Smart Electric Drive To Offer Leasing Option In The US
Smart USA is going to start offering its US customers the option to lease the batteries for its Smart ForTwo electric cars.
Image Credit: Green Car Reports.
Smart’s decision to do so in Europe was highly successful. The success rate of leasing compared to buying outright has been so incredible that 97% of European customers chose to lease the batteries.
This reflects the tendency of most people to choose options with recurrent expenses rather than buying their property outright and paying for all of it immediately (for example: house rental, hire purchase, hiring people to do your jobs for you instead of buying tools and doing them yourself). All this is despite the fact that outright purchases are usually cheaper in the long run.
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It is difficult to make very large payments at once, which is the first and largest hindrance to EV industry growth. In Europe, the price of an EV vehicle is over $30,000 including the batteries, but, when the batteries are leased, it is only $24,000.
That is a $6,000 reduction!
In the US, an EV already costs $25,750 without rebates and incentives. Therefore, the price when choosing battery leasing should be very low.
Leasing does cost $83 (€65 Euros) per month. It takes six years for the leasing cost to amount to the cost of buying the vehicle with the battery. However, when rented, Smart will replace the battery if its capacity drops below 80%.
The rental option will definitely suit some people better, unless you intend to keep the car for more than six years.
Also, if you are concerned about the durability of it’s chassis, you’ll be fine.
The battery is covered by a 4 year, 50,000-mile warranty, which is half of the 8 years that Ford and Chevy offer with their electric vehicles.
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