The Cost of Car Ownership by State · Insurance Drives the Gap
Owning a car costs a U.S. household between $3,030 and $6,119 a year, depending on the state. Nevada is the priciest — auto insurance alone is about 56% of the bill — while New Hampshire is the cheapest. Louisiana and Florida sit near the top at $5.7K; Texas is mid-pack at $4.6K. What separates the states is insurance, not fuel.
Why this matters for B2B
For wholesalers serving the U.S., the cost of running a vehicle is a proxy for regional operating and last-mile costs. Texas' $4.6K sits below the high-cost coastal and mountain states — one more reason Houston works as a distribution base for reaching U.S. and Latin American buyers. In states where insurance pushes ownership toward $6K (Nevada, and much of the South), regional distributors carry heavier fleet-operating costs that get priced into delivery. See also state tax burden, why California fuel costs more, and our U.S. market hub.
Source: LendingTree, Quadrant Information Services, AAA, Federal Highway Administration, CarMD, Tax Foundation (data as of 2025). Visualization: Visual Capitalist / Voronoi. Original infographic reproduced above with source attribution intact.