New Nissan LEAFs For $11,840 In Colorado! $11,510 In Texas!

December 22nd, 2016 by Zachary Shahan

One week ago, thanks to a reader tip, I published about a tremendous group buy discount on Nissan LEAFs in Kansas and Missouri, which brought the price of a new Nissan LEAF as low as $11,510 after incentives (the $7,500 federal tax credit and a $10,000 group buy discount).

Turns out, this isn’t the only such deal in the United States. Commenters noted that almost identical offers are on the table in Colorado and Texas. The discounts run through December 31 and January 3, respectively. Details, links, and some food for thought are below.

Austin (Texas) Nissan LEAF & Charging Station Discounts

People living in or willing to trek over to the Austin metro area of Texas can get what looks like the same deal, which offers a $10,000 group buy discount on top of the $7,500 US federal tax credit. This one is being organized by Smart Charge America and Nissan.

In addition to the discount on the car, the partnership is offering, Austin Energy is offering a rebate of 50% of the cost of a home charging station + installation (up to a total discount of $1,500) and “Smart Charge Residential is offering an additional 15% off the cost of installation of a home charging station (up to $500).” All of that supplements a 30% federal tax credit on the cost of a home charging station, including installation, that goes as high as $1,000.

In total, that means up to $20,500 in discounts, rebates, and tax credits.

Add in the savings from not using gas, not needing oil changes, probably spending much less on maintenance, etc., and I doubt there’s a better deal on the market for a car purchase.

Here are specific instructions for how to obtain the discount (and note that, as in the other locations, you don’t have to be a resident of the area — you just have to visit a regional Nissan dealer):

Download this Group Buy flyer Visit an Austin area Nissan dealer to test drive a LEAF Show them the flyer Purchase a LEAF by January 3rd 2017

Playing around with pricing in the Google Sheet I created for comparing used Nissan LEAF total cost of ownership (TCO) prices to those of gas cars, I found that a top-of-the-line Nissan LEAF SL can be cheaper* than a base-level 2017 Honda Civic in under 4 years, and then provides thousands of dollars in savings over the following years:

Cars 2016 Nissan Leaf SL 2017 Honda Civic DX Purchase Price $36,790.00 $16,390.00 Incentives -$17,500.00 $0.00 Price After Incentives $19,290.00 $16,390.00 Price of Gas $2.50 $2.50 Avg Price Of Electricity For Car $0.11 Average Miles Per Year 12,500 12,500 Maintenance Costs Per Mile 0.0181 0.0400 Maintenance Costs Per Year $226.25 $500.00 MPGe or MPG 114 35 Average Gallons Of Gas Per Year (Miles/MPG) 357.14 Average kWh Of Electricity Per Year For Car (Miles/(MPGe/34) 3,728.07 Average Cost Of Fuel Per Year $410.09 $892.86 Total Cost Of Car After Year… 2016 Nissan LEAF SL 2017 Honda Civic DX … Savings 1 $19,926 $17,783 -$2,143 2 $20,563 $19,176 -$1,387 3 $21,199 $20,569 -$630 4 $21,835 $21,961 $126 5 $22,472 $23,354 $883 6 $23,108 $24,747 $1,639 7 $23,744 $26,140 $2,396 8 $24,381 $27,533 $3,152 9 $25,017 $28,926 $3,909 10 $25,653 $30,319 $4,665

*Note that the electricity price assumption includes practically no estimated free charging at work or in public, the gas price average is estimated to be just $2.50 over the course of ownership, and there are several other assumptions you can change here.

Northern Colorado Nissan LEAF & Charging Station Discounts

As I noted at the top, Colorado has a nearly identical offer. For some reason, the Northern Colorado group buy deal has a slightly lower discount ($9,210 instead of $10,000), but there’s a Colorado EV state tax credit that can be as large as $5,160.

This group buy is being organized by Drive Electric Northern Colorado (DENC), which is “a first-of-its-kind, community-wide initiative designed to achieve widespread deployment of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in the Northern Colorado Region.” It organized the breakthrough $10,600 group buy for Black Friday 2016 that we wrote about last year.

Again, this group buy includes discounts on home EV charging stations as well:

A complimentary Level 2 charging station worth $500.

24 months of complimentary charging through participating No Charge to Charge charging stations.

“A free charging station for the two workplaces with the most employee and/or fleet purchases, compliments of National Car Charging and Verdek.”

Concerned about needing a gas car for a long trip? This deal also offers “10 free days of a gasoline-powered rental car for longer range trips.”

Also included is Roadside Assistance for 3 years.

More details can be found on the DENC Nissan LEAF group buy page.

My mom went from a Toyota Camry to a Nissan LEAF and likes the LEAF much, much, much more, so for this next round of gas car comparisons, I’m playing with the Toyota Camry LE (the base level at the lowest price) vs a Nissan LEAF SV:

Cars New Nissan Leaf SV New Toyota Camry LE (Base Level) Purchase Price $33,710.00 $23,070.00 Incentives -$21,870.00 $0.00 Price After Incentives $11,840.00 $23,070.00 Price of Gas $2.00 Avg Price Of Electricity For Car $0.13 Average Miles Per Year 12,500 12,500 Maintenance Costs Per Mile 0.0181 0.0400 Maintenance Costs Per Year $226.25 $500.00 MPGe or MPG 114 27 Average Gallons Of Gas Per Year (Miles/MPG) 462.96 Average kWh Of Electricity Per Year For Car (Miles/(MPGe/34) 3,728.07 Average Cost Of Fuel Per Year $484.65 $925.93 Total Cost Of Car After Year… New Nissan Leaf SV New Toyota Camry LE (Base Level) … Savings 1 $12,551 $24,496 $11,945 2 $13,262 $25,922 $12,660 3 $13,973 $27,348 $13,375 4 $14,684 $28,774 $14,090 5 $15,394 $30,200 $14,805 6 $16,105 $31,626 $15,520 7 $16,816 $33,051 $16,235 8 $17,527 $34,477 $16,950 9 $18,238 $35,903 $17,665 10 $18,949 $37,329 $18,380

Well, yeah, the LEAF SV is about half the price in the first year, and you never look back after that.

Other Nissan LEAF Group Buys?

It seems Nissan has a strategy for moving Nissan LEAFs in the face of Chevy Bolt competition and pending Tesla Model 3 competition — lower the price!

Given that there are 3 almost identical Nissan LEAF group buys going on right now in a variety of states, I assume there are others that just haven’t crossed our radar.

Know of another one? Drop us a note in the comments. Don’t have one in your area? Organize one!

Related: 30 Reasons Your Next Car Should Be An Electric Car (aka 30 Electric Car Benefits)











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