A new study from travel assistance organization AAA has found that owning an electric car is only slightly more expensive than owning a gas-powered vehicle.

“While 40 million Americans have signaled an interest in buying electric for their next car, the actual adoption of these technologies is happening much, much more slowly,” AAA Colorado spokesman Skyler McKinley said.

The cost of an electric vehicle annually is $600 more on average, but the sale price of the vehicle and depreciation tend to be higher than for internal combustion cars.

A survey of 1,090 electric vehicle owners took place on Oct. 1 and found that despite worries among consumers about running out of charge — known as “range anxiety” — only 5% of owners experienced that scenario. AAA reportedly rescued 32 million drivers in 2015, more than half a million of whom ran out of gas.

AAA cautioned that conditions specific to Colorado could rightfully create range anxiety.

“Hilly and mountainous terrain and cold weather can significantly reduce an electric vehicle’s potential range — and Colorado has plenty of both,” the organization wrote. AAA debuted a charging truck to rescue drivers in the state in 2015.

“While it’s accurate that heat and uphill driving impact range, it is also true that EVs recharge on the downhill descent,” explained Rep. Alex Valdez, D-Denver, who owns an electric vehicle. “With the work we are undertaking to develop rural charging infrastructure, remaining range anxiety will soon dissipate like the smog of yesterday.”

More than three-quarters of drivers in the AAA survey noted that they also own a gas-powered vehicle. Forty-three percent of respondents estimated that they drive their electric car more than the gas-powered vehicle it replaced.

Colorado’s Department of Transportation faces a $25 billion funding gap in the next 25 years, largely due to higher numbers of fuel-efficient cars and an unchanged 22-cent gas tax. Still, Valdez disputes the idea that more electric vehicles would mean more wear on roadways with less revenue coming in for repair.

“When you take into account the cost of registration and the yearly contribution to our state’s road fund, EV drivers actually contribute more to our state’s coffers than our gas powered drivers,” he claimed.

In 2013, the legislature imposed an annual $50 fee on electric vehicle owners to ensure they contributed to the cost of maintaining roads. Sixty percent of that fee goes into the same fund as gas taxes. However, CDOT estimates that the owners of high-efficiency hybrid vehicles pay $6.29 per month in gas taxes. At just over $75 annually, the contribution is slightly more than for electric vehicle owners.