HiAce running costs for a work van over five years

HiAce running costs start with fuel, but servicing and lost work can be harder to budget. The Green Vehicle Guide rates the 2025 diesel range at 7.4 to 8.1L/100km. A five-year estimate also needs your kilometres, insurance quote, tyre plan and daily revenue.

How much will fuel cost over five years?

Fuel will cost about $10,670 to $11,680 over five years if the official annual estimates stay unchanged. That range covers three diesel van configurations listed by the Australian Government’s Green Vehicle Guide for 2025.

The table multiplies each annual estimate published by the Green Vehicle Guide by five. It assumes no change to distance or fuel prices, so treat it as a baseline rather than a fixed bill.

HiAce variant	Combined fuel use	Annual fuel estimate	Five-year estimate
LWB manual	7.4L/100km	$2,134	$10,670
LWB automatic	7.8L/100km	$2,250	$11,250
SLWB automatic	8.1L/100km	$2,336	$11,680

Over five years, the LWB manual’s published fuel estimate is $1,010 lower than the SLWB automatic’s, based on figures from the Green Vehicle Guide. That doesn’t make the manual the right van if you need the extra capacity or prefer an automatic, but it puts a number on the fuel difference.

The official $2,134 annual estimate for the manual is based on 14,000km a year, according to the Green Vehicle Guide’s HiAce calculation. If your van covers twice that distance, start by doubling the fuel allowance, then replace the estimate with your actual fuel records.

What should you allow for servicing?

You need a dealer or workshop quote to set the servicing allowance because the research doesn’t provide one current price for every HiAce. Noel Barr Toyota’s explanation of Toyota capped-price servicing says the amount is vehicle-specific and should come from the logbook or a dealer quote.

Capped-price servicing covers scheduled logbook work under normal operating conditions for a nominated period or distance, whichever comes first. It doesn’t turn every workshop visit into a fixed bill, and pricing stops being capped after the program ends.

AutoGuru’s HiAce schedule starts at 10,000km or six months and lists more than 45 maintenance intervals through to 400,000km or 240 months. A high-kilometre work van can therefore reach its next service by distance well before six months have passed.

Ask for the scheduled price at your expected odometer readings across the ownership period. Then keep a separate repair allowance for work outside the schedule. AutoGuru lists jobs such as drive belt, suspension spring, brake drum and oil return hose replacement among the repairs that can sit outside routine servicing.

How much do insurance and downtime add?

Insurance and downtime need figures from your own business because the available research doesn’t give a standalone HiAce premium or a standard cost for a lost day. Get an insurance quote for the exact van, driver and business use, then calculate downtime from work you would genuinely lose.

For context, RACQ’s 2025 research put the three people movers and vans it surveyed between $1,581 and $1,900 a month. Those totals include finance, registration, insurance, fuel, servicing and tyres. They aren’t HiAce quotes, and they shouldn’t be copied into your budget as if they were.

Work out a day off the road by adding lost job margin, replacement transport and any wages you still have to pay. If jobs can move to another day without losing revenue, don’t count the full day’s takings as a loss. If the van carries tools that can’t move easily, include the cost of moving or hiring them.

Keep this allowance separate from repairs. The workshop bill is one cost. The work you miss while the van is unavailable is another.

Is petrol or diesel cheaper over five years?

You can’t make a reliable current petrol-versus-diesel comparison because all six 2025 HiAce variants in the Green Vehicle Guide listing use the same 2.8-litre turbo-diesel engine. There is no current petrol variant in that official set to compare on equal terms.

A used petrol HiAce still needs to be judged on total fuel used, not the price displayed at the servo. RACQ based its 2025 calculations on diesel at 185.97 cents per litre and regular unleaded at 178.98 cents per litre, a difference of 6.99 cents per litre, according to its running-cost assumptions.

That lower petrol price doesn’t prove the petrol van costs less to fuel. You also need its verified fuel consumption and the same annual distance used for the diesel calculation.

Divide your annual kilometres by one hundred, multiply by the van’s litres-per-hundred-kilometres figure, then multiply by fuel price per litre. Multiply that annual result by five for the fuel comparison. Add separate servicing, insurance, tyre, repair and downtime figures for each van before deciding.

What should your five-year budget include?

Your five-year HiAce budget should include every cost that changes when you own and use the van. RACQ’s ownership-cost method includes finance, registration, insurance, fuel, servicing and tyres, but a work van also needs a downtime allowance tied to your business.

• Base fuel on your expected annual kilometres and the correct variant’s consumption.
• Collect scheduled service quotes for the odometer readings you expect to reach.
• Price tyres in the van’s correct size and load rating.
• Use a written insurance quote covering the way the van works.
• Keep scheduled servicing and unexpected repairs as separate budget lines.
• Set downtime from lost job margin and replacement transport, not guesswork.

Best for a sole trader driving close to 14,000km a year, the official manual fuel estimate from the Green Vehicle Guide gives a useful starting point when adjusted with real quotes and business records. If your distance, load or downtime exposure is higher, the published fuel number becomes only a small part of the decision.

The diesel comparison is clear for the current HiAce range. The petrol comparison isn’t. For a used petrol van, calculate both vehicles over the same distance and use their own fuel, service, insurance and tyre figures before choosing.