Electric Chevrolet Spark gets cheap lease price

Chris Woodyard | USA TODAY

Add another electric car to the growing list that are assigned hefty price tags, but downright cheap lease deals.

The latest comes from Chevrolet, which announced Thursday that a low mileage lease on the 2014 Spark EV can be had for as little as $199 per month. For those who want to buy the car, prices start at $27,495, including delivery charges, more than double the price of the conventionally powered model. But Chevy says state and local tax incentives could cut that price to as little as $17,495.

The lease price, with $999 down, matches Chrysler Group's lease for its new Fiat 500e electric vehicle.

As low as that monthly price for Spark subcompact might seem, it comes with an added bonus: no need to buy gas. Rated at the equal of 119 miles per gallon of gas, the all-electric Spark is one of the cheaper-to-run EVs on the market. Spark is made in South Korea.

"The Chevrolet Spark EV is the most efficient – and now one of the most affordable - EVs you can buy" said Chris Perry, vice president of Chevrolet marketing, in a statement. "Spark EV is engineered to impress."

But before you're ready to sign on the dotted line, consider what's really going on here.

As we wrote recently, these are so-called "compliance cars," built specifically to meet a California mandate for zero-polluting cars. Spark will only be sold in California and Oregon, starting next month. Only 5,000 will be made.

One of the other reasons they are cheap is for most drivers, they aren't terribly practical. Most only go less than 100 miles per charge. Spark is rated at 82, which is fine for most daily commutes but won't allow you to go much farther.