How Many Miles Do EV Owners Actually Drive Each Year?

Key Findings

From 2016 to 2022, battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) were driven far fewer miles per year than gasoline vehicles, as little as 55% of the gasoline-vehicle average in 2018.
In 2023 and 2024 the series shows BEVs at 103–105% of the gasoline-vehicle average. EIA cautions that this all-vintage average is affected by the age mix of each fleet: BEVs are much newer, and when EIA compares only the first 10 vintages, BEVs are driven fewer miles than gasoline vehicles.
Hybrid vehicles had the highest average miles of any powertrain in eight of the nine years measured (2016–2024; diesel was higher in 2022), and were 7–22% above the gasoline average in every year.
Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) drove fewer miles than gasoline vehicles in eight of the nine years (briefly crossing above parity in 2023), while diesel vehicles drove more in eight of the nine years (dipping just below parity in 2019).

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review, Table 1.9 (Light-Duty Vehicle Average Miles Traveled by Technology Type), 2016–2024

See how your own annual mileage affects your vehicle's true fuel cost.

Use the Calculator

Contents

The Question Everyone Asks
How We Measured It
2016–2022: EVs Drove Far Fewer Miles
2023–2024: The Series Shows Parity
Hybrids Have the Highest Average Miles
Data Sources

01 The Question Everyone Asks

Do people who buy electric vehicles actually drive them as much as a normal car? The EIA's Monthly Energy Review publishes exactly this figure every year: average annual miles traveled per vehicle, broken out by powertrain technology. Nine years of data (2016–2024) show a real answer, and a genuine change in that answer over time.

U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review, Table 1.9: Light-Duty Vehicle Average Miles Traveled by Technology Type

02 How We Measured It

EIA's Table 1.9 reports average annual miles per vehicle for five light-duty powertrain categories: gasoline, diesel, hybrid-electric, battery-electric (BEV), and plug-in hybrid-electric (PHEV). We compare each powertrain to gasoline vehicles in the same year, since that avoids conflating any single year's unusual conditions with a powertrain-specific effect.

Calculated from EIA Monthly Energy Review, Table 1.9, 2016–2024

How the series is built, and a caution from EIA. Table 1.9 is not a survey of how far EV owners drive. EIA describes it as a stock-weighted model estimate: the average annual miles for each vehicle age (vintage, 1 to 25 years) is weighted by the number of vehicles of that age and powertrain. EIA notes that the age mix differs a great deal by technology: in 2024 nearly half of gasoline vehicles were more than 10 years old, against 2% of BEVs, and older vehicles are driven less. When EIA calculates the average using only the first 10 vintages, BEVs are driven fewer miles than gasoline vehicles, so the all-vintage comparison in this article overstates how much EVs are driven relative to gasoline vehicles of the same age. All five powertrains also show a large jump between 2022 and 2023; this article does not know the reason.

Fig. 1 Average annual miles per vehicle by powertrain, 2016–2024. Hover any point for the exact year and value. U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review, Table 1.9

03 2016–2022: EVs Drove Far Fewer Miles

For seven straight years, battery-electric vehicles were driven substantially less than gasoline vehicles. The gap was widest in 2018, when the average BEV logged just 5,594 miles, only 55% of the 10,217 miles the average gasoline vehicle traveled that year. Even in the "best" year of this stretch, 2022, BEVs still trailed gasoline vehicles by nearly 30%.

Calculated from EIA Monthly Energy Review, Table 1.9, 2018 and 2022 rows

Year	Gasoline	BEV	BEV as % of Gasoline
2016	9,946	6,782	68.2%
2017	10,070	6,055	60.1%
2018	10,217	5,594	54.7%
2019	9,883	6,028	61.0%
2020	10,135	6,682	65.9%
2021	9,892	6,570	66.4%
2022	9,846	7,070	71.8%

EIA Monthly Energy Review, Table 1.9, 2016–2022 (miles per vehicle)

04 2023–2024: The 2023–2024 Data

In the series, BEVs were at 13,070 miles in 2023 against 12,492 for gasoline vehicles (104.6% of the gasoline average), and at 103.1% in 2024. This is the first year in the nine-year series in which the BEV figure is above the gasoline figure. Read it with EIA's caution above: the figure averages over fleets of very different ages, and it is not a like-for-like comparison of vehicles of the same age.

Calculated from EIA Monthly Energy Review, Table 1.9, 2023 and 2024 rows

Fig. 2 BEV annual mileage as a percentage of gasoline-vehicle annual mileage, 2016–2024. The dashed line marks parity (100%). Calculated from EIA Monthly Energy Review, Table 1.9

Curious what an EV would actually cost you per mile?

Read: EV vs Gas Car Fuel Cost

05 Hybrids Have the Highest Average Miles

Hybrid-electric vehicles show the highest average miles of any powertrain in eight of the nine years from 2016 to 2024 (diesel was higher in 2022), and were 7% to 22% above the gasoline average every year. In 2016, the average hybrid traveled 12,161 miles against 9,946 for gasoline (22.3% more); by 2024, hybrids still led at 14,469 miles against 12,451 (16.2% more).

Calculated from EIA Monthly Energy Review, Table 1.9, 2016 and 2024 rows

Plug-in hybrids and diesel vehicles show more stable, opposite patterns: PHEVs trailed gasoline vehicles in eight of the nine years (87.7% to 101.5% of the gasoline average, crossing just above parity only in 2023), while diesel vehicles exceeded it in eight of the nine years (99.0% to 111.7%, dipping just below parity only in 2019).

Calculated from EIA Monthly Energy Review, Table 1.9, full 2016–2024 series

06 Data Sources

U.S. Energy Information Administration: Monthly Energy Review, Table 1.9, "Light-Duty Vehicle Average Miles Traveled by Technology Type," 2016–2024. eia.gov

Disclaimer. This article is for informational purposes only. All data is sourced from the U.S. Energy Information Administration as cited. EIA's Table 1.9 is a stock-weighted model estimate by vehicle age, not a survey of individual owners; EIA cautions that fleets of different ages are not directly comparable and that the BEV comparison depends on which vintages are included. All five powertrains show a large jump between 2022 and 2023, the reason for which this article does not know. Past mileage patterns do not predict future EV usage.