A $0 EV deal skips cash for valuable credits
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The Fiat 500e at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Photo: Nic Antaya/Bloomberg via Getty Images
You can get an electric vehicle for very close to free.
Why it matters: The environmental benefits of EVs notwithstanding, demand for smaller vehicles remains muted — and regulations are causing some automakers to offer aggressive incentives to get them off the showroom floor.
Driving the news: A Fiat dealership in Colorado is turning heads by offering a 27-month lease on a 2024 Fiat 500e for $0 per month and no down payment.
- The lessee gets 10,000 miles a year before extra-mile fees kick in.
- The lessee has to pay taxes totaling about $1,300, plus registration fees and a $395 "disposition fee" at the end of the 27 months.
Between the lines: Stellantis, Fiat's corporate parent, doesn't have many electric vehicles and likely needs to sell the vehicle to accumulate zero-emission vehicle credits, iSeeCars.com analyst Karl Brauer tells Axios.
- In Colorado, where you must be a resident to qualify for this deal, "automakers must make a minimum percentage of Zero Emission Vehicles available for sale," according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
- Once the cars are available for sale at dealerships, they're depreciating assets, and dealers have every incentive to sell them quickly. Especially in a Colorado winter, storing an EV indoors takes up valuable space that could otherwise be used for more profitable inventory.
- Upon leasing the car, the dealer gets to keep any EV tax credits associated with the sale, though Edmunds says the vehicle is not eligible for a federal tax credit, which goes up to $7,500.
What they're saying: "This is clearly a money-losing proposition for Fiat and Stellantis, but one that's justified because of the compliance credits it provides," Brauer says in an email.
Flashback: This isn't the first time Fiat has offered a crazy-cheap deal on the Fiat 500e.
- Brauer says he scored a similar deal in 2017 when he leased a Fiat 500e in California for $49 per month for three years. "Deal was too cheap to pass up," he says.
Caveat: The Fiat 500e is a tiny vehicle that some drivers might not trust in a Colorado winter — and its electric range is only up to 149 miles, according to Edmunds.
- You would have to pay $17,388 to buy it once the lease period ends.
The bottom line: Some EVs simply aren't generating much interest among the public.
