Should I sell my newish car and lease an electric car?

[jelody]

Hi fellow mustachians,

Would love some opinions and advice regarding the following.
I have a 2010 Honda Accord, paid off, gets around 25 mpg, plan to drive it into the ground.
DH has a 2012 Kia Sorento, 14K remaining at 3.5% interest, montly payments are around $330, only gets around 20 mpg. We each commute about 50 miles per day for work (yes- I know this is very antimustachian, but it can't be helped for now). DH spends around $230 per month on gas.

Should we sell the Kia Sorento and lease a Nissan Leaf for 36 months? I'm estimating we can get at least 15K for the Kia, which cost us around 23K out the door and which has about 25K miles on it. The Nissan Leaf is fully electric and is currently leasing for $200 per month (per a friend who is leasing, comes out closer to $215 after taxes, etc.) with I believe $2,000 or $2,500 due at signing. Since we live in CA, we would also get a tax credit of $2,500, which wipes out the down payment. I'm thinking if we sell the Kia, that's cash in our wallet, and we would essentialy be getting a "free car" since the money spent on leasing equals what we would be spending on gas. We would most likely go over the typical 12,000/year miles allotted in the lease, but at $0.15 per mile, I feel like it would still come out cheaper to lease the Leaf then keep our Kia.

Anything wrong with my math or thought process?

Thanks in advance!!

[clutchy]

hey just an FYI; running the leaf on the freeway for 50 miles can be a stretch for the battery. 

I would not consider it.  I'm a huge EV fan but unless you have a guaranteed place to plugin at work it would be cutting it too close.

You'd also need level 2 charging at home to make sure you can top it off every night.  A regular 110 outlet cannot provide enough charge to have you ready to go again in the morning.

also you need to calculate the miles you'd rack up doing 50+ per day on a lease.  They have yearly caps and the overage is absurd. 


like I said I love EV's and my next car will be electric but you would be pushing it.

[prodarwin]

If you have a place to plug in at work, its not a bad option for a trouble free car.  There are plenty of cheaper options out there.  I considered it before my latest automotive acquisition, but I went with a $4200 Prius instead. 

[jelody]

If you have a place to plug in at work, its not a bad option for a trouble free car.  There are plenty of cheaper options out there.  I considered it before my latest automotive acquisition, but I went with a $4200 Prius instead.

I do have access to a plug in at work, but I just found out it will cost me $60 per month to use. So I guess that skews the analysis in favor of keeping the Kia?

[the fixer]

Also consider buying a used Prius and install a plug-in hybrid kit. That adds extra battery capacity for more range/better MPG and a plug for grid charging. http://www.pluginsupply.com

Assuming you buy a 2nd gen Prius for $8k and spend another ~$6k on the conversion, you're still out ahead of the Leaf even after government incentives, though you can't finance the conversion.

[clutchy]

3.3 kW will net you 10 miles electric.  What's the point of paying $6k for that privilege?  The commute is 50 miles.