do you drive?
Advanced: prices & assumptions
Mined once vs. burned forever
EV battery: mined once~7 kgof lithium in a 75 kWh pack. The whole pack weighs about 1,000 lb, and the metals are still in it at the end, ready to recycle.
Gas car: burned and gone7,031 galof gasoline over 15 years, about 42,900 lb. Every gallon goes out the tailpipe and has to be pumped, refined and trucked again.
Lithium: ICCT puts NMC packs at 0.09–0.10 kg of lithium per kWh, so 6.75–7.5 kg for 75 kWh. Recycling rules are tightening: the EU requires recyclers to recover 95% of the cobalt and nickel and 80% of the lithium by 2031, and China's approved recyclers must hit 98% for nickel and cobalt. Gasoline weighs about 6.1 lb per gallon.
What it costs to build each fuel chain
Log scale: from $1K to $1M to $1B, each gridline is 1,000× more money. The two at the top are industrial projects that take a decade. The two at the bottom fit in your yard.
⚛️ Nuclear chain$35B+
⛽ Gasoline chain$21B+
💨 Your wind turbine$36,070
☀️ Your solar panels$6,631
$1K$1M$1B$100B
Each price as a stack of $100 bills (0.0043 in thick each), standing on the ground and drawn to scale.
Zoomed in on your yard: your solar panels are a stack of $100 bills 0.29 in tall, and your wind turbine is 1.6 in. The gasoline chain's stack is 3.2 million times taller than your solar stack.
3.2 millionhome solar setups like yours could be built for the price of one refinery
49 yearssince the last large U.S. refinery opened (Garyville, LA, 1977)
11 yearsfrom start of construction at Vogtle 3 (2013) to Unit 4 online (2024)
Four ways to keep a car moving
⛽ Gasoline
A chain that has to run every day, forever
$21 billion+to build one chain, and 8–15 years
🛢️Oil wells$10–12M each, and production drops fast, so drilling never stops$11M
🚢Pipelines$6.4–12.1M per mile; 100 miles ≈ $640M+$640M
🏭RefineryDangote, 650,000 barrels/day; the last big U.S. one opened in 1977$20B
🚚Tanker truckTractor + 5,400 gal tank, new$366K
⛽Gas stationAverage new build, 2026$2.5M
🔥Your tankBurned. Repeat tomorrow.$1,865/yr
Show the math
1
Gasoline per year mi ÷ mpg = galThat's gallons every day.
2
Crude oil refined for it gal ÷ 19.57 gal per barrel = barrelsA 42-gallon barrel yields about 19.6 gal of gasoline. The rest becomes diesel, jet fuel and other products.
3
Energy in the tank gal × 33.7 kWh = kWh
4
Energy burned just to make and move it ÷ (0.98 × 0.88) − = kWhOil recovery is about 98% efficient and refining about 88% (Argonne GREET). That's of everything the EV uses all year, spent before the gas car turns a wheel.
Build the chain yourself
Shale well
$10–12 million to drill and complete. On average 154 days from spud to first oil.
New oil field
About 15 years from discovery to production for conventional fields starting up in 2025.
Refinery
Dangote (650,000 bbl/day): about $20 billion, 8 years of construction (2016 → first fuel 2024). The last large U.S. refinery opened in 1977.
Your share of the refinery
of capacity (by its share of output).
Keeps costing you$1,865per year at the pump:
Can you do it on your own property? No. Wells deplete: if U.S. shale drilling stopped, output would fall more than 35% within 12 months. The chain only works if new wells keep being drilled.
⚛️ EV on nuclear
Built once and runs 60+ years, with a tiny fuel stream
$35 billion+to build one chain, and about 11 years
⛏️Uranium minesPart of the global fuel market—
⚗️Enrichment plantUrenco USA, New Mexico, the only U.S. commercial plant$5B
🔌Your chargerA whole year of fuel weighs about as much as a few nickels12 g/yr
Show the math
1
Electricity at the wall mi × kWh/100 mi = kWh
2
Generated at the plant ÷ 0.95 (grid losses) = kWh
3
Cars one plant can power2,234 MW × 8,760 h × 90% = 17.6 billion kWh ÷ = EVsVogtle 3 & 4 (two 1,117 MW reactors) at an assumed 90% capacity factor.
4
Fuel per year MWh × 3.1 g = of enriched fuelMade from about of natural uranium (about 20 g/MWh), dug from about of ore.
Build the chain yourself
Plant
Vogtle 3 & 4: more than $30 billion. Construction started in 2013, and the units began commercial operation in July 2023 and April 2024.
Typical build time
The global median is 6.3 years of construction (mean 7.5), plus years of licensing first.
Your share of the plant
($30 billion ÷ EVs).
Keeps costing you$815per year at a new-plant cost of $/MWh, before grid delivery charges
Can you do it on your own property? No, but one plant covers millions of cars, and the fuel stream is tiny: grams a year instead of hundreds of gallons.
☀️ EV on your own solar
The input is sunlight, delivered free
$6,631to build yours, in weeks
☀️SunlightFree, every day$0
🔲6 panels + microinvertersOn your roof or in your yard$6,631
🔌Your chargerFuel bill after that$0/yr
Show the math
1
One 430 W panel, per year0.43 kW × h × 365 × 0.86 × 0.97 = kWh14% system losses (NREL PVWatts default) and a 97% efficient Enphase microinverter.
2
Panels needed kWh ÷ kWh = panels
3
Installed cost × 430 W × $/W = Before incentives. Small add-on systems usually cost more per watt.
Keeps costing you$0fuel per year once installed (panels typically carry 25-year warranties)
Can you do it on your own property? Yes. A small roof or ground array, installed by one crew. See the full solar math →
💨 EV on your own wind turbine
Works on the right land, but it's harder than solar
$36,070to build yours, in months
💨WindFree, if your site is windy$0
🌀3.2 kW turbine + towerAt the DOE average small-wind cost$36,070
🔌Your chargerFuel bill after that, plus maintenance$0/yr
Show the math
1
Turbine size needed kWh ÷ (8,760 h × %) = kWA 13% capacity factor is the 2023 average from a DOE sample of small wind projects.
2
Installed cost kW × $/kW = $11,410/kW is the DOE average installed cost for new small wind projects, 2014–2023.
3
Real turbine sizesBergey Excel 15: 15.6 kW, rated 29,800 kWh/yr at a 5 m/s average wind = EVsTurbines come in fixed sizes, so you usually buy more than one car needs.
Keeps costing you$0fuel per year, plus maintenance on a spinning machine on a tall tower
Can you do it on your own property? Sometimes. You need steady wind, open land and a tall tower. Output depends heavily on the site, and it costs several times more than solar for the same energy.
The bottom line
⛽ Gasoline
⚛️ Nuclear
☀️ Your solar
💨 Your wind
What has to keep arriving
gal every day
of fuel a year
Sunlight
Wind
Build the whole chain
Wells + a ~$20B refinery + pipelines, trucks, stations
>$30B plant + mines, enrichment, fuel plants
Time to build
Months per well, ~15 yrs per new field, ~8 yrs per refinery
~6–10 yrs construction, plus licensing
Usually weeks to a few months (permits)
Months (permits, tower, site study)
Your share of big infrastructure
—
—
Yearly energy cost
$0
$0
Do it on your own land?
No
No
Yes
On a windy site
Over years a gas car needs about of fuel that has to be pumped, refined and trucked again and again. An EV needs its battery once. After that, its daily input can be grams of uranium or sunlight on your own roof.
Shares of big infrastructure split the build cost across everything the plant produces. They're there to show scale, not a price you'd pay. Gasoline's price breakdown uses EIA's January 2026 shares. Nuclear $/MWh is the middle of Lazard's 2026 range for new U.S. nuclear ($175–255/MWh, based on Vogtle). Existing, paid-off reactors run $26–36/MWh. Compare cost per 100 miles →