· Savvy Team
The Real Cost of Driving 100 km in the UAE (2026): Petrol vs Diesel vs Electric
What does it actually cost to drive 100 km in the UAE? We compared a Corolla, a Fortuner and a Tesla Model Y, month by month, using official fuel prices and real charging costs.
Fuel prices have been anything but predictable in the UAE this year. Petrol jumped in April and has stayed well above its January level. Diesel spiked even harder in the spring. Electric charging rates, meanwhile, did not move at all.
So we set out to answer a simple question with real numbers: what does it actually cost to drive 100 km in the UAE, month by month, depending on what you drive?
Every few months, fuel prices make headlines and drivers are left to do the mental math themselves. Most comparisons stop at a single snapshot ("EVs cost less than petrol") without showing how that gap moves across a real year, or how much price risk petrol and diesel drivers carry that EV drivers do not. That is the gap this piece tries to close.
How we ran the comparison
We compared three real, popular vehicles rather than hypothetical averages, using official UAE fuel prices (Special 95 petrol and diesel, as announced monthly by the UAE Fuel Price Committee) and realistic mixed-use consumption figures. For electric, we used real charging costs from Savvy Energy.
The three cars:
- Toyota Corolla 2.0 (petrol): 7.0 L/100 km, for a long-standing best-seller among UAE sedans - Toyota Fortuner 2.8 (diesel): 7.6 L/100 km, the official combined figure, for a family-favourite mid-size SUV across the GCC - Tesla Model Y (electric): 16.0 kWh/100 km, a realistic mixed-use figure for one of the UAE's most popular EVs
The formula is simple: unit price multiplied by consumption per 100 km. UAE fuel prices are set nationally each month, so a litre costs the same in every emirate.
A few honest caveats:
- Consumption figures are realistic estimates, not lab ratings. The Fortuner figure matches its official combined rating. For the Corolla and Model Y, we used figures that reflect everyday driving, which are higher than the official lab ratings. Driving style, load and temperature all matter, and summer heat and heavy air conditioning will push all three higher. - The vehicles are not like-for-like. A compact sedan, a mid-size SUV and a premium electric crossover sit in different size and price classes, so part of each gap comes from vehicle size and not only from fuel type. This matters most for the diesel comparison, since the Fortuner is a larger, heavier vehicle than the other two. - The electric rate is one provider's rate. AED 1.26/kWh is our own. Home charging is typically cheaper, and public fast charging can cost more, so your own numbers will differ. - Charging losses are not included. Some energy is lost between the charger and the battery, so the energy drawn from a charger can be roughly 5 to 10% higher than what the car uses. If your provider bills on energy delivered to the vehicle, this does not affect the price you pay.
What petrol cost per 100 km, month by month
Petrol dipped slightly in January and February, edged up in March, then jumped 32% in April, from AED 2.48 to AED 3.28 per litre. It peaked in June at AED 3.83 and has stayed well above January levels ever since.
| Month | Price (AED/L) | Cost per 100 km |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | 2.42 | AED 16.94 |
| Feb | 2.33 | AED 16.31 |
| Mar | 2.48 | AED 17.36 |
| Apr | 3.28 | AED 22.96 |
| May | 3.55 | AED 24.85 |
| Jun | 3.83 | AED 26.81 |
| Jul | 3.29 | AED 23.03 |
| Aug | 3.49 | AED 24.43 |
| Sep | 3.69 | AED 25.83 |
From January to the June peak, the cost of driving 100 km in the Corolla rose by 58%. Even after July's dip, September is still more than 50% above where the year began.
What diesel cost, and why April and May stand out
Diesel had the most dramatic year. The price jumped from AED 2.72 per litre in March to AED 4.69 in April, a rise of about 72% in a single month. In May, the Fuel Price Committee held diesel at that level, citing support for logistics and supply chains, while petrol rose again. Diesel then fell by roughly 23% between May and July, before climbing again in August and September.
| Month | Price (AED/L) | Cost per 100 km |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | 2.55 | AED 19.38 |
| Feb | 2.52 | AED 19.15 |
| Mar | 2.72 | AED 20.67 |
| Apr | 4.69 | AED 35.64 |
| May | 4.69 | AED 35.64 |
| Jun | 4.33 | AED 32.91 |
| Jul | 3.60 | AED 27.36 |
| Aug | 3.80 | AED 28.88 |
| Sep | 4.30 | AED 32.68 |
Cost per 100 km in the Fortuner climbed from AED 19.38 in January to AED 35.64 at the April-May peak, an increase of about 84%. Diesel drivers absorbed a much sharper and more volatile swing than petrol drivers did this year.
The electric baseline: flat, all year
Charging a Tesla Model Y at AED 1.26/kWh costs a flat AED 20.16 per 100 km, every single month, regardless of what is happening at the pump.
That rate reflects a real charging session with us. Savvy Energy is a UAE-based off-grid, on-demand EV charging operator that dispatches mobile charging vans directly to fleets and drivers, rather than relying on fixed public stations. Our Incognito Charging model is built around removing the wait, the grid dependency and the infrastructure delays that typically come with EV charging in this market.
Putting all three side by side
Here is the full year in one view, in AED per 100 km:
| Month | Petrol | Diesel | Electric | Cheapest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 16.94 | 19.38 | 20.16 | Petrol |
| Feb | 16.31 | 19.15 | 20.16 | Petrol |
| Mar | 17.36 | 20.67 | 20.16 | Petrol |
| Apr | 22.96 | 35.64 | 20.16 | Electric |
| May | 24.85 | 35.64 | 20.16 | Electric |
| Jun | 26.81 | 32.91 | 20.16 | Electric |
| Jul | 23.03 | 27.36 | 20.16 | Electric |
| Aug | 24.43 | 28.88 | 20.16 | Electric |
| Sep | 25.83 | 32.68 | 20.16 | Electric |
The picture is more nuanced than "EVs are always cheaper." When pump prices were at their lowest in January to March, the petrol Corolla actually cost less per 100 km than our EV rate. From April onward, once fuel prices jumped, electric was the cheapest option every month. The EV's advantage is not fixed. It grows as pump prices rise, and it comes with something petrol and diesel cannot offer: one number you can plan around.
There is also a break-even point worth knowing. At September petrol prices, a Model Y would need to use more than about 20.5 kWh/100 km before it lost its cost advantage over the Corolla. If real-world summer consumption runs closer to 18 kWh/100 km, the saving against petrol narrows from AED 5.67 to about AED 3.15 per 100 km. It is still a saving, just a smaller one.
September 2026: the bottom line
| Vehicle | Cost per 100 km |
|---|---|
| Petrol (Corolla 2.0) | AED 25.83 |
| Diesel (Fortuner 2.8) | AED 32.68 |
| Electric (Tesla Model Y) | AED 20.16 |
Driving electric worked out to 22.0% cheaper than petrol (AED 5.67 saved per 100 km) and 38.3% cheaper than diesel (AED 12.52 saved per 100 km). As noted above, the diesel figure in particular reflects the Fortuner's larger size as well as its fuel type, so treat it as a comparison of these three specific vehicles rather than of fuel types in general.
CO₂ emissions per 100 km
Cost is not the only gap between these three. Using standard tailpipe combustion factors (2.31 kg of CO₂ per litre of petrol and 2.68 kg per litre of diesel, as used in IPCC and DEFRA-based calculators) and the electricity grid emission factor published by DEWA (0.4041 kgCO₂/kWh, from its 2021 Climate Change Report), the same 100 km looks like this:
| Vehicle | CO₂ emitted per 100 km |
|---|---|
| Petrol (Corolla 2.0) | ~16.2 kg |
| Diesel (Fortuner 2.8) | ~20.4 kg |
| Electric (Tesla Model Y) | ~6.5 kg |
On these figures, the EV comes out roughly 60% lower on emissions than petrol and roughly 68% lower than diesel, on top of the cost savings.
Three things to keep in mind. First, the grid factor is Dubai's utility figure from DEWA's 2021 report, used here as a proxy for the UAE. It is not a national average, and it is several years old. Other estimates put the UAE-wide grid figure higher, at around 0.47 kg/kWh, which would raise the EV figure to about 7.5 kg per 100 km. The EV would still emit roughly 54% less than the petrol car and 63% less than the diesel. Second, charging from solar or other clean sources lowers EV emissions further. Third, these are tailpipe and in-use figures. They do not include fuel extraction and refining, or vehicle and battery manufacturing.
What this means for UAE fleet operators
The monthly volatility shown above is not just a curiosity for individual drivers. It is a real budgeting problem for anyone running a fleet.
A logistics or delivery operator running diesel vehicles saw its per-100 km energy cost rise by about 84% between January and the April-May peak, with no way to plan around it in advance. A petrol fleet had an easier ride, but still absorbed a 32% step up in April and prices that have stayed well above January levels. An EV fleet, by contrast, had one number to plan against for all nine months.
That predictability compounds at scale. For a single driver, saving AED 6 to 13 per 100 km barely registers in a month. Across a fleet, it becomes a very different annual fuel line. As an illustration, a vehicle covering 30,000 km a year would save roughly AED 1,700 against petrol or AED 3,750 against diesel at September prices. For a 50-vehicle fleet, that is around AED 85,000 to AED 188,000 a year. Your own numbers will depend on routes, loads, vehicle types and charging setup, but the scale of the gap, together with the removal of price uncertainty, is why fleet operators are increasingly evaluating mobile charging models.
To see what mobile, off-grid fleet charging looks like in practice, visit Savvy Energy's products page, or request a demo to see how it could apply to your own fleet.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to drive 100 km in the UAE in September 2026? Based on our comparison, it costs AED 25.83 in a Toyota Corolla 2.0 (petrol), AED 32.68 in a Toyota Fortuner 2.8 (diesel), and AED 20.16 in a Tesla Model Y (electric).
Is driving an electric car cheaper than petrol or diesel in the UAE? In September 2026, yes, for these three vehicles. The Tesla Model Y was 22.0% cheaper than the petrol Corolla (AED 5.67 saved per 100 km) and 38.3% cheaper than the diesel Fortuner (AED 12.52 saved per 100 km). The gap depends on pump prices and on vehicle size, though. In January to March, when petrol was at its cheapest, the Corolla cost less per 100 km than EV charging at AED 1.26/kWh.
How much did diesel prices change this year? Diesel rose from AED 2.72 per litre in March to AED 4.69 in April and was held at that level in May. Cost per 100 km for the Fortuner climbed from AED 19.38 in January to AED 35.64 at the April-May peak, an increase of about 84%.
Does the cost of EV charging change when fuel prices change? Not in our comparison. Charging at AED 1.26/kWh kept the Tesla Model Y at a flat AED 20.16 per 100 km every month. Rates from other charging providers, or home charging, may differ.
How much lower are EV emissions compared with petrol and diesel? Using DEWA's published grid emission factor (from its 2021 report), the Tesla Model Y emits about 6.5 kg of CO₂ per 100 km, roughly 60% lower than the petrol Corolla (~16.2 kg) and roughly 68% lower than the diesel Fortuner (~20.4 kg). Using a higher UAE-wide grid estimate, the reduction is still around 54% against petrol and 63% against diesel. Emissions fall further when charging uses solar or other clean generation.
Why does price stability matter for fleet operators? Fleets budget fuel across many vehicles and months. A flat per-kWh charging rate gives one predictable number to plan against, while petrol and diesel costs can shift sharply from month to month.
What is mobile, off-grid EV charging? It is a service where charging vans travel to your fleet or vehicle, so you do not rely on fixed public charging stations or wait for grid infrastructure to be installed.
How can I find out if mobile charging suits my fleet? Visit Savvy Energy's products page to see how mobile charging works, and request a demo to see how it could apply to your own fleet.
Tags: ev charging, fleet, dubai, uae, fuel prices, petrol vs electric, diesel, cost comparison
