New cars don’t often come cheap, and EVs typically less so. Batteries are still expensive to manufacture, after all. However, if you know where to look, you can find some very attractive lease deals. They’ll put you behind the wheel of a brand-new EV for less than you might have thought possible.
These deals come to us via Leasehackr. Full disclosure, this is us flicking through the site, they didn’t ask us to write this. It’s a website that posts pre-negotiated lease deals to streamline the process for customers. The idea is that you can find a deal on the site, sign on the dotted line, and pick up your new lease without any haggling or surprise markups at the dealership.
Right now, it’s the EVs that are the hottest property on the site. You can get into some hot new metal for under $300 a month, and you won’t be paying for gas, either!
For enthusiasts, the sweetest deal we found was a 2024 Mini Cooper SE for just $220 a month for 36 months, with $0 down. Taxes and fees will see $2,544 due at signing, but that’s still a roaring deal. It’s only available to customers in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, but a Mini looks great anywhere in the Northeast. At the time of writing, 12 cars were left on that deal.
If you’re looking for something bigger, you might like to try a 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5. It’s just $267 a month for 24 months with $0 down, which is pretty wild for a car that retails for $49,670 in the RWD trim. You’ll be up for $2,694 in taxes and fees up front, and you’ll need to pick it up from a dealer in Northern California.
You can get a 2024 Kia Niro EV on a very similar deal, too, while Kia EV6s are a trifle more expensive. Even a Nissan Ariya slides in just under that magic $300 figure, at $298 a month for 18 months.
As a guide, let’s compare this with our recent coverage on cheap Teslas. if you bought a new Tesla Model Y with $4,250 down, you’d be paying $603 a month, or $499 with the federal tax credit. That’s even with Tesla’s new 0.99% APR offer. In contrast, paying under $300 for a comparable vehicle sounds pretty attractive, and you can trade up to a new one in a couple of years. However, it’s important to remember you won’t have an asset at the end of the lease period.
These deals typically come with decent mileage allotments of 7,500 to 10,000 miles a year. That works out to 144-192 miles a week on average; plenty for a lot of people, but you’ll need to look more carefully if you’re planning on racking up more miles than that.
As explained by Leasehackr, government incentives play a role here. Leases aren’t subject to the same country-of-origin restrictions as new car sales when it comes to the government’s tax credits. A commercial buyer can lease an EV and collect a $7,500 tax credit regardless of where the car and battery were built. Thus, lease companies associated with manufacturers are effectively taking these tax credits and passing the benefits on to consumers with lower prices.
If your tastes skew more luxurious, you could consider a 2024 Audi Q8 e-tron for $599 a month and $0 down. If you want something really fast, though, go for the 2024 Audi e-tron GT. You’ll pay just $891 a month for 36 months, with $0 down. You’ll pay $4,100 upfront for fees and taxes, but you’re getting out cheap for a car that retails at $127,190. According to Leasehackr, you’re effectively getting over $25,000 in discounts and incentives to reach that final lease price.
Right now, it’s easy to make a good argument for leasing an EV. You’ll get to drive something brand new that doesn’t use any gas. The bonus is, if you hate it, it won’t be forever. Plus, in an era when used car prices are kinda screwy, you won’t have to worry about resale.
Images: Leasehackr
Dang. If I were flying to California monthly, I could lease a car for what a rental would cost.
Registration would probably be a huge PITA, though.
I bought an SV650 when I was living in DC for a short time, turned out I had to get it inspected in MD and then bring the paperwork back to Oregon and get a plate there.
I’ve never leased a car before, but this may be a way to try out an EV without much risk. No need to worry about battery degradation when I’m handing it back in 2 years.
A friend of mine got an Ioniq 5 for $200/mo in Colorado for a 24mo lease. Their $5K state EV rebate is awesome.
If you save $10/day, how long will it take to own a car? I think you can pay by installments.
If I needed a new car and needed to spend $10/day in order to, say, go to my job to make money, or go to the store to feed my family, these seem like great deals.
I work at home and I do not spend any money on a per/day basis on a car whether I drive it or not. (I spend it on repairs, though, on an as-needed basis.)
That day might soon come, though. And I’ll probably get a 10-year-old Prius.
I keep looking at lease deals and wondering if I should bite. Some of these, I could probably trade in my car and the whole lease would be covered.
It’s interesting. I went over to the site, and 90% of the deals listed are in CA or the northeast. Are those the only areas they shop, or are those the only places to get goo deals?
Government cheese. Both states offer quite a number of ways to save paying the government some cheddar like HOV lane access and toll discounts to EV owners/leasers. In the NY Metro Area the discounts add up quickly.
Likely the only areas they shopped, they seem like a small team.
Leasehackr forum is full of brokers advertising pre-negotiated deals all over the country.
Leasehackr is great – that’s where i connected with a broker who got me an Ioniq 6 lease earlier this year. $244/mo with zero down a few months back.
Went into it looking for the cheapest EV appliance I could find, and ended up with this who even cheaper & so much more capability (fast charging, enough range to get up north on one charge, and free EA charging over the life of the lease)!
The Ionic 5 was the first new car to prompt a triple take for me in a decade or more, and I’ve been eyeing the 6. What’s your experience like? And, have you found any features or Easter eggs that produced either a positive or negative exclamation?
I spend an easy $300 a month on gas commuting to work. But unfortunately, that is not the end of the math here. I travel a little over 20K miles per year. My car is paid off and the insurance is pretty cheap. So with extra mile fees, insurance on a new car, and electricity increases, unfortunately, it continues to make more sense to continue driving my current car. I’ll spend $2K this year refreshing it, but once that is done I should be set for at least another 3-4 years.
You sound like a good candidate for a lightly used EV purchase if you’re currently spending $460/mo on gas & maintenance – I was in a similar situation and made the swap. No regrets so far!
I just leased a Lexus RZ300e for $412/mo and $0 down (all pre-tax) and thought it was a great deal, too!
Considered the Ariya and the Hyundai, but I’ve been burned by bad dealer experiences many times… and supposedly Lexus is top notch in that regard. Time will tell!
Sounds like a good deal.
“If you are ready, show us on the doll where the Hyundai Dealer Experience touched you…”
I can confirm, at least for ICE vehicles, that the Lexus dealer experience is as good as people say it is.