Model Y: yearly fuel cost
There is no petrol bill to calculate for the 2024 Tesla Model Y — instead, budget for electricity. Charging mostly at home on a typical UK domestic tariff, 8,000 miles a year works out to an estimated £560 in charging costs, or about £47 a month. That is a fraction of what the petrol and diesel SUVs in our 20-car sample — averaging just 44.3 mpg — cost to fuel; even the most frugal hybrid SUV runs to nearly double that figure. The Model Y pairs this with 340 PS and a 5.9-second 0–62 time, so you are not trading performance for the saving. Five years of home charging totals roughly £2,800 — before you factor in the petrol-car savings on servicing, since an EV has no oil changes or exhaust system to maintain.
That £560 figure is an estimate for home charging — public rapid charging costs two to three times more per mile, so your real number depends heavily on where you plug in. The EV equivalents of fuel-saving tips are: charge overnight on a cheap off-peak tariff, precondition the battery while still plugged in on cold mornings, and keep motorway speeds at 65–70 mph, because high speed drains an EV's range faster than it hurts a petrol car's mpg. Regenerative braking set to maximum also stretches every kilowatt. Verdict: home charging makes the Model Y dramatically cheaper to run than any combustion rival — just avoid relying on public rapids if you want to protect the saving. A dedicated home charger on an EV tariff is the ideal setup, typically paying for itself within the first year through cheaper per-mile costs alone.