[joebob42]

There's "Is an ev better than a new ice car" and "is an ev better than an ice car you already have".

I think we're discussing the latter, where the upfront cost of the ice doesn't count because you already have it.

[ZeroGravitas]

The upfront is about 50% higher for an EV, so if you catch that 50% up in 1 year then you'd pay back an entire new EV in 3 years if you scrapped the old ICE one. (figures for simplicity depending upon grid and how much you drive it could be 6 months or 18 months).

But generally we don't scrap old ones.

If you instead sell the old one to someone who drives an ICE car that gets worse mpg then that's a further benefit.