Vehicle Costs
How to add vehicles, log fuel and charging, and review the resulting monthly average costs.
Adding vehicles
In the Vehicles area, you add your vehicles and record:
- Name (e.g., "Family Car")
- Powertrain: gasoline, diesel, electric, plug-in hybrid, or Other (e.g. gas, hydrogen)
- Assignment to a single person or the whole household
The powertrain determines which logging options are available to you afterward. A plug-in hybrid can record both fuel and charging entries.
Include in the energy cost history
When adding (and later editing) a vehicle you decide whether and how its costs feed into the energy cost history in the Energy area:
- Yes – all of the vehicle's costs count. (For a plug-in hybrid this option reads "Fuel + charging", since it has both.)
- Charging only (electric) – only charging costs count. This option exists only for a plug-in hybrid: the electric share belongs to your energy costs, the fuel doesn't.
- No – the vehicle doesn't appear in the energy cost history at all.
The default depends on the powertrain: EVs are included by default (their charging electricity is part of your energy costs), plug-in hybrids with their electric share, combustion cars and "Other" are not. You can override this per vehicle at any time. Home charging that runs over your electricity bill is never double-counted – it's carved out of the electricity segment and shown as "Home charging (EV)".
Logging fuel (gasoline, diesel, plug-in hybrid)
For each fill-up you record:
- Quantity in liters
- Price per liter
- Date and, optionally, odometer reading for later consumption analysis
Evensum automatically calculates the total: quantity × price. For example, 45 liters at €1.75/liter comes to €78.75 for that fill-up.
In addition — just like for any other expense — you can set a source account, the split (50/50, by income, custom percentages …) and, if no account is chosen, the paying person. This makes the month's fuel and charging logs count towards the settlement; with a joint account as the source, the log is automatically covered fairly and needs no settlement. The one exception: home charges billed via the household electricity bill — these fields don't appear there at all, because the cost is part of the electricity advance and is already split fairly via that item in Recurring costs.
Logging charging (electric, plug-in hybrid)
For electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, Evensum distinguishes between two charging situations, since the cost per kWh often differs significantly:
- Home charging: usually cheaper, billed through your household electricity tariff
- Away charging: at public charging stations, typically more expensive
For each charging session you record:
- Quantity in kWh
- Price per kWh
- Location: Home or Away
- Date
Example: 40 kWh charged at home at €0.32/kWh comes to €12.80. The same quantity charged away at €0.55/kWh would instead cost €22.00. Tracking these separately shows how much charging habits affect total costs.
Tip: You don't have to choose between the total price and the price per unit – just enter one of them and Evensum calculates the other automatically via the quantity.
Home charging: cost from the electricity price
When you charge your EV at home, the electricity usually runs over your regular electricity bill – there is no separate total price for it at all. For this case, simply leave the "Count as separate cost in the energy dashboard" checkbox unchecked (the default). You then don't need to enter a total price: Evensum derives the cost automatically from the working price of the respective charging month.
- If the month is recorded in the energy area, the effective working price after PV is used.
- Otherwise the grid operator's tariff price of the most recently recorded month applies.
The amount is recalculated on every view and updates automatically when your electricity price changes. In the entry list it's marked as "calculated". This avoids double counting, since these charges are already part of your household electricity costs – in the energy area they are shown only for information, as a share.
Only if your wallbox runs on its own meter and is not part of your household electricity do you tick the checkbox and enter the total price as usual.
Note and editing entries
You can add a short note to any fuel or charging entry (e.g. the location of the charger or the reason for the trip). Every entry can also be edited afterwards: expand "Edit entry" in the entry list, change the values and save – mistyped amounts or quantities are fixed in seconds.
Monthly average costs
From all recorded fuel and charging entries, Evensum calculates the average monthly cost per vehicle. The total of all entries is divided by the time elapsed since the first entry — day-accurate, converted into months. If the first entry is less than a month old, the total is divided by one full month so that a few fresh entries don't artificially inflate the average.
Example for an electric vehicle over three months:
| Month | Home charged | Away charged | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| May | €38 | €20 | €58 |
| June | €42 | €15 | €57 |
| July | €35 | €25 | €60 |
Average: (€58 + €57 + €60) ÷ 3 = €58.33 per month
This average can serve as a basis for including vehicle costs realistically in your monthly budget planning — much like the ledger, it lets you spot patterns without expecting identical spending every month.
Fixed costs: tax & insurance
Alongside the variable fuel/charging costs, every vehicle has a Fixed costs section. There you enter recurring items such as vehicle tax and insurance – each with an amount, an interval (monthly or yearly) and optionally a due date (date picker, e.g. for vehicle tax). Yearly amounts are automatically converted to a monthly figure (÷ 12).
Each item shows its type first (insurance, vehicle tax or other), even without a custom label – so it's always clear what it is. Use the pencil icon to edit an entry later, or the trash icon to delete it.
Each of these entries automatically appears in Recurring costs as its own managed item (e.g. "Golf – insurance") — that's where you configure split, account, and category, so vehicle costs also flow into settlements, per-account transfers, and (for yearly entries) the buffer recommendation. Amount, interval, and due date remain managed by the Vehicles area. The vehicles overview also shows each vehicle's fuel/charging costs and fixed costs separately – so your budget planning is complete without having to maintain tax and insurance as a separate manual fixed item.
Evaluations
In the Statistics area, your vehicle costs are additionally visualized, so you can spot trends — for example, whether away-charged electricity is becoming a growing share of your total costs, or whether fuel costs are rising over time.
Multiple vehicles
If your household has several vehicles, their costs are tracked separately. This lets you compare, for example, whether your electric car or your gasoline car is cheaper to run day-to-day — information that can also be useful for your next purchase decision.
Practical tip
On your phone you can simply swipe a fuel/charging entry or a fixed-cost item to the left — this reveals the Edit and Delete actions behind it.
Log fill-ups and charging sessions right when you pay, ideally on your phone at the pump or charger. This prevents lost receipts and misremembered amounts.