EV leases now as cheap as those for gas cars

NL-leaseeditors-blog-entry3If you’ve been thinking about getting an electric car, but haven’t taken the electric plunge yet, perhaps largely due to cost considerations, what are you waiting for?

Lease deals for the Chevy Volt have been pretty darn good for awhile, with plenty of dealerships across the U.S. offering 24-month leases at $199 per month and typically $1,999 down. And lease deals for the Nissan LEAF have gotten just plain silly — as well they should: Making its EV as affordable, up front, as gasoline cars, is the only way Nissan is going to substantially boost LEAF sales in the U.S.

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LEAF for $188 per month
Take this deal from Tynan’s in Aurora, Colo. — which just so happens to be where we live: You can lease a 2012 LEAF SL for $188 per month with zero money down (that’s right, zero) for 24 months. Yes, there is a $595 aquisition fee + taxes and fees, which are due at signing. But that’s still a fanstatic deal.

Considering the average American household spends $368 per month on gasoline alone, and that you’re going to pay perhaps as little as one-tenth of that for electricity for your LEAF, at $188 per month for the LEAF — depending on how many miles you put on it and how many of those miles replace gasoline miles in another car — you’re starting to move into something approaching driving for free land.

In our case, we would be driving pretty much for free at a $188/month LEAF lease rate — if it made sense for us to get one right now. However unusual but also exciting personal circumstances are forcing us to put off adding an EV to our home solar PV for a couple of years.

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In 2 1/2 years with a 5.59 kW home solar system here in Aurora, Colo., we’ve produced 10,000 kWh more than we’ve used. That’s about 35,000 Sun MilesĀ® — meaning solar-charged miles — in a LEAF or about $5,320 worth of gasoline (25 mpg and $3.80 per gallon). Add to that the $1,200 worth of electricity savings we’ve managed in 2 1/2 years with solar and you’re just $1,500 from solar payback in our case — yes, we paid $8,000 out of pocket for our 5.59 kW system šŸ™‚

However, considering we’re still at least two years away from getting an EV, it’s not about us. It’s about you: So, go ahead, crunch those numbers with the absolutely silly cheap lease deals on the LEAF and pretty close to silly cheap deals on the Volt — and see how much you would save by switching to a car with a plug, and a brand new one at that!

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