Leased an EV for commuting

[jamesbond007]

I think I made a good decision here. I leased a Chevy Spark EV for $120 a month for 36 months by putting doen $1500. Plus I receive a $2500 incentive from California. I live about 17 miles away from work and normal commute takes about an hour one way. So I used to take the train that used to cost me $150 per month in train pass and used to take about 90 minutes one way. Now with the EV I get to drive in the carpool lane and it takes only about 30 minutes one way.

So I ended up leasing this EV and my employer provides free charging. For my other car I leave it at home for the wife to attend to her chores and errands and we fill up gas once a month now. I think I will at least break even at the end of 36 months.

Did anyone else take advantage of this kind of setup?

[spud1987]

I did almost the exact same thing last December.

I leased a Chevy Spark EV for $85/month and $1500 down. The monthly payments are almost entirely offset by the CA $2500 rebate.

After six months I have nothing but positive things to say. My commute is 31 miles round trip and I can easily get two round trips in the car before recharging. I'm averaging about 4.8 miles per KwH. At 16 cents a KwH it is equivalent to 90 mpg with $3 gas ($3/.16 * 4.8).

My wife has a prius so we use that for any trips over 60 miles. There have only been 1-2 times where I wish I had more than an 80 mile range. I haven't utilized public charging stations but these can greatly extend your range if you use them strategically.

[jamesbond007]

I did almost the exact same thing last December.

I leased a Chevy Spark EV for $85/month and $1500 down. The monthly payments are almost entirely offset by the CA $2500 rebate.

After six months I have nothing but positive things to say. My commute is 31 miles round trip and I can easily get two round trips in the car before recharging. I'm averaging about 4.8 miles per KwH. At 16 cents a KwH it is equivalent to 90 mpg with $3 gas ($3/.16 * 4.8).

My wife has a prius so we use that for any trips over 60 miles. There have only been 1-2 times where I wish I had more than an 80 mile range. I haven't utilized public charging stations but these can greatly extend your range if you use them strategically.

I agree. Spark EVs are the cheapest on the market right now. But I heard Chevy is stopping production. Alas.

I average 5.2 mi/kwh so yeah I can easily squeeze out about 100 miles on a full charge.

[spud1987]

I did almost the exact same thing last December.

I leased a Chevy Spark EV for $85/month and $1500 down. The monthly payments are almost entirely offset by the CA $2500 rebate.

After six months I have nothing but positive things to say. My commute is 31 miles round trip and I can easily get two round trips in the car before recharging. I'm averaging about 4.8 miles per KwH. At 16 cents a KwH it is equivalent to 90 mpg with $3 gas ($3/.16 * 4.8).

My wife has a prius so we use that for any trips over 60 miles. There have only been 1-2 times where I wish I had more than an 80 mile range. I haven't utilized public charging stations but these can greatly extend your range if you use them strategically.

I agree. Spark EVs are the cheapest on the market right now. But I heard Chevy is stopping production. Alas.

I average 5.2 mi/kwh so yeah I can easily squeeze out about 100 miles on a full charge.

5.2 is pretty good! I am getting much better efficiency now that the weather has warmed up. Even in the mild Bay Area weather, heating the car drained the battery.

I'm not surprised that they stopped making the Spark EV. It was always intended to be a "compliance car," meaning that GM produced them to meet regulatory requirements, not make money. With the Bolt EV being mass produced starting in late 2016, the Spark EV is not necessary from GM's point of view.

[jamesbond007]

I did almost the exact same thing last December.

I leased a Chevy Spark EV for $85/month and $1500 down. The monthly payments are almost entirely offset by the CA $2500 rebate.

After six months I have nothing but positive things to say. My commute is 31 miles round trip and I can easily get two round trips in the car before recharging. I'm averaging about 4.8 miles per KwH. At 16 cents a KwH it is equivalent to 90 mpg with $3 gas ($3/.16 * 4.8).

My wife has a prius so we use that for any trips over 60 miles. There have only been 1-2 times where I wish I had more than an 80 mile range. I haven't utilized public charging stations but these can greatly extend your range if you use them strategically.

I agree. Spark EVs are the cheapest on the market right now. But I heard Chevy is stopping production. Alas.

I average 5.2 mi/kwh so yeah I can easily squeeze out about 100 miles on a full charge.

5.2 is pretty good! I am getting much better efficiency now that the weather has warmed up. Even in the mild Bay Area weather, heating the car drained the battery.

I'm not surprised that they stopped making the Spark EV. It was always intended to be a "compliance car," meaning that GM produced them to meet regulatory requirements, not make money. With the Bolt EV being mass produced starting in late 2016, the Spark EV is not necessary from GM's point of view.

I take 237 and 880 from Fremont to Mountain View so traffic is kind of stop and go in the afternoon around 445. Also, I turn on the AC for about 15 min when the Sun's hitting my face and then just turn the "Temp" indicator off on the dial and leave the fan on. I am home by the time the coolness wears off. I should try with heating on in the winter. Also this car has pretty good regen. Pretty impressed so far. If this is the case I might as well buy an EV after my lease expires. technology would be better by then.

[katsiki]

Does this strategy only work in CA?

[jamesbond007]

Does this strategy only work in CA?

Check your states EV incentives. It should work. Most Silicon Valley employers offer free charging on campus so it works out better in the Valley.

[Peter Parker]

We went deep with an EV vehicle.    My wife was driving a Pilot to SF....Big gas and no carpool.  Her commute is 35 miles one way. 

We bought a used Leaf for 10K...It had only 16K miles on it.  They are relatively cheap because gas prices are low and everyone is waiting for extended range batteries.  BUT,  the 80 mile range of the Leaf gets us to just about everyplace we need to go.  I suspect the prices will drop further once the new generation Leaf comes out, next year I believe.  The new Leaf will have a 200 mile range.

She travels to work in the carpool lane.  Charges at work for free.  Gets a reduction on bridge tolls as well.  On weekends we use the Leaf for most of our errands.  Solar panels at home = free "gas."  We have found the car more than pays for itself.  Couldn't be happier.

The Pilot is rarely used, but available for longer (rare) commutes and will be gone, once EVs with longer ranges become available.

[spud1987]

We went deep with an EV vehicle.    My wife was driving a Pilot to SF....Big gas and no carpool.  Her commute is 35 miles one way. 

We bought a used Leaf for 10K...It had only 16K miles on it.  They are relatively cheap because gas prices are low and everyone is waiting for extended range batteries.  BUT,  the 80 mile range of the Leaf gets us to just about everyplace we need to go.  I suspect the prices will drop further once the new generation Leaf comes out, next year I believe.  The new Leaf will have a 200 mile range.

She travels to work in the carpool lane.  Charges at work for free.  Gets a reduction on bridge tolls as well.  On weekends we use the Leaf for most of our errands.  Solar panels at home = free "gas."  We have found the car more than pays for itself.  Couldn't be happier.

The Pilot is rarely used, but available for longer (rare) commutes and will be gone, once EVs with longer ranges become available.

The Leaf is a good way to go (maybe the best way) if you are buying used. Used EVs are cheap because the 10k in tax credits (7.5k federal, 2.5k state) is effectively being passed onto the used car buyer in the form of a lower price.

We went with the leasing route even though leases are typically less favorable than other options. The reason the lease works so well for the Spark EV (and other CA EVs) is that the dealer takes the federal 7.5k credit and adds it to the lease payment calculation. In addition, the leasee is eligible for the 2.5k CA credit. That's way my cost for the Spark EV over 3 years is about 1900 (36*$86 + 1400 down payment - 2500 rebate). Add in a negligible amount for electricity (about $200/year based on 6k miles per year) and it's about the cheapest commuter car I could get, EV or otherwise.

Another reason the lease works well for me is that I'm going to be FI around the time my lease is up and then I'll reconsider my options since I won't need a commuter car anymore.

[Peter Parker]

We went deep with an EV vehicle.    My wife was driving a Pilot to SF....Big gas and no carpool.  Her commute is 35 miles one way. 

We bought a used Leaf for 10K...It had only 16K miles on it.  They are relatively cheap because gas prices are low and everyone is waiting for extended range batteries.  BUT,  the 80 mile range of the Leaf gets us to just about everyplace we need to go.  I suspect the prices will drop further once the new generation Leaf comes out, next year I believe.  The new Leaf will have a 200 mile range.

She travels to work in the carpool lane.  Charges at work for free.  Gets a reduction on bridge tolls as well.  On weekends we use the Leaf for most of our errands.  Solar panels at home = free "gas."  We have found the car more than pays for itself.  Couldn't be happier.

The Pilot is rarely used, but available for longer (rare) commutes and will be gone, once EVs with longer ranges become available.

The Leaf is a good way to go (maybe the best way) if you are buying used. Used EVs are cheap because the 10k in tax credits (7.5k federal, 2.5k state) is effectively being passed onto the used car buyer in the form of a lower price.

We went with the leasing route even though leases are typically less favorable than other options. The reason the lease works so well for the Spark EV (and other CA EVs) is that the dealer takes the federal 7.5k credit and adds it to the lease payment calculation. In addition, the leasee is eligible for the 2.5k CA credit. That's way my cost for the Spark EV over 3 years is about 1900 (36*$86 + 1400 down payment - 2500 rebate). Add in a negligible amount for electricity (about $200/year based on 6k miles per year) and it's about the cheapest commuter car I could get, EV or otherwise.

Another reason the lease works well for me is that I'm going to be FI around the time my lease is up and then I'll reconsider my options since I won't need a commuter car anymore.

Yep.  We looked at leasing the Spark, which is a great deal--but for us the number of miles we put on the vehicle far surpasses the the limitations of the lease. It made more sense to buy (for us).

[RobFIRE]

If I were car commuting for work and could not realistically avoid the car commuting, then I'd certainly be using an EV. If I were in the US and had that kind of Spark lease option, I think I'd take that, as versus other obvious option of a used Leaf, the Leaf would surely depreciate more than the $1900 cost over 3 years (I assume insurance, tax, servicing, electricity the same cost either way and assume Spark would have same or lower maintenance than a used Leaf). If there were no lease option, then a used Leaf is still a good buy as with a bit of battery/charge management you should get up to 10 years of commuting and general local driving out of it, and you will probably save the cost of the car in avoided fuel costs. By which time the available used EVs should be three or more generations improved versus the current ones (which are already fine for probably 90%+ of use cases).

[Peter Parker]

If I were car commuting for work and could not realistically avoid the car commuting, then I'd certainly be using an EV. If I were in the US and had that kind of Spark lease option, I think I'd take that, as versus other obvious option of a used Leaf, the Leaf would surely depreciate more than the $1900 cost over 3 years (I assume insurance, tax, servicing, electricity the same cost either way and assume Spark would have same or lower maintenance than a used Leaf). If there were no lease option, then a used Leaf is still a good buy as with a bit of battery/charge management you should get up to 10 years of commuting and general local driving out of it, and you will probably save the cost of the car in avoided fuel costs. By which time the available used EVs should be three or more generations improved versus the current ones (which are already fine for probably 90%+ of use cases).

I generally drive my cars until they are toast.  We bought the first generation Honda Insight when they first came out.  We put 320K miles on that car before we started having issues with it.  I plan on doing the same thing with Leaf.  While it is unknown ho long the batteries will last, I have a friend who has one with over 200K on it...so we are keeping our fingers crossed.  If we can get that kind of mileage out of it, with free charging, reduced bridge tolls, and access to the carpool lane, we will come out ahead.  Plus, like i said, we put too many miles on it to lease....If we used it less, I would definitely think of the Spark lease.....