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The lifetime cost of driving a car

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  • Gössling, Stefan
  • Kees, Jessica
  • Litman, Todd

Abstract

The car is one of the most expensive household consumer goods, yet there is a limited understanding of its private (internal) and social (external) cost per vehicle-km, year, or lifetime of driving. This paper provides an overview of 23 private and ten social cost items, and assesses these for three popular car models in Germany for the year 2020. Results confirm that motorists underestimate the full private costs of car ownership, while policy makers and planners underestimate social costs. For the typical German travel distance of 15,000 car kilometers per year, the total lifetime cost of car ownership (50 years) ranges between €599,082 for an Opel Corsa to €956,798 for a Mercedes GLC. The share of this cost born by society is 41% (€4674 per year) for the Opel Corsa, and 29% (€5273 per year) for the Mercedes GLC. Findings suggest that for low-income groups, private car ownership can represent a cost equal to housing, consuming a large share of disposable income. This creates complexities in perceptions of transport costs, the economic viability of alternative transport modes, or the justification of taxes.

Suggested Citation

  • Gössling, Stefan & Kees, Jessica & Litman, Todd, 2022. "The lifetime cost of driving a car," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:194:y:2022:i:c:s0921800921003943
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107335
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    Cited by:

    1. Schröder, Daniel & Kirn, Lukas & Kinigadner, Julia & Loder, Allister & Blum, Philipp & Xu, Yihan & Lienkamp, Markus, 2023. "Ending the myth of mobility at zero costs: An external cost analysis," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    2. Arioli, Magdala & Lindau, Luis Antonio & Albuquerque, Cristina & Pasqual, Francisco & Rêgo, Pollyana, 2025. "Quantifying direct public costs and externalities for a just and sustainable urban transport," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    3. Mohri, Seyed Sina & Nassir, Neema & Thompson, Russell G. & Lavieri, Patricia Sauri & Ghaderi, Hadi, 2025. "Crowd-shipping systems with public transport passengers: Operational planning," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    4. Florian Hey & Max Zombek, 2026. "Digital Control and Market Power in the Automotive Sector: OEMs, Gatekeeping, and the Future of Aftermarket Regulation," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 1-23, December.
    5. Reinfeld, Nicole & Hagen, Tobias, 2025. "How would employees commute today if they had the same characteristics as employees in 1980? – Using entropy balancing to decompose changes in observed commuting mode choice over time in repeated cross-sections," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    6. Francesco Filippi, 2022. "A Paradigm Shift for a Transition to Sustainable Urban Transport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-27, March.
    7. Tomasz Rokicki & Piotr Borawski & Aneta Beldycka-Borawska & András Szeberenyi & Olena Kulykovets & Agata Zak, 2024. "Changes in the Behavior of Individual Car Users in Poland as a Result of the COVID-19 Pandemic," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 27-37.
    8. Ciccone, Alice & Wangsness, Paal Brevik, 2025. "The effect of tailored information for the uptake of carsharing, evidence from a field experiment in Oslo," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    9. van der Lee, Johannes C.T. & Veeneman, Wijnand W., 2025. "A framework of success factors and barriers for urban car reduction in European cities," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-16.
    10. Kabbadj, Nabil & Bajolle, Hadrien & Louvet, Nicolas, 2025. "Nudging sustainable mobility: an empirical analysis based on the WeWard app," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    11. Humpe, Andreas & Gössling, Stefan & Haustein, Sonja, 2022. "Car careers: A socio-psychological evaluation of aspirational automobile ownership," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 156-166.
    12. Aravind, Avani & Venthuruthiyil, Suvin P. & Mishra, Sabya & Brakewood, Candace, 2025. "Simulation based pre-implementation cost evaluation framework for integrated public transit services," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 28-49.
    13. Miner, Patrick & Smith, Barbara M. & Jani, Anant & McNeill, Geraldine & Gathorne-Hardy, Alfred, 2024. "Car harm: A global review of automobility's harm to people and the environment," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    14. Philip Fliegel & Achim Hagen & Nicolas Koch & Nolan Ritter, 2025. "Carbon Pricing and Household Finance: How Banks Price Transition Risk in Auto Loans," CESifo Working Paper Series 12288, CESifo.
    15. Mouratidis, Kostas, 2025. "Transport and quality of life: The car and its link to subjective well-being, health, and life domains," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 101-111.
    16. Shibayama, Takeru & Laa, Barbara, 2024. "Sustainable Mobility Guarantee: Developing the concept from a transport planning perspective," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 287-299.
    17. Mandys, Filip & Taneja, Shivani, 2024. "Demand for green and fossil fuel automobiles," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    18. Gössling, Stefan & Kees, Jessica & Litman, Todd & Humpe, Andreas, 2023. "The economic cost of a 130 kph speed limit in Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    19. Chris De Gruyter & Long T. Truong & Gerard de Jong & Sarah Foster, 2025. "Determinants of zero-car and car-owning apartment households," Transportation, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 1593-1620, August.
    20. Fabian Anzenhofer & David Fleckenstein & Robert Klein & Claudius Steinhardt, 2025. "Analyzing the impact of demand management in rural shared mobility-on-demand systems," OR Spectrum: Quantitative Approaches in Management, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research e.V., vol. 47(4), pages 1267-1335, December.
    21. Gorges, Hannah & Mingardo, Giuliano, 2025. "The potential of active modes to reduce short car trips. A data-driven approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 1-14.
    22. Sliacan, Jakub & Cibik, Matej, 2025. "Systemic motonormativity," SocArXiv pbgnx_v1, Center for Open Science.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

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