3 years ago we bought a new electric vehicle. I am in the process of getting rid of it.

If you have spent any amount of time online you have definitely seen an anti-EV meme or two. Charging takes too long. The range isn’t sufficient. They don’t work when cold. California won’t let you charge your car! Diesel fuel is testosterone. They run off of coal. Etc…

That is pretty much all wrong though, which is why we are replacing our EV… with a new EV.

Why I am Ditching our EV

I wasn’t really in the market for a new car but the current deals on many EVs are truly impressive. (Thank you meme creators!) Running the numbers it was cheaper to sell our existing car and lease a new one.

I was able to lease a 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 SEL with 2 years of free charging / free maintenance for a one-time payment of $6,900. (~$288/month)

This is possible thanks to a dealer discount, inflated residual value, massive manufacturer credit, and large discount for pre-payment.

This is how that price breaks down:

MSRP$47,400
Delivery fee$1,375
Sale price$48,775Sticker price
Dealer discount-$3,969
Acquisition fee$650Lease cost
Registration$126
Doc fee$85
CA Tire Fee$8.75
Total capitalized cost$45,675.75The "loan" value
Capitalized cost$45,675.75
Residual value-$30,240.5Car value after 2 years
(Purchase price at lease end)
Rent charge$2,988.11"interest"
Tax (7.75%)$1427.76
Lease cost$19,851.1224 months = $827/mo
Bonus cash-$13,500
Title / license / fees$5491st year only
My total cost$6,900.12~$287.51/mo

There were some additional costs as none of the local dealers I contacted would come close to this price. So… I flew to LA to pick up the car and then drove it ~400 miles back home.

The largest was a broker fee of $499. The broker pre-negotiated the lease so I didn’t have to call/email around or interact with any dealers.

A one-way flight cost me $292.28, but I purchased it on a credit card with a 10% cash back promotion… presumably I will be getting ~$30 back in the the next 14 business days.

Since I was in town I met up with a friend for lunch. He generously paid so my only cost was to remember to pay next time.

I also took an Uber to the airport and from the LA airport to the broker’s office. For this I purchased $100 in Uber gift cards on GCX (formerly Raise.com) for $88.99, saving $11.01. The total for both Uber rides with tip and after gift card discount was $100.65. (Get $5 off your 1st purchase.)

And on the drive back home I bought a coke zero while plugged into a charger for $3.15.

$0 / gallon (compare to gas prices on sign in the background)

And finally… there is a $400 disposition fee if I choose to return the vehicle at the end of lease. With a high residual value it would be silly to actually buy this thing in 24 months (for more than market value.)

Combined all of these extra expenses (including the soda) raise the effective monthly payment by $52.75 to ~$340.25

Not included in the above numbers – I paid the $6,900 in two chunks. A check for $3,900.12 and a credit card charge for $3,000 (the max allowed.) I put this on a Chase card that was offering a no-fee Pay Over Time℠ option for 2 years, so I will effectively be paying this off at $125/month with 0% interest. Meanwhile I have that $3k invested in short term US treasuries earning 5+%… or about $12.50 / month to start. (Similar to how I paid property taxes as discussed in the post Fun Money Hacks I Have Done Recently.)

16 minutes to charge for $0 ($3.15 for caffeine)

One Time Payment vs Amortization

As an alternative to one payment of $6,900, I could have paid $2,000 up front and $253/month for 23 months.

Another way to state this… $2,000 up front plus $4,900 one-time payment vs $2,000 up front plus 23 monthly payments of $253.

Using simple math the discount for the one time payment is ~$918.

$918 / $4,900 = 18.75%

That seemed like a good enough rate of return.

The downside? If I total the car early in the lease… none of that payment will be returned. Since I have never destroyed a car I also felt this was a reasonable risk.

V2L

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 supports V2L (vehicle to load) with an adapter. This provides a standard 120 V / 15 A – 1800 Watt electrical outlet for your various power needs. The adapter set me back $107.74

So far I have used it to power the upright freezer in our garage (which costs maybe $8/month to operate), a shop-vac for cleaning the garage, and the tv / fan / phone charger in my home gym. Using a similar adapter, a guy on youtube has a plan to power his entire house for 5 days during a power outage (link.)

In theory… our peak summer electrical rate is $0.3462 / kWH. At 1.8 kW for those 3 hours I could make $2/day by simply reducing our active load during that time or even pushing power back onto the grid (thanks to the net metering agreement with our solar install.)

Using this to reduce the cost of the lease by 20% +/- is not too far of a stretch (work in progress) although I estimate I have only “saved” about $0.35 -$107.39 on our electrical bill to date (I have only had the adapter for a day.)

Even if theory doesn’t match reality, it will still be really nice for camping.

Bonus memes

Based on 3 years of EV ownership to date, which includes at least 40 days of driving in the mountains for snowboarding trips, I haven’t experienced any of the issues highlighted by these memes (although I haven’t been able to grow a man bun since college.) On the other hand I’ve spent $0 on oil changes and paid <$1/gallon equivalent for fuel.

I am not emotionally invested enough in any particular form of fuel to create my own memes, but if you have any thoughts on the matter please share your favorite memes in the comments.

Summary

Deals on 2024 EVs are incredible and the math said it was cheaper to sell our current EV and replace it with a new one.

We leased a new 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 for an effective ~$340/month inclusive of all fees/taxes/etc.. for 2 years with 2 years of free charging and 2 years of free maintenance.

Is there a better deal out there?

Addendum

Change of plans. After much deliberation, we’ve decided to keep our other EV as a 2nd car… having 2 kids with school/multiple sports and a modest social life occasionally requires being in 2 places at the same time The numbers say it would be better to sell it and lease a 2nd Ioniq 5 though. Maybe this will end up on Turo from time to time. Apologies for the dramatic title.