BMW i3: Tax Credits and Leases and Residuals, Oh My!
Will BMW's financing options put the i3 out of reach for many of its enthusiasts? There ha ve been many discussions on various websites since an internal BMW document surfaced that led to people to believe the BMW i3 lease terms in the US would be very high. One potential i3 buyer even has his local dealer ( Stevens Creek BMW) work up a lease quote using the information on the document. The i3 he built had a total price of $55,978.52. With very little money down the lease payment came out to be $930 per month. There were a couple things that led to this very high lease estimation and I thought it would be worth while to discuss them here. The proposed i3 lease was posted by insideevs.com First, the residual values on the document were very low, around 40%. Unfortunately this is basically in line with residual values of other electric cars and there are basically two reasons for it. First, electric cars are new to most people and there is a lot of uncertainty regarding what the...