Estimate the total fuel or energy cost for your road trip
Planning a road trip across the UK? Whether you are driving from London to Edinburgh, touring the Welsh coast, or heading to Cornwall for the summer, knowing your fuel costs in advance helps you budget properly and avoid unpleasant surprises at the pump. This calculator works for petrol, diesel, and electric vehicles. For combustion engine cars, it uses your MPG (miles per gallon) rating and fuel price in pence per litre, with the correct imperial gallon conversion of 4.546 litres. For electric vehicles, it uses your energy consumption in kWh per mile and your electricity rate, whether you are charging at home or using the public charging network. The road trip calculator also accounts for multi-stop journeys, dividing the total cost into legs so you can see how much each section of your trip costs. This is particularly useful for splitting costs between passengers or budgeting fuel stops along the way.
To estimate your road trip costs: 1. Enter the total distance of your trip in miles. Use Google Maps or a route planner to get the driving distance. Remember to include the return journey if applicable. 2. Select your fuel type. Choose petrol, diesel, or electric. This determines which calculation method is used. 3. Enter your fuel efficiency. For petrol and diesel vehicles, enter your MPG (miles per gallon) -- you can find this on your trip computer or in your vehicle handbook. For electric vehicles, enter your energy consumption in kWh per mile (typically 0.25-0.40 kWh/mile depending on the vehicle and driving style). 4. Enter the fuel or energy price. For petrol and diesel, enter the price in pence per litre. For electric vehicles, enter your electricity rate in pence per kWh. If using public chargers, rates vary from around 30p/kWh to 80p/kWh depending on the network and charger speed. 5. Enter the number of planned stops. The calculator divides the total distance into legs (number of stops + 1) and calculates the cost per leg. This helps with planning fuel or charging stops. 6. Review the results to see your total trip cost, fuel or energy used, cost per mile, and cost per leg.
The road trip cost calculation depends on fuel type: **Petrol and diesel vehicles:** Gallons used = total distance / fuel efficiency (MPG) Litres used = gallons used x 4.546 (imperial gallon conversion) Total cost (pence) = litres used x fuel price (pence per litre) Total cost (GBP) = total cost (pence) / 100 **Electric vehicles:** Total energy (kWh) = total distance x energy consumption (kWh per mile) Total cost (pence) = total energy x electricity rate (pence per kWh) Total cost (GBP) = total cost (pence) / 100 **For all vehicle types:** Cost per mile = total cost / total distance Number of legs = number of stops + 1 Cost per leg = total cost / number of legs For example, a 300-mile petrol trip at 40 MPG with fuel at 145p/litre: gallons = 7.5, litres = 34.10, cost = GBP 49.44. With 2 stops (3 legs), cost per leg = GBP 16.48. The same trip in an electric vehicle using 0.3 kWh/mile at 28p/kWh would cost just GBP 25.20.