this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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Electric Vehicles
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You have to run the numbers based on the current deals. When I got my Rav4 EV in 2014 and Bolt in 2017 it was FAR better to lease. A $36k Bolt was leasing for $280/mo for 3 years at 12k miles per year after lease incentives and a high residual. Buying that car would be $700/mo. Even if you factor in getting back $7500 federal (no longer available) and $2500 state (hard to get that much back), that still equates to purchasing for $520/mo. Saving $240/mo every month for 3 years comes to $8640 saved. Factor in another 2 years of payments, and the total is $14,400. At the end of that you own a 5 year old Bolt that was selling for about $12,000.
Nowadays, though, car makers have dropped the residual to a more realistic number, making leasing much more expensive. I haven't looked in the past year, but buying is a bit better these days. That's purely financial, though. It doesn't take into account technology advancements, economic issues (COVID really fucked up the used car market), psychological value of knowing you own a car, how long you keep a car in general, etc.