Leasing a car can be pretty darn affordable if you’re good at hunting down a deal. If you’re in Colorado, things just got crazy, though. New Nissan Leafs are going out cheap. We’re talking the two figure range here, people.
This deal came to our attention via YouTube channel Out of Spec. Host Kyle Conner takes us down to Fort Collins Nissan in Colorado, where there are around 100 Nissan Leafs sitting on the lot, ready to go.
Now when I say these are cheap, I mean to an unbelievable degree. In Colorado, you can get a 2025 Nissan Leaf for 20 bucks a month if you’re in the area and ready to sign. Be quick though, because the deal expires on August 1.
The deal was so good, Kyle couldn’t in good conscience ignore it. He picked up a brand new base model 2025 Nissan Leaf with no options. “I put down as much money as they would let me put down on the lease, which is $500 out of pocket, and it cost me under $20 per month” says Kyle. “That includes all fees, all taxes, everything, out the door.”
Add that up, and that’s $980. “For [a] two year lease with 10,000 miles a year, we have got ourselves a Nissan Leaf for less than $1000 all in, completely done,” says Kyle. “Actually, I bet the insurance will cost more than the car, which is crazy to think about.”
This only works in Colorado because of a state incentive. EV tax credits in the state can stack up to thousands of dollars, plus Nissan is often happy to throw in some cash, too. While the dealer’s website is advertising the same leases for $25, Kyle says it’s possible to slide down to $20 a month or less depending on taxes. “It’s cheaper than a Netflix subscription!” says Kyle. A premium one, anyway.
Incidentally, if you want to buy instead of lease, you can do that too. Hefty $8,100 EV credits from the state of Colorado can get the price south of $22,000.
Pat Rivera is the contact at Fort Collins Nissan that’s spearheading the cheap lease deals. “You can’t beat it, if it’s your first one especially, you’re not committed,” he says. “You don’t have to marry it, you’re just datin’ it for a little while.”
The lease is so cheap, Kyle notes that it is, “as near as makes no difference, a free car.” At such a low price, Kyle noted he picked one out for his friend Danny, just to help get him more acquainted with EVs. “If you’re driving a combustion car, and just want to dip your toes into the EV thing, this is a comfortable spritely car to just drive around town, and again, costs well under $20 a month with $500 down.” recommends
Now, it’s worth remembering that the Nissan Leaf isn’t the latest, greatest EV on the market. It’s a solid city car, though the model with the 40 kWh battery has just 149 miles of range. You can upgrade to the Leaf SV, with a 62 kWh battery, but you’ll pay more like $99 a month. You’ll no longer get the magical $20 a month lease deal.
The one main thing holding back the leaf is its charging port. It has a standard J1772 port for AC charging, and a CHAdeMO port for DC fast charging. Sadly, there are seldom few CHAdeMO chargers around. However, you can get a CCS to CHAdeMO adapter for DC fast charging at modern stations without issue. As Kyle notes, though, they don’t come cheap, at around $1,500. For such a cheap lease, it’s perhaps easier to use it as a city car that you just charge at home.
We’ve featured a few cheap leases before, like Leasehackr’s best deals for under $300. But this is on another level entirely. $20 a month is lunch money, and you’re getting a brand new car for two whole years. It’s like that fake Tesla $80-a-month lease deal, except it’s four times cheaper, and it’s actually real!
In fact, it’s so cheap, it could potentially even make you money. As commenter @be-golf8374 notes, if your current commute is long enough, and your car isn’t particularly efficient, it might be cheaper to take on the Leaf. Or, when you include insurance, at least close to break-even. Their estimate of the Leaf’s efficiency is a little generous at 4 miles/kWh, but they’re in the ballpark here. As Kyle says, this is nearly free.
If you’ve ever wanted to try an EV, this is a pretty risk-free way to do so. If you’ve got the will, you probably wanna move fast. Deals like this do not come along every day.
Image credits: Out of Spec Reviews via YouTube screenshot, Nissan, Fort Collins Nissan
You have to be a Colorado resident.
This isn’t like the recent Toyota BZ4X deal where you could just cross state borders to sign up, and didn’t even have to be a resident of the states it was available in.
This lease deal would be epic enough to road trip a flatbed for, but you do have to have a Colorado address, so I’m not in.
Makes sense if the Colorado taxpayers are paying for it.
This is pretty much what was happening in Georgia up to 2015. You got $5k off your state taxes with a 2 year EV lease. Plus another tax credit for installing a charger.
That’s $208.33/month Plus charger rebate. Leases were running $249-$289/month depending on model and your credit. Come back in two years and get a steal on a lease return. I had a chance in 2017 to buy out my lease and walk away with the car for $6500 out the door. Still kicking myself for missing that.
I’m a Georgia resident, I wonder what kind of lead deals for a lease are available ?
I live in Colorado and already have 2 more cars than I have garage spaces but damn this is tempting just to have a low cost low maintenance errand car to soak up city miles…
Cheaper than the set of winter wheels and tires I’m going to have to buy this fall.
There’s this whole community of people who seem to speak the “per month” language, but that I just can’t understand.
The last article on leases for “under $300/mo.” confused me similarly. Sure, get a long enough lease with a huge down payment, and ANY car could be “under $300/mo”. Next article, “How to lease a Ferrari for ONLY $300/mo!!!” (i.e. $300k car, for 96mo. with $277k down, is ONLY $291/mo!!)
I appreciate that this article provided the required detail ($500 down, 2 year lease, 10k mi/yr) in the article. This is an amazing deal for a car!
But like I said, to me anyway, a headline with “Car for $XXX/mo!!!” is meaningless; verging on clickbait.
Agree, but this clickbait is also what pretty much every car dealer and manufacturer does in their ads when they state “$x a month lease” and then load up the fine print with all sorts of hilarity.
I approve this message. And please, let’s stop with the nonsense mathematics of “Itâs like that fake…$80-a-month lease deal, except itâs four times cheaper.”
Gonna wait and score one of these after the epic Colorado hail storms.
At Tree fiddy per month.
Ugh. If this was available in Canada, I’d go out and get one TODAY. My commute is only 40km (~25mi) round trip, and I usually average 20k (12,400mi) a year.
I could EASILY use this to commute and leave my paid-for crossover parked until I’m going out of town. If all I use it for is local, I’ll stay under the lease miles without issue.
TFL just did one of these deals in Boulder, CO. Under $10 a month but they put down a lot more money, so the 2-year cost was a bit over $2,000.
I live in CO and have also seen Lexus advertise $23,850 “lease cash” on their RZ. Basically what I’m seeing is that if you don’t have a competitive EV, or one that has a significant flaw (like the Leaf with poor range and outdated charging), the manufacturers are heavily incentivizing the lease of them.
Heck, if I had this deal, I’d take it just because I can. My job has a free EV charger, my commute is short, but it sure as heck beats the 16ish mpg combined my GX470 gets. I have been legitimately searching for a 3-5k Leaf just to try an EV out for dirt cheap, but to be able to put up to 20k miles on a vehicle for $1000? Sold. Even if insurance adds another 2k or so over two years (which is way high for my current rates), and some electricity costs, you’re under $.15 per mile on a brand new EV, incredible.
Get a 3-5k first gen insight with a 5spd. They’re fun cars!
I’ve genuinely tried to find one, but they seem to be thin on the ground these days, or at least near me. Have seen a few K-swapped ones which would be hilarious, but too much money to justify as a dumb/fun car given the 10l+ asking prices on them. A 5spd first gen insight is definitely in my future projects list, just need to find one first!
If my commute wasn’t so short I’d consider this, but as short as it is I can’t justify adding a new car with insurance being as high as it is in parts of Colorado.
Multi-car, limited mileage discount.
Unfortunately, I already have two vehicles under that classification and the costs for those older vehicles far exceed the $50 a month I pay in gas, so a brand new Leaf would be even more.
Or as Biff from Back to the Future might say: “Hurry, before this deal makes like a tree and gets out of here!”
With this small a battery I bet you could run this thing from a 120v outlet in your garage, and it would save you twice as much money in gas as youâre paying for the lease. I would never buy a new Leaf, but if I lived nearby and had an extra space in the garage to add a commuter car next to my gas guzzler, Iâd be on my way to the Nissan dealer right now for sure.
You’re right about charging! I have an EV with a 65kWh battery and I run it from a 120v outlet, have been doing so for the last 3 years. Picks up 60 miles (about 15kWh) overnight, which is usually more than I’d drive in a day anyway. I keep thinking about getting a Level 2 charger and outlet installed, but haven’t strictly needed it. It’s like waking up to your car getting a 1/4 tank added overnight. Having a Lev 2 charger is ideal, but running from a 120v is doable for a ton of people with average commutes.
Somebody better check on David. He’s either hyperventilating, or in the process of booking a fleet of car carriers.
I wish this was available in Michigan to get another car just to commute but Nissan dealers around the area, they don’t have a good reputation.
I think TFL did this same thing a few weeks ago.
Wow, a deal like that will make Leafs disappear faster than Agent Orange.
You’ve got to expect deals like this as the model goes to its final roundup.
Good one.
Should they just call this sale a dealership defoliant?