Though the Volt has been in the limelight much longer than the Leaf, and though the Leaf wont begin rolling out until a month after the Volt, Nissan took the daring leap of pricing the Leaf first, alo [FIMG=LEFT]http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Nissan_Leaf_BEV.jpg[/FIMG]GM-VOLT - April 6, 2010 Nissan surprised the world with a highly affordable price for its upcoming Leaf EV. A mere $25,280 after the $7500 tax break, or $349 per month lease puts it into an affordable range, even against a gas-powered car. Considering electricity cost of 2 cents per mile versus 10 cents per mile for a typical gas car, without considering all the benefits of driving without oil, the Leaf even makes financial sense. It is clear that the bulk of cost for electric cars are their batteries. One could assume that the Leaf’s 24 kwh lithium-ion pack at today’s most accurate rate of $650 per kwh, puts the pack alone at $16,500. Thus the rest of the car itself is being sold for $16,000. Asked whether at that price Nissan will turn on a profit on the car, “Yes” replied Nissan spokesperson Catherine Zachary. The Volt on the other hand hasn’t been officially priced yet. It should only have 2/3 the battery cost, and has been said to not be profitable at first. The MSRP has been speculated as anywhere from the low 30s to $40,000... [RM]http://gm-volt.com/2010/04/06/will-the-price-of-the-nissan-leaf-affect-the-price-of-the-chevy-volt/[/RM]
I was going to say that this was a very one sided article, then I looked at the URL . This makes me laugh as my girlfriend just ran out of gas and was "caught depleted" in her ICE vehicle. I can't drive a week without seeing someone walking down the highway with a gas can. What are the release dates of the vehicles as this article says the volt is coming out first? I thought the leaf was to be released first.
Ok, now If I buy this car, when do I actually get the $7500 rebate? If I still have to take out a LOAN for the full amount and live with that huge monthly payment then maybe at the end of the year I get, what, a check for the full amount, or a stupid tax break which is not like getting money back. What am I missing here? CHris
As far as I know, it's a tax credit. Or, you can underpay your taxes and balance it at the end with the credit. You could underpay before or after. Problem though is state income tax since you don't want penalties on that*. Of course, if your state has a similar credit it wouldn't be so bad. * We had penalties this year but were still better off in interest reduced/earned than if we hadn't paid the penalties. I guess that's why there are penalties for underpaying.
I think it's a strictly tax credit, but it's possible Nissan may offer special financing with a balloon-ish $7500 payment due after the first year.
