Buying a car is no longer simply a matter of comparing sticker prices. An electric car may cost more to buy but less to run, a hybrid can save fuel without requiring a charger, and a cheap used car may lose little value but require more maintenance.

Taxes can alter the picture again, especially in Belgium, where the rules differ between Flanders, Brussels, and Wallonia.

To make those differences easier to understand, Newmobility.news has developed its own NMN TCO Calculator. The free online tool compares the estimated Total Cost of Ownership of two or three cars over the same period in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

The calculator can now be used for both private and business car comparisons.

TCO goes well beyond the purchase price. The calculator combines depreciation, fuel or electricity, maintenance, insurance, taxes and, where relevant, additional repair and wear costs. It then translates those figures into a total cost, a monthly ownership cost and a cost per kilometer.

Private or business use

At the top of the calculator, users can choose whether the car is being considered for Private or Business use.

Private mode retains the straightforward ownership-cost comparison. Business mode adds an extra fiscal layer while keeping the same underlying vehicle TCO.

Business users can enter the percentage of VAT their company can recover, the applicable corporate tax rate and, where relevant, a manual benefit-in-kind amount.

Purchase VAT status and tax deductibility are set separately for each vehicle. This is particularly useful when comparing used cars because one vehicle may be sold with VAT deducted while another is sold under the margin scheme.

The result then distinguishes between the gross company TCO and an estimated net company cost, after accounting for indicative VAT recovery and corporate tax effects.

The benefit in kind is shown separately and is not included in the company cost.

Start simple, fine-tune later

The calculator is designed to remain accessible for both private motorists and professional users, including people who are not familiar with technical specifications or tax formulas.

Users can start with the basics: country or region, ownership period, annual mileage and the essential details of the cars they want to compare. NMN supplies sensible default assumptions for items such as energy prices and other running costs.

Those who want a more precise calculation can open the Fine-tune options and adjust charging habits, energy prices, expected resale value, maintenance, insurance, repair allowances and detailed tax information.

Business users can additionally fine-tune VAT status and tax deductibility for each individual car.

This keeps the first comparison relatively simple without hiding the assumptions on which the result is based.

ICE, hybrid, plug-in or electric

Almost any combination can be compared: gasoline or diesel cars, full hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery-electric vehicles. New, demonstration and used cars can also be mixed freely in the same comparison.

That is particularly useful because depreciation is often one of the highest costs of car ownership. A €30,000 car that can still be sold for €15,000 after five years has effectively cost €15,000 in depreciation before a single kilometer of fuel or electricity is counted.

Used cars get their own calculation

For used and demonstration cars, the NMN calculator considers more than just the purchase price.

Users enter the car’s first registration date and current mileage. Based on the selected ownership period and annual mileage, the calculator determines the expected mileage and vehicle age when the car is sold again.

It also proposes an NMN-suggested resale value based on the current purchase price, vehicle age, current and future mileage, and powertrain.

That estimate remains fully editable. Someone who knows that a particular car is likely to retain more or less value can override it in the fine-tuning section.

The calculation deliberately does not pretend to be a professional vehicle valuation. Future used-car prices are impossible to predict precisely, particularly for EVs in a rapidly changing market. Instead, the suggested value provides a consistent starting point so that two cars with very different ages and mileages are not automatically treated as equivalent.

Additional annual repair and wear costs can also be included.

For business users, used cars introduce another important question: VAT. A used car sold with deductible VAT is treated differently from a vehicle sold under the margin scheme or without recoverable purchase VAT. The calculator therefore lets users specify that status separately for each car.

Charging habits can change the winner

The tool becomes especially useful when comparing electrified cars because real-life use matters enormously.

For a BEV, the calculator starts with a default charging mix, but users can fine-tune how much charging occurs at home, at public AC chargers or at fast chargers. For a plug-in hybrid, they can also specify what proportion of annual mileage is expected to be driven electrically.

A PHEV charged every night can therefore produce a very different result from the same car driven largely on gasoline.

Fuel and electricity prices are editable too. When switching among Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, the calculator automatically loads the most recent national average or benchmark prices as a starting point.

Annual mileage, ownership period, consumption, maintenance and insurance can all be changed. The result is therefore not a generic ranking but a calculation based on the assumptions relevant to the individual user.

Benelux tax differences included

Taxes are another area where simple comparisons can quickly become misleading.

For Belgium, the calculator includes indicative automatic calculations for registration and annual road taxes in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia. Depending on the region, this can involve CO2 emissions, engine capacity, power, Euro standard, first registration date and maximum authorized mass.

Luxembourg is also covered, including the standard registration fee and CO2-based annual road tax for most passenger cars registered from 2001 onward.

For the Netherlands, users enter the current quarterly MRB amount from the official Belastingdienst calculator, after which NMN applies it over the selected ownership period and accounts for the scheduled EV discount.

Business mode adds VAT recovery and corporate-tax assumptions on top of those vehicle taxes. Tax deductibility is currently entered per vehicle, allowing professional users to apply the percentage that applies to their situation.

Gross TCO versus net company cost

The distinction between Private and Business modes is most evident in the results.

For private users, the headline figures are the estimated monthly TCO and the cost per kilometer.

For business users, the calculator additionally estimates purchase VAT recovery, VAT recovery on selected running costs and the corporate tax saving based on the entered deductibility percentage.

The large headline figure then shows the estimated net company cost per month, while the original gross company TCO remains visible in the detailed breakdown.

That makes it possible to see not only which car is cheapest to own overall, but also how tax treatment can change the comparison for a company.

The Business calculation remains deliberately indicative. VAT treatment, fiscal deductibility, benefit-in-kind rules, and resale treatment can vary depending on the transaction, vehicle, and taxpayer. The tool is therefore not a substitute for professional fiscal or accounting advice.

Downloadable comparison

Once calculated, the tool highlights the car with the lowest estimated TCO or, in Business mode, the lowest estimated net company cost.

The breakdown separately shows depreciation, energy or fuel, maintenance, insurance, taxes, additional repairs and expected resale value.

Business comparisons additionally show estimated purchase VAT recovery, running-cost VAT recovery, corporate tax savings and net company cost.

The result can be downloaded as a two-page PDF containing the assumptions and detailed results. Business PDFs also record the VAT status and tax deductibility entered for each car.

The NMN TCO Calculator remains an indicative editorial tool, not a quotation, a professional vehicle valuation, a tax assessment, or a substitute for fiscal or accounting advice.

But by applying the same assumptions to every candidate, it should make one thing much clearer: the cheapest car to buy is not necessarily the cheapest car to own — and for a business, tax treatment can change the picture again.

You can go directly to the calculator here: https://newmobility.news/en/tco-calculator/