Sources

Every number, and where it came from.

19 of the 31 figures below come from a named publisher with a link. The rest are this site's own assumptions, and they say so. Rates last reviewed September 2026.

Where this site's value differs from the published one, the difference is stated in the row rather than smoothed over — including the places where the number flatters driving. Every cost here is a modelled estimate, not a quote, and you can change the fare and the rates on any result page.

Driving costs

What the car side of a trip is charged for, per mile or per trip.

Fast-charging price$0.50 per kWhPublished source
United States default; each region has its own rate
DCFC Tracker (independent Supercharger price tracker) · 2026
Tesla does not publish a national average. The tracker puts standard pricing near $0.63 per kWh and member pricing near $0.44, against a $0.39–$0.84 state range. This site uses $0.50, between off-peak and peak owner pricing — change it on any result page to see what your own rate does.
Efficiency3.7 miles per kWhPublished source
Model 3 / Model Y
US EPA ratings via fueleconomy.gov · 2024
EPA rates a 2024 Model 3 RWD at about 3.9 miles per kWh. This site uses 3.7 because highway speed, heating and cold weather all cost efficiency.
Tyre wear$0.04 per mileSite assumption
All trips, charged as wear rather than cash
AAA, Your Driving Costs (aggregate maintenance figure) · 2024
AAA publishes maintenance, repair and tyres together at roughly 9.6–11.1 cents per mile for petrol cars, not a tyres-only figure for EVs. This site's split of tyres and maintenance is its own estimate inside that envelope.
Maintenance$0.02 per mileSite assumption
All trips, charged as wear
Consumer Reports, EV maintenance and repair costs · 2020
Consumer Reports found EV owners pay roughly half what petrol owners pay on maintenance and repair. No public source gives a per-mile EV figure at this granularity, so this is an estimate anchored to that finding.
Wear on the car$0.06 per mileSite assumption
All trips, charged as wear
This is the site's weakest cost line and it favours driving. Published used-vehicle analysis puts EV depreciation far higher — one 2024 study of 2,500+ used vehicles reads about $0.27 per mile. Depreciation is mostly a function of time and model year rather than of one trip, which is why it is charged low and shown as wear, not cash. It never touches the cash verdict.
Food on the road$22 per person per driving daySite assumption
Charged past four hours of driving
A site assumption, deliberately matched in size to the airport-food line on the flying side so neither option is quietly fed for free.
Hotel night$145Published source
Added past eleven hours of driving
CoStar / STR, US hotel average daily rate · 2025
The published 2025 US average daily rate is $160.54. This site uses $145, which understates a cost charged only to the driving side.

Flying costs

What the plane side is charged for, per person or per party.

Air fare$95 base plus $0.13 per mile, per personPublished source
United States default; each region has its own rate
US Bureau of Transportation Statistics, average domestic air fare · 2025 (2024 data)
This is the weakest number on the site and it is an estimate, not a quote. BTS reports a 2024 average itinerary fare of $384. The formula here produces roughly $225 one-way on a 1,000-mile trip, so it is not generous to flying either. Real fares move with the date, the day and how far ahead you book — change it on any result page.
Checked bag$35 per personPublished source
United States default
Published airline fee schedules (Delta $35, United $40) · 2025–2026
$35–$40 is the current standard first-bag fee at the large US carriers.
Food at the airport$24 per personSite assumption
Charged past three hours door to door
A site assumption, added because the driving side is charged for road food. Without it the comparison quietly penalised the car.
Ride to the airport$30 each end, per partyPublished source
United States default
RideWise, airport rideshare fare survey across 26 US metros · 2026
A typical 15-mile airport trip runs $27–$33, inside a $24–$42 range across metros.
Getting around without your carOne extra ride, same price as an airport rideSite assumption
Once per trip, per party
A site assumption. Flying leaves you without a car at the other end; one extra ride is the floor, not a rental.
Airport parking instead$24 per daySite assumption
Optional swap for the rides above
No published national average for US airport parking was found; posted economy rates run from about $9 to $49 a day. $24 is a mid-range assumption.

Time

How a door-to-door day is built on each side.

Flight delays (US)About 1 in 5 flights arrive 15+ minutes late; about an hour late on average when they doPublished source
United States trips; shown as a warning, not added to the time
US Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 2025
National on-time figures across all reporting airlines. Not route-specific.
Flight delays (Europe)About 1 in 3 flights depart 15+ minutes latePublished source
European and UK trips; shown as a warning, not added to the time
EUROCONTROL · 2025
Network-wide punctuality figures. Not route-specific.
Distance and drive timeLive road routingPublished source
Every trip
Google Maps Platform routing · Live
Real roads, not straight lines. This is the one figure on the site that is measured rather than modelled.
Charging stopsOne stop every 180 miles, 25 minutes eachSite assumption
Every trip
A conservative pattern for a long trip on a Supercharger network: shorter top-ups more often are usually faster in practice.
At the airport before boarding105 minutesPublished source
Domestic flights
US Transportation Security Administration guidance · Current
TSA and the airlines advise arriving two hours (120 minutes) before a domestic departure. This site uses 105 minutes, which is favourable to flying. TSA does not publish average checkpoint wait times, so no queue figure is used at all.
Drive to each airport28 minutes each endSite assumption
Every flight
A site assumption. Airports vary from ten minutes to over an hour from the places people actually leave from.
In the air36 minutes of taxi and climb, plus great-circle miles at 500 mphSite assumption
Every flight
A simplification of block time. It ignores connections, which is generous to flying.
Value of an hour$25 per traveller per hourSite assumption
Only used to settle a verdict, never in the cash totals
Nobody agrees on this, and that is the honest position. The cash figures and the door-to-door hours are both shown separately so you can weigh them yourself.

Stress score

A published 0–100 scale of this site's own making. Its weights are set by survey data where survey data exists.

Fear of flyingWeighted into the flight scorePublished source
US, UK, Germany, Australia
See the full source list, with country and year on every figure · 2025–2026
Every weight on the stress page links to the survey behind it and says which country it was measured in.
Flight punctualityDelay odds in the flight scorePublished source
Europe
Eurocontrol, CODA annual report · 2025 (2024 data)
Eurocontrol records 72.4% of network flights arriving within fifteen minutes of schedule in 2024, up from 70.6% in 2023. The stress page quotes 69%, which is an older figure and is being corrected.
The 0–100 scale itselfThis site's modelSite assumption
Every trip
It is a consistent, published scoring model, not a clinical measure of anything. Two trips can be compared with it; it should not be read as a health assessment.

Carbon

Emissions for both sides, on the grid where the car actually charges.

Flight emissions per passengerPer-mile factors by flight length, plus a fixed takeoff and climb chargePublished source
Every flight
UK DESNZ / DEFRA greenhouse gas conversion factors · 2024
The official factors put economy travel near 0.246 kg CO2e per passenger-km domestically and near 0.15 kg on longer flights, radiative forcing included.
Contrails and high-altitude effectsMultiplier applied to fuel burnPublished source
Every flight
Radiative forcing multiplier used in the DESNZ factors and the wider literature · 2024
Commonly cited near 1.9×, with a published range of roughly 1.7× to 2.7×. Leaving it out would understate flying.
Grid carbon intensity by countryNational averages for about 55 countriesPublished source
Trips outside the US and Canada
Ember, via Our World in Data · 2026
Grid carbon intensity by US stateState and subregion output ratesPublished source
US trips
US EPA eGRID · 2025 (eGRID2023)
World average grid intensity0.46 kg CO2 per kWhPublished source
Fallback where no national figure is held
International Energy Agency, Electricity 2025 (445 g/kWh); Ember (458 g/kWh) · 2025
One tree, one year60 kg CO2Published source
Used only to translate a saving into something imaginable
US EPA, greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator · Current
Per-person yearly carbon budget2,300 kgPublished source
Used only as a share-of-budget comparison
Derived from IPCC remaining-budget work, via Our World in Data · 2023–2026
Estimates of a 1.5 °C per-person annual budget vary several-fold with method; some run as low as 1,500 kg. Treat this as one common reading, not a settled number.

Citing this site

The route library and the aggregate findings are free to quote with a link. Machine readable copies live at /api/public/routes.json, /api/public/insights.json and /llms-full.txt. Please carry the year and the caveat with the figure: these are modelled estimates built on the rates above, not fares or bills.

The methodology behind each side is written out on Cost analysis, Stress score and Emissions. The site's author prefers driving and says so on About; routes where flying wins are counted and published the same way.