Kotselog
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Works anywhere · defaults are Philippine, as of 7 August 2026

What is your car actually costing you?

Most people can name one or two of their car's costs and are wrong about the total — usually by a lot. This adds up the ones you already know and gives you the number that actually compares: cost per kilometre.

Every figure below is yours to change. Where we've put a default in, it's dated and labelled — your own number always beats our default, and most of these you already know roughly.

1 · How much you drive

Change either — the other follows. If you're unsure, your odometer a year ago versus today is the honest answer.

2 · Fuel — the one that dominates

This is usually the more accurate route. People rarely know their exact km/L, but most have a decent sense of what they put in the tank each month.

3 · Everything else

These have no researched default — they vary too much by car, city and driver for one to be meaningful. The numbers below are placeholders to replace, not figures we're claiming. Set anything you don't pay to zero.

4 · Depreciation optional, and usually the biggest

Leave at zero to skip. Include it and you'll usually find it outweighs fuel — it's the cost nobody feels because you never write a cheque for it.

Would an electric car be cheaper for you? — uses the numbers you just entered

This compares your fuel spend against what the same distance would cost as electricity. Everything else — insurance, servicing, tyres — is left out because it doesn't change much between the two, and pretending otherwise is how these comparisons get dishonest.

Charging

as of July 2026 Home default is the Meralco residential all-in rate; public is a published DC rate. If you live in a condo or rent, drag the slider to 0% — public charging costs about 2.4× the home rate and it is what decides most of these answers.

"Extra to buy" is the price difference between the EV and the equivalent petrol car, plus a home charger if you'd need one. Set it to zero to see running costs alone. Payback is judged against how long you'd actually keep the car — a break-even that lands after you've sold it is not a saving.

Why cost per kilometre is the number that matters

A monthly total tells you what the car takes out of your budget. Cost per kilometre tells you what driving costs — and it's the only figure that compares fairly between two cars, or between this year and last. Most of a car's cost is fixed, so the per-kilometre figure falls as you drive more. That's why a car that looks expensive to someone doing 6,000 km a year can be perfectly sensible for someone doing 25,000.

This is an estimate. The real number is better.

Everything above came from figures you're partly guessing at — and a guess about fuel spend is usually the largest error in the whole table. The accurate version isn't a better calculator, it's a record: what you actually spent, on what date, at what odometer reading.

That's what Kotselog does. Log fill-ups and services as they happen and the cost per kilometre works itself out from real data rather than recollection — including the lumpy costs that are easy to forget a year later. Open the app →

Where the defaults come from

Price data verified 7 August 2026. Pump prices in particular move weekly, which is exactly why every one of them is an input rather than a fixed assumption.

This tool does not model borrowing, and it is not a way to work out what you can afford. It describes the cost of running a car you already have.