Sonoma County BMW i3 & Nissan LEAF Discounts Up To $15,500 (i3) & $15,000 (LEAF) … er, $31,500 & $31,000 (Somewhat Impossibly)

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After we reported on insane Nissan LEAF group buys in Colorado, Texas, Kansas, and Missouri that bring the cost of a new Nissan LEAF down as low as $11,510 after all tax credits and discounts, Brant Arthur let us know about yet another EV group buy — for Nissan LEAF and BMW i3 buyers or lessees.

This group buys seem to be open to anyone coming into a participating dealership (up to $8,500 for a 2017 BMW i3 and $10,000 for a 2016 Nissan LEAF), but boosting the discounts another several thousand dollars (the most attractive total deal I’ve seen yet) is limited to a very specific population.

This group buy is in Sonoma County, California. All available discounts for residents of the area (from the manufacturer, dealer, & group buy host, but not including state, federal, or air pollution district incentives) add up to as much as $15,500 for the i3 and $15,000 for the LEAF. Combined with potential federal, state, and Northern Sonoma County Air Pollution Control District discounts (up to another $16,000 in discounts), the offer is insane, and I think it’d be hard to justify not buying one of these electric cars if you’re in the jurisdiction.

Click to embiggen.

I imagine you are familiar with federal and California statewide EV incentives (see the chart above if not), but in addition to those, the Northern Sonoma County Air Pollution Control District offers $3000–4000 in “Northern Sonoma County 3-2-1 Go Green!” rebates for getting an EV. Perhaps I’m off my rocker and misunderstanding something, but it seems like the group buy discounts combined with the federal, state, and NSCAPCD discounts could total $31,000 to $31,500 in incentives for the LEAF and i3, respectively.

Of course, that would assume being able to take advantage of every incentive, which seems practically impossible when you consider that several are based on relatively low income whereas the $7,500 federal tax credit requires that you owe $7,500 worth of taxes in a single year. It’s hard to imagine somehow qualifying for the low-income rebates and the full $7,500 tax credit.

The group buy discount, the California state rebate, and the “Northern Sonoma County 3-2-1 Go Green!” rebate are all higher for low-income buyers — the way it should be everywhere! — and total an extra $5,500 in incentives that almost make up for the $7,500 federal tax credit that such buyers might have a hard time making use of.

Full details of the regional and group buy discounts (mostly in the screenshot above) are here.

The group buy discounts are coming via Sonoma Clean Power’s “Drive Clean. Drive EverGreen.” program, with special deals negotiated with BMW and Nissan to make them possible. As Brant noted, the discounts run through January 5, 2017, and the program also offers a free connected level 2 charger.

Again, piling the group buy discounts onto existing California incentives, the federal EV tax credit, and NSCAPCD discounts makes going electric the “best buy” by far (in my humble opinion but I think also very objectively) if you are at all satisfied with a car in the compact or subcompact car class and the range of these EV models.

I mean, theoretically, you could get a free Nissan LEAF (brand new) or a BMW i3 for the price of a total econobox — insane.


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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