Hey Briloop,
I've just switched from a 2015 Leaf to a 2017 Bolt (lease on the Leaf ended). A couple things you should keep in mind. 1) I loved driving the Leaf EV. A good friend (and fellow Leaf owner) told me that once you drive an EV you will never go back to ICE -- I totally agree with this sentiment. Plenty of posts on why that is but trust me you won't regret converting to EV.
2) Hated the lease. Kept the car in the garage and well under the mileage. At the end, Nissan would sell it to me for the contract residual ($17.5K) when I could pick up a similar 2015 SV for about 9K. Hated that I kept the car so well and had to give it back. Someone is going to get a great deal on that car at auction. But I just didn't like the lease and felt like I was driving someone elses car and didn't want to ding it.
3) You will see lots of conversations on this forum about deals on Bolts. Pay attention to the State where the deal is occurring. I live in FL, a non-CARB State. So the only deal I get is that I can claim $7500 in Federal Tax credits. In CA, they get another $5K or more in credits, rebates, and local deals. So CA leases are amazingly good and often under $200/mo. For me, the best I could do was a solid $450/mo on an LT and that was paying more than I wanted down and still having the mileage cap. And the biggest issue is that Federal Credit. On a lease, you don't get to claim it (sales guys are wrong if they claim otherwise). Chevy factors it in to the residual value, which reduces your lease amount. But they were not giving the full $7500. In my case, it was hard to tell how much but I think they were sharing about $3K of the credit in the residual. If you buy the car, you get the full enchilada (assuming you are paying at least $7500 in Federal taxes).
So in the end, the dealer money on the deal made a purchase better for me. The Bolt I bought was a fully loaded LT model that came out to just under $40K, but with the dealer and federal money, I effectively paid 30.
My point here is, you can look at the deals other people get on the car, but for EVs, comparing those costs is problematic when you consider that some States want EVs and others simply don't care.
4) I love the Bolt. I recommend the Bolt. It's a great car and even though it is first model year, it has enough common technology with the Volt that I feel pretty confident that GM had a running start on creating this car. That said, the Bolt is an expensive car and you are paying a premium to drive an EV. I think it is worth it (not in a financial sense) but just in how I feel and the impact my transit has on the World. That being said, another good option if you want to dip your toe into the EV thing is to start searching for gently used Nissan Leafs that are coming off lease. There are thousands of 2014-2015 Leafs (that have a 84 mile rated range) out there going through auctions and appearing on off-lease car dealerships. Prices range from $7K to around $11K depending on trim and options. The Leaf is bulletproof. Nissan dealers can run a test on the battery to tell how much charging the car has had (rapid charging is bad for the battery) and how many battery cycles the car has had (full charges, discharges). A typical 2015 will have about 20K miles and should have most of it's battery life left. The one I turned in still took 100% charge and was flawless. The greatest risk when you buy a used EV is that the battery might not hold up or might start to show decreased capacity (range). Study the warranty carefully (not the greatest, but if you find a good car with a bad battery, you might be able to get Nissan to swap it). Worst case, you need a new battery and it is out of warranty -- Leaf batteries cost about $6K. So worst case, you buy a Leaf S for $8K, and replace the battery in a year or two for another $6K. You are getting a gently used 5 door hatch for a total of about $14K (about what a used Mazda 5 costs) and after the battery replacement you are good for another 4-5 years.
I really did love my Leaf. If they had been willing to sell it for market value, I would have bought it on the spot. The Bolt is better, but not so much that I would discount (ignore) the thousands of Leafs that will remain on the roads here for years.
Make sure you drive a Bolt. You might want to find a used Leaf on a dealer lot and drive it as well. Enjoy the ride!
Hello,
My name is Mike. I live in the Nashville, TN area. I am retired, age 61, current owner of one vehicle, a 2012 Honda Accord with about 44K miles on it.
I am thinking over the pros and cons of buying or leasing an electric car. Time frame: Anytime between now (June 2017) and one year from now (summer 2018). This car, if acquired today, would be the Bolt.
Several factors are affecting the buy/lease decision, too numerous to mention here.
Hope to learn a lot from reading this board!
