An electric car emits less greenhouse gas than a comparable gas-powered vehicle for most drivers in the United States, and in most places it does not cost more to own, according to MIT researchers who updated a public tool used to compare cars on both emissions and price.

The study, published today in Environmental Research Letters, found that a battery-electric vehicle reduces emissions by 40% to 60% in most locations, with even larger benefits in urban areas. The researchers said they also examined plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, which pair a combustion engine with a battery to improve fuel savings.

The findings matter now because the team is releasing a new version of carboncounter.com today, giving shoppers and fleet owners a fresh look at how different vehicles compare under real-world conditions. The researchers said their analysis used meteorological data, trip distance and duration, fuel prices and time-averaged fuel prices, drawing from thousands of U.S. zip codes and looking at individual drivers within those locations.

Marco Miotti, one of the researchers, said the team wanted to test a swirl of claims about electric vehicles all at once instead of asking a simpler question. He said the work is meant to answer not just whether electric vehicles are better, but better for whom and under what conditions. He added that few efforts have pulled all of the relevant factors together, even though buyers need that kind of comparison to understand both emissions and costs.

The new analysis also pushes back on the idea that colder climates erase most of the environmental benefit. The researchers found that cold weather does not reduce overall emission gains as much as some media reports suggest, a conclusion that gives the study added weight for drivers in northern states who have often heard the opposite.

The update comes after the team finalized its analysis at the end of 2024 and in early 2025, then expanded and improved the vehicle cost and emissions models behind the public calculator. Prior studies often focused on a narrow slice of the problem, such as renewable power on the grid or gas prices. This one was built to take in more of the factors that shape what drivers actually spend and what they actually emit.

For drivers weighing an electric car against a gas model, the message from the new data is straightforward: in most parts of the country, cleaner driving does not come with a higher price tag, and the advantage grows where traffic is dense and the math on emissions is hardest to ignore.