Electric or petrol: what does owning a car in Thailand really cost?

ไทย

EV 3.5 (Thailand's EV purchase subsidy): a government scheme (2024–2027) that subsidises the purchase of battery-electric passenger cars priced up to 2,000,000 baht. For 2026 we count the top band of 50,000 baht per car (for batteries ≥ 50 kWh; batteries < 50 kWh get 20,000–50,000 baht). The subsidy steps down every year from the EV3.0 era, when it ran as high as about 150,000 baht alongside an excise-tax cut from 8% to 2%. We count it conservatively: the 2026 price war has already pushed discounts into sticker prices, so stacking a large subsidy on top would double-count. PHEVs and HEVs receive no EV3.5 subsidy. We show this subsidy separately and do not fold it into the totals above. 2026 caveat: the full amount is restricted to locally assembled BEVs with a battery ≥ 50 kWh only — fully imported (CBU) cars and those with batteries < 50 kWh receive less or nothing; check model by model. Source: EY / ASEAN Briefing / PRNewswire, as of 2 July 2026. Always verify the latest conditions before buying.

Depreciation is the honest deciding factor: on energy cost the EV wins outright — overnight home charging (on the TOU rate) is roughly 10× cheaper per kilometre than petrol. But the 5-year total is not a clean EV victory, for two honest reasons: (1) the shift from EV3.0 to EV3.5 pushed 2026 BEV sticker prices up and cut the per-car subsidy (from about 150,000 to ~50,000 baht), and (2) used EVs in Thailand depreciate very hard — Krungsri Research measured BEVs dropping about -23% the moment they leave the showroom and settling at only around 30% of sticker price, while Toyota/Honda/Isuzu petrol and hybrid cars hold their resale value. We therefore set the BEV depreciation curve deliberately low, because that is the truth of today's market. Maintenance and insurance use the system's per-powertrain defaults (not Thailand-specific sourced figures), which if anything favours the EV on maintenance. And even with the BEV depreciation curve held this low, a budget compact EV still takes the overall cheapest-to-own spot — while that heavy depreciation still lets full hybrids win some head-to-head comparisons. Source: Krungsri Research, as of 2 July 2026.