Nissan Leasing Leaf Batteries Soon?

April 10th, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

I know some of our readers don’t think there’s a future in EV battery leasing (expecting battery costs to fall so much that leasing them won’t make much sense). However, at the moment, the price of EV batteries is one of the top priorities for EV companies to address, and with the operational costs of EVs being much lower than their gas-powered competitors, there’s certainly room for EVs to drop the dollar figure on their price tags at the auto dealership by leasing the batteries instead of selling them with the cars. Word on the street is that Nissan may be doing so with the Leaf in Europe. And given its competition there, that almost seems like a must. Here’s more from Chris at Gas2:

Nissan Considering Battery Lease Option For Leaf? (via Gas 2.0)

Despite being the top-selling electric vehicle around the world, Nissan Leaf sales have not soared as expected. No doubt this is largely the fault of its expensive battery pack, which accounts for much (if not all) of the price premium. But Nissan’s business partner, Renault, has decided to lease…

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Tags: electric vehicle battery leasing, EV batteries, Leaf, leaf battery, leaf battery leasing, leaf europe, Nissan Leaf, nissan leaf batteries, Nissan leaf battery, nissan leaf europe, quickies

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

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Michael Schroter

Would there be problem with the battary quality when you are leasing?
Bob_Wallace

$36,000 – 25,000 = 11,000.

$11k @4% and 5 years = $202.58/month.

At the end of five years you own the battery. If there was no hope that battery prices would drop and range increase then purchasing would probably make more sense.

If you can get out of the lease after 3 to 5 years – give Nissan back the original battery – and replace it with a more advanced battery you would be ahead.

Worst case, batteries get no cheaper or higher capacity. After 10 years of leasing you will have paid about the same as a battery purchase. And would have been able to spread the ‘out of pocket’ over a longer time.

Take the lease and for the first five years you’d have a car payment ~$460 + $100 for battery lease or $560. Then $100 for further months.

Purchase both at $36k and you’ll have monthly payments of $663 for five years followed by no more payments.

At about ten years the cost is the same. Hard to believe that EV batteries won’t be much better and much cheaper ten years from now.

If I could get out of the lease in a reasonable number of years I think I’d go the lease route.
BrianKeez

At $93 per month, I would not lease the battery. That would put my monthly cost close to what it was with my gasoline car. After the rebates, I paid about $25k for my Nissan LEAF. I know that as Nissan starts producing the batteries in the U.S. En mass, the price will drop and probably quickly.
I leased my car and will probably buy it because I know that the battery modules can be replaced as needed and right now that’s only a couple of hundred dollars each. When I actually need to do some module replacement, it will be even less. I hit 15,000 miles in my LEAF last week.
exdent11

Absolutely lease the battery. People can’t get passed the much higher upfront cost plus leasing takes the battery worries away from the customer.
Jmurray59

I just don’t get it, if I gas up a @ 50 MPG I can go 1250 miles @ $4 per gallon. How many miles can I go with the charge recharge charge cycle. Great Idea but not a fit for 99% of us. We would need to be able to swap out batteries like filling up a car to compare to what petroleum can do.
- Michael Schroter
  
  The probelm with swapping batteries is the assurence that you would get a good quality battery in exchange for the one you had. Would it run the same number of miles as the previous one? or would it suddenly die on you? it is not like petrolium which is the same every where.
Pawel

That’s very good idea, I personally don’t want to own battery. Going further, it would be excellent with possibility to replace battery with low cost, at any time.