The price is what you pay once; the running cost is what you pay every month. Put your own distance and petrol price against any two machines and see what each costs over the years you mean to keep it — purchase included, so the cheaper one is actually the cheaper one.
Your commute
That is about 7,500 km a year.
Your own lines, a year
The catalogue puts a number only on fuel. Service, insurance and consumables vary by city and by you — type in your dealer’s figures if you have them, or leave them at zero and compare on fuel alone.
Two machines
Started with the catalogue’s petrol median and its cheapest electric machine — the two the guide compares. Swap either.
Petrol · ₹2.30/km
Fuel or charging, a month
₹1,438
A year
₹17,250
Over 5 years
₹86,250
On-road price
₹90,000
₹1.76 lakhto buy and run for 5 years
Electric, home charging · ₹0.20/km
Fuel or charging, a month
₹125
A year
₹1,500
Over 5 years
₹7,500
On-road price
₹95,000
₹1.02 lakhto buy and run for 5 years
Which is cheaper to own?
Ola Electric S1 X is cheaper to buy and run over 5 years, by ₹73,750.
Ola Electric S1 X costs ₹5,000 more up front and saves ₹15,750 a year in fuel, so it pays that back in about 0.3 years — inside the 5 you will keep it.
At 7,500 km a year you are in the middle band: the running cost matters, but not enough to overrule a big gap in price or in how the machine suits you.
Where the numbers come from
Rupees per kilometre are the catalogue’s real-world figures, built at ₹105 a litre. Petrol machines are re-priced to the pump price you type; electric and CNG figures stay as catalogued.
A year is your daily distance times your riding days; the guide’s default is 300. A month is a twelfth of that.
Service, insurance and consumables are yours or nothing: the site will not invent a national figure for lines that vary by state and by dealer.
The total to compare on is the on-road price plus everything above over the years you keep it. Depreciation is left out, because the catalogue’s resale scores are a ranking, not a residual value.