Nissan Offering $9,775 Cash Back On Leafs
It looks like Nissan is spreading some holiday love towards its EV customers this holiday season.
The Japanese auto manufacturer (via the financing department, Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation) is offering a $9,775 cash back deal on the Nissan Leaf, according to Autoblog Green.
The deal, which started in early December, ends when the updated 2013 model comes out at the Detroit North America International Auto Show this January.
However, the cash back offering is apparently restricted to lease deals.
Despite keeping under wraps what to expect with the newer Leaf models, it’s anticipated the new model will cost less and have “lower equipment levels.”
While the new Tennessee Leaf factory will help to keep overall costs down for the electric vehicle, many challenges continue to affect the Leaf:
“The company was a bit humbled by the experience of talking up lofty goals and then seeing sales not quite hit that level, though Leaf sales did start to rise back again in November. The Leaf does cost more than other, similar-sized vehicles, even with federal tax credits and state incentives. Weak resale values haven’t helped any, either.
There is growing competition in the electric vehicle space. Several new models were brought to market this year (though, usually in only a handful of places, unlike the Leaf, which is available to a much larger portion of the population). And more models from a variety of auto manufacturers will be introduced in 2013.
But with the upward trend in Leaf sales last month, better times could be on the horizon for the new year.
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With a lease, I assume the Fed rebates would not apply. These electric go karts are too expensive…although the benefits are no doubt great as a second car for city travel. Cities should encourage all electric car use as a way to keep the air clean. Since battery packs are so expensive, it will be great when cars can be charged as we drive down the road. Is anyone working on that?
Well, how about thinking of an EV as a first car in a multiple car household?
As long as the longest daily driving distance is within EV range then the EV should be the car getting the majority of use. Drive the cheapest to drive the most.
Use the fossil-fueled second car for the occasional long trip.
And, why not think about an EV as the only car? If you only take long drives a couple times a year why not just rent a gasmobile with a small portion of the money you’ve saved by not having to buy gas the other 360+ days?
A LEAF as the first car? I don’t need to think about it, I’ve done it for the last 18 months and 19,000 miles 🙂 These deals are very tempting, I’ll certainly give the local dealers the opportunity to sell me a 2012 model prior to year end. If the deals aren’t as compelling I’ll just keep mu 2011 model.
😀
let us know if you ever feel like writing up a guest review of the car! 😀
Yep, that’s our situation – bought it expecting it to be the first car with our subaru sitting second… over the past 16 months it’s taken over more and more of the driving duties, to the extent that we’re putting under 1k miles per year on the subaru per year 🙂 If the subie dies on us we’ll probably just have one car and rent when needed, but at such mileage, the subaru will probably last as long as we need it.
Awesome to hear, thanks for the note! 😀
To be honest, I think range anxiety has just been hyped up too much, and that most of us simply don’t realize how little we need cars with long range.
Did you consider Solar on your rooftop for further saving ?
i think you mean the person in his scenario, right? (if you mean Bob himself, he’s had solar for a couple decades or so — is off the grid.)
The Fed rebates DO APPLY to the capital cost of the car before the lease is computed. Even better, the California rebate is applied in full even if the car is leased. This means that you can get a Leaf for $199/month and 2,000 down. In CA you would get a check for $2500. This is a no-brainer. If you commute, you’ll save the money in gas and have a new car effectively for free. You don’t need to worry about battery life or obsolescent technology or anything like that because after the lease, you just return the car if you like.
OK, you’re saying that one would pay $2k up front on a $199/month lease plan and the State of CA would send you a check for $2,500, meaning a rebate of the original $2k plus 2.5 months of lease payments?
If someone is commuting within the current Leaf range they could sell their current car and put that money away toward a future purchase.
Drive the Leaf for what they might now be paying for gas. And wait for better batteries before getting into EV ownership.
That makes a heck of a lot of sense to me.
Average annual driving – 12,500 miles. If you’re current car gets less than 25 MPG gas savings would pretty much cover lease payments. By the time you add in oil changes/maintenance/repairs you could be ahead. And your car would not be depreciating, it would be ‘in the bank’.
As ga points out the Fed and local rebates are either computed at the time of sale or shortly thereafter. ALL credits/rebates apply the lease EV’s.
Calling an EV a go kart isn’t too far from the truth. Go Karts are fun to drive, have low center of gravity and handle well. About sums up what it’s like driving an EV like a LEAF. Drive one, just for the sheer hell of it, you’ll be surprised how nippy they are. You get wet if it rains in a golf cart, not so with a LEAF. It is actually a car,a real one at that.
turns out gas costs a bomb, but not quite enough
if EV marketers were clever, they would go to cities with chronic traffic problems where you can only do 15 miles per hour (Sydney…. I’m looking at you.) and show people what your cost to do an hour driving down Victoria road in peak hour is, and compare that with an electric. Not trying to compete on 70 Mph motorways.