Bolt EV Lease Program Announced -- $309/Month, Net $0 Down After CVRP

[GetOffYourGas]

Bottom line is: on a zero driveaway lease, what are the monthlies? Are they what you want to pay? What combination of factors go into that number are of no importance unless you buy the car at lease end.

Understood. But for me, I absolutely intended to buy at lease end. The whole point of leasing was to capture the full $7500.

Of course, I "lucked out" that I chose the Leaf for which resale value has not held up over time. Nissan gave me an additional $5000 off, so I got a $35k car for $23k. That's not as likely to happen with the Bolt, but I suppose it's still possible.

 

[michael]

Got it. For me leasing is to minimize TCO and then move on to something better in a few years. I didn't do this before EVs. Bought used and drove til repairs became uneconomical.

 

[SparkE]

Got it. For me leasing is to minimize TCO and then move on to something better in a few years. I didn't do this before EVs. Bought used and drove til repairs became uneconomical.

Ditto. The 'newest' non-EV I own is over 10 years old, and the oldest is over 20. Both still run fine and are low polluters (well, one for its era - the other is a PZEV 'super-low' polluter). Not that it matters that much as they rarely get driven at this point...

 

[WetEV]

Of course, I "lucked out" that I chose the Leaf for which resale value has not held up over time. Nissan gave me an additional $5000 off, so I got a $35k car for $23k. That's not as likely to happen with the Bolt, but I suppose it's still possible.

The Leaf isn't a $35k car new today. Real price for Leaf SL is more like $20k net cost or $27.5k not counting Federal tax credit. That is a large factor driving down resale value. Yes, MSRP is still 38.1k, but dealers are offering big discounts. Oh, and that is with 0% APR for 72 months. If you can buy a new one for $20k or less in some states, what would you pay for a 3 year old car?

Resale for the Bolt might following a similar path for a similar reason. Batteries get cheaper, electronics gets cheaper, newer and more capable cars are going to come out... Real price you can buy one for drops even if MSRP doesn't.

 

[GetOffYourGas]

Of course, I "lucked out" that I chose the Leaf for which resale value has not held up over time. Nissan gave me an additional $5000 off, so I got a $35k car for $23k. That's not as likely to happen with the Bolt, but I suppose it's still possible.

The Leaf isn't a $35k car new today. Real price for Leaf SL is more like $20k net cost or $27.5k not counting Federal tax credit. That is a large factor driving down resale value. Yes, MSRP is still 38.1k, but dealers are offering big discounts. Oh, and that is with 0% APR for 72 months. If you can buy a new one for $20k or less in some states, what would you pay for a 3 year old car?

Resale for the Bolt might following a similar path for a similar reason. Batteries get cheaper, electronics gets cheaper, newer and more capable cars are going to come out... Real price you can buy one for drops even if MSRP doesn't.

Oh, I fully understand why I got the deal I did. The thing is, I didn't know that would happen in 2012 when I bought. I had two options - 1) buy the car for $35k, and only get about $3k worth of the tax credit, or 2) lease the car, get the full $7500 credit, and buy it out at lease end. I'm glad I took (2) not just for the full tax credit, but for the bonus $5k cash Nissan gave me three years later. But back in 2012, I wasn't personally convinced that everyone wouldn't pull the rug out from under the BEV again, like was done 13 years earlier. In 2016, it's safe to say that the BEV will still be available into the future, even without incentives.

Resale for the Bolt could also follow a very different path. Let's say you buy a Bolt in 2017 for $30k out of pocket. Now let's say that three years later, President Trump has pulled the plug on all EV incentives and support for battery improvements. He also manages to kill CAFE requirements. AND he has unleashed a tidal wave of drilling, such that gasoline is $1/gallon. What would your Bolt be worth in such a world? I won't venture to guess. There are just as many unknowns in the next 4 years as there were 4 years ago.

 

[JupiterMoon]

Of course, I "lucked out" that I chose the Leaf for which resale value has not held up over time. Nissan gave me an additional $5000 off, so I got a $35k car for $23k. That's not as likely to happen with the Bolt, but I suppose it's still possible.

The Leaf isn't a $35k car new today. Real price for Leaf SL is more like $20k net cost or $27.5k not counting Federal tax credit. That is a large factor driving down resale value. Yes, MSRP is still 38.1k, but dealers are offering big discounts. Oh, and that is with 0% APR for 72 months. If you can buy a new one for $20k or less in some states, what would you pay for a 3 year old car?

Resale for the Bolt might following a similar path for a similar reason. Batteries get cheaper, electronics gets cheaper, newer and more capable cars are going to come out... Real price you can buy one for drops even if MSRP doesn't.

Oh, I fully understand why I got the deal I did. The thing is, I didn't know that would happen in 2012 when I bought. I had two options - 1) buy the car for $35k, and only get about $3k worth of the tax credit, or 2) lease the car, get the full $7500 credit, and buy it out at lease end. I'm glad I took (2) not just for the full tax credit, but for the bonus $5k cash Nissan gave me three years later. But back in 2012, I wasn't personally convinced that everyone wouldn't pull the rug out from under the BEV again, like was done 13 years earlier. In 2016, it's safe to say that the BEV will still be available into the future, even without incentives.

Resale for the Bolt could also follow a very different path. Let's say you buy a Bolt in 2017 for $30k out of pocket. Now let's say that three years later, President Trump has pulled the plug on all EV incentives and support for battery improvements. He also manages to kill CAFE requirements. AND he has unleashed a tidal wave of drilling, such that gasoline is $1/gallon. What would your Bolt be worth in such a world? I won't venture to guess. There are just as many unknowns in the next 4 years as there were 4 years ago.

Let's hope that idiot doesn't destroy the progress made so far in environmental issues. What a disaster he is. What a disaster of clowns he's picking for his cabinet. The ExxonMobil guy....I can't even put into words how bad that is and what a low level human being I think of him.

Let's just hope you're wrong...

 

[michael]

And all these risks are among the reasons I favor leasing. Three years from now if your EV is (hypothetically) valueless, give it back to Chevy (or Ford, or Nissan, or...)

 

[WetEV]

Resale for the Bolt could also follow a very different path. Let's say you buy a Bolt in 2017 for $30k out of pocket. Now let's say that three years later, President Trump has pulled the plug on all EV incentives

He could do that, and would make the Bolt I might own more valuable.

and support for battery improvements.

USA support for battery improvements isn't the only support for battery improvements. China is the major buyer of EVs today. All this would do would be to slow progress on cost reduction a bit, and move the jobs from Nevada to overseas. Still, this might happen. And Trump could block the cheap new Chinese EVs with punitive tariffs. This might again make the future Bolt more valuable.

also manages to kill CAFE requirements.

Might lead to a wave of new SUV ownership, but maybe not. Small cars get a bit more expensive, SUVs get cheaper. This might make the future Bolt more valuable. Both directly and because of increased gasoline price.

AND he has unleashed a tidal wave of drilling, such that gasoline is $1/gallon.

Unlikely. There is a lot of oil underground that will cost more than $1/gallon to get out of the ground, so drilling that oil is unlikely for such a low price, unless massively subsidized. And $1/gallon oil makes gasoline costing more than that, ie refining, transport and retail all cost money. There is a shortage of places to drill with oil costing less than $1/gallon, which is why oil prices are unlikely to fall a lot.

What would your Bolt be worth in such a world? I won't venture to guess. There are just as many unknowns in the next 4 years as there were 4 years ago.

I actually could care less. As long as it does what I need, I'll be happy with it. That's my attitude to the Leaf as well. I expected low resale prices when I bought the Leaf in 2012, and was quite surprised at the size of my insurance settlement in 2014, until I went shopping for used Leafs. The new 2014 Leafs were almost the same price as the used ones, after tax rebate. This has changed, is true, but as a long term owner I mostly don't need to care about resale prices.

If I was buying a Leaf today, I'd likely buy used. But that wasn't an option 2 or 4 years ago.