Welcome to the latest installment of Fleet Data Depot, which provides snapshots of information, trends, and analysis relevant to the fleet market.

The total cost of ownership (TCO) experts at Vincentric deliver another quarterly update on ownership costs for fleets. These fleet cost-per-mile calculations are for the third quarter of 2024.

This analysis is based on vehicles driven 20,000 miles per year for three years. As usual, Vincentric calculates its standard eight cost elements: depreciation, financing, fees and taxes, fuel, insurance, maintenance, opportunity cost, and repairs.

Q4 2024: Placid Fleet TCO

In the fourth quarter of 2024, Vincentric’s Fleet Cost per Mile for each vehicle category either decreased slightly or remained the same:

• Luxury Cars: No change

• Luxury SUVs: No change

• Passenger Cars: No change

• Pickups: decreased ~1%

• SUVs: decreased ~1%

Every vehicle category saw a significant decrease in the Fuel category of 10% to 11%. This is due to steadily decreasing fuel prices since October. 

However, every vehicle category also saw an increase in costs in the Depreciation category of 1% to 5%, which offset the fuel cost decrease for most categories.

Full-Year 2024: Calm Waters in All TCO Segments

From March 2020 to the end of 2023, vehicle ownership costs experienced the highest peaks and lowest valleys in any time in history. After continual rough storms, TCO (total cost of ownership) is finally in a tranquil sea, as Vincentric data demonstrates.

Costs in the Car category have been essentially on a flat line for 2024, with average costs within $.66 and $.68 cents per mile the entire year. 

While Luxury Cars and Luxury SUVs saw more dramatic cost spikes to start the year, both categories leveled off during the final three quarters of 2024. 

Vehicle TCO: Rocky or Calm for 2025? 

Yet while costs are level — a welcome circumstance for budget planning — they aren’t likely to come down. 

These factors contribute to higher TCO:

• Average vehicle transaction prices are again close to all-time highs. 

• With elevated inflation and low unemployment, the Fed is unlikely to cut interest rates. 

• Parts, labor, and overall maintenance costs show no signs of abating. 

However, there are mitigating factors that should keep TCO spiking in the coming year:

• With depreciation being the biggest cost factor of TCO, used-vehicle values stabilized in 2024, according to Cox Automotive, and will return to normal depreciation patterns in 2025. Fewer lease maturities will buoy values. 

• In the second biggest category, fuel, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicts that gasoline prices will decrease by 10 cents a gallon in 2025 and fall further in 2026.