Skip to footer

Electric car: lease or buy?

If you're considering driving an electric car, you may be wondering whether you should lease or buy the vehicle. Buying a car may make sense for drivers who will take their vehicle on extended trips every year, while leasing a car saves you the risk of permanently losing battery capacity.

|
Noah Berger/Reuters/File
A Tesla Model S electric sedan is driven near the company's factory in Fremont, Calif. Among electric car drivers, 93 percent choose to lease their plug-in cars.
  • By John Voelcker Guest blogger

You're considering a plug-in electric car.

Should you lease or buy?

It's a question that all new-car shoppers face--but for electric cars, there are some special considerations.

Each financing option has its pros and cons, so we've outlined the reasons you might opt for each alternative.

LEASING

  • The Federal income-tax credit of $2,500 to $7,500 is wrapped into the monthly payment, so you avoid paperwork and up to 15 months of waiting to realize the cash
  • You're protected against permanent loss of battery capacity; at the end of the lease, you just turn the car in--and any pack loss isn't your problem
  • You're protected against potentially low resale value for used electric cars (the math is complicated due to the various financial incentives)
  • Leasing deals for still-pricey plug-in cars give you a lower monthly payment (in part because you're not building equity)
  • In California, you still get the state's $1,500 to $2,500 purchase rebate in the mail even if you lease

PURCHASE

  • You own the car, and you have an asset once you're finished paying for it
  • If you take care of your battery and live in a temperate climate, capacity loss may not be an issue for many years
  • Drivers who cover many miles each year likely won't find leases to accommodate that
  • Pure battery-electric cars are so simple that they need almost no mechanical maintenance, saving you money over more complicated gasoline cars every single year
  • Plug-in car makers are starting to offer battery-replacement programs, meaning you could keep the same car for a very long time

Leasing is the more conservative route for you if you're at all worried about battery life.

That's lately been reinforced by articles such as one in the Wall Street Journal, which warns in apocalyptic tones, Don't Get Stuck In An Old Electric Car.

93 percent leased

Indeed, it appears that by far the largest proportion of plug-in electric cars delivered have been leased.

The WSJ notes that data-research firm Experian Automotive reports fully 93 percent of electric cars delivered from October through December last year were leased.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Electric car: lease or buy?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2013/0625/Electric-car-lease-or-buy
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe