U.S. motorists are being squeezed tighter with every subsequent fill-up these days, and can be crushing for those driving gas guzzlers.

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U.S. motorists are being squeezed tighter with every subsequent fill-up since the Iran conflict commenced in February and quickly drove up crude oil and, in turn, gasoline prices.

The AAA says motorists are now facing a national average of $4.56 a gallon for regular unleaded and $5.43 for premium, as of May 21. That’s pricey enough, but those living in California suffer the worst of it with an average $6.14 cost for regular and $6.57 for premium. And it’s a whopping average $7.04 per gallon for unleaded regular in the state’s east-central Mono county.

Consider that a year ago national average gas prices were at $3.18 for regular and $4.03 for premium.

The ongoing boost has essentially made it more than 40% more expensive for the average U.S. driver to feed his or her car, truck or SUV since the conflict began. To put that in perspective, someone driving a V6-powered Ford Explorer has seen the annual average projected cost of driving it 15,000 miles leap from $2,250 a year ago to $3,250, according to the EPA’s fuel cost calculator. That comes to an out-of-pocket expense of around $271 per month.

Needless to say, the blow is somewhat softer on the most fuel-efficient models and can be crushing on gas guzzlers. Among the costliest new vehicles to run, the massive Chevrolet Suburban, went from an average annual $3,750 to a heftier $5,100. That’s an average $425 monthly expenditure at the pump.

Of course, things could be worse. For those keeping score, the highest recorded national average for regular unleaded was $5.02 on June 14, 2022, based on a triple-whammy of inflationary pressures, growing post-COVID demand and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The following lists of the 2026 models predicted to cost an owner the least and most to run come from the Environmental Protection Agency’s fueleconomy.gov website, which maintains databases on fuel consumption and costs for all current and past makes and models.

As it turns out, the cheapest new cars run the gamut and include standard gas-powered, gas/electric hybrid and plug-in hybrid models, with the top-rated ride being the Kia Niro Plug-In Hybrid with an annual projected annual fuel cost of $1,000. The models that will drain a motorist’s wallet fastest per fill-up include the high-performance Ram 1500 SRT Hellcat and Ford F150 Raptor pickup trucks at a sky-high average $6,800 per year.

Note that the EPA’s fuel cost estimates are based on 15,000 annual miles of combined city/highway driving at current average fuel costs according to the AAA, and in the case of plug-in hybrids, average electric costs as well. Plug-ins carry a larger battery that enables them to run for a certain number of miles solely on electric power, provided the vehicle has been plugged into the grid to keep charge. For comparison purposes, the EPA expresses a plug-in’s energy efficiency while on battery power in terms of a miles-per-gallon-equivalent “MPGe” rating.

Of course, full electric cars remain the cheapest vehicle types to run, at least with regard to home charging. EPA data shows that many EVs cost between $500 and $700 to run per year based on average per-kilowatt electricity rates. However, they’ve been left out here since they use no gasoline at all, and thus remain unaffected (at least not directly) by the recent upward thrust in petrol prices.