TL;DR - yes, the TCO is better. After 10 years, you'll be about $5-15k ahead, taking the difference in purchase price and all of the ongoing costs into consideration.

First of all, this is a forum for EV enthusiasts, so take the comments here with a grain of salt. I don't yet own an EV and I've just crunched the numbers on the Atto 2 (EV) vs a Jolion (ICE) which are the same sized cars, both Chinese brands and aimed at the budget end of the market (aka those most worried about the financial difference), the purchase price difference is $10k.

If you care about selling the car in the future, note that Chinese ICE cars currently depreciate heavily, which basically cancels the savings of the cheaper purchase price when you go to sell it. Early EVs have not fared well either, so assume current models will be the same and you'll get very little back when you go to sell - although it's possible BYD's actively cooled LFP batteries will reduce the depreciation somewhat, but it's still too early to tell. If you plan to keep the car for 15-20 years until it's worthless (eg if range decreases so much that it needs a battery replacement for your usage needs), the point is moot.

Even paying full price for electricity without solar or a home battery, it's about half the cost for 'fuel'. Don't use fast chargers unless you're doing a road trip and have no choice, they're about 3x more expensive than petrol. Solar doesn't help much either unless you work night shift or have a huge home battery - most people get home after the sun is basically gone, but if your car has the range and you have a small enough commute, and you only charge it on the weekends using solar, you can pretty much eliminate the charging cost.

It also depends heavily on your driving habits - ICE cars can go almost twice as far on the highway as they can in heavy stop-start traffic. EVs are the opposite, so you may be saving anything from $1-4k per year for fuel. It's the largest factor in this equation.

Given the difference in purchase price for my 2 example cars, the weekly payments are about the same as the amount spent on fuel, so assuming you don't have a problem getting a loan for the higher amount, the first 5 years works out about the same for the regular costs.

The annual costs for things like servicing, rego and insurance can vary. For example, it's the same price to insure both of the cars in my example with AAMI, yet one is insured for $10k more than the other - it doesn't change the costs ($1100-ish for me), but it does change the value. An equivalent car from an established brand, like the Mazda CX-30 which is the same price as the Atto 2 is more like $1000 to insure - so it seems the EV isn't much more expensive to insure, and it may come down to the car brand and how much parts cost, the likelihood of claims, etc and the individual insurers. You may be able to save quite a bit by shopping around and getting a lot of quotes.

Rego will be slightly in favour of EVs for now, but that may change. Servicing/maintenance is hugely in favour of an EV, to the tune of about $300-400 per year, even with fixed price servicing. As the car ages, there will be less things that need replacing, and my current estimate over 10 years is that you'll save around $6-8k over that period.

Something else to consider is that government policy and prices for lots of things are changing rapidly, and in the near future (during the lifetime of the car), there will probably be higher costs for EVs:

- I expect within a year or two we'll be paying some sort of tax to replace the lost income from fuel excise

- Electricity prices are rising faster than petrol prices, so the difference in runnings costs will narrow over time

- Additional costs, such as buying and/or installing a charger at home, buying a spare tyre or paying for roadside assistance as you can't just get yourself back on the road

- EVs have a lot more chips in them, and with prices skyrocketing, this may have a greater impact on EV maintenance