Honda Fit EV Gets More Competitive With Cheaper Lease Agreement

As electric vehicles begin to gain more momentum among consumers (sort of), their market space also becomes more competitive. Honda certainly doesn’t mind this trend, as it has an excellent EV in the all-electric Honda Fit. However, even though the Fit is undoubtedly a top-tier EV, it doesn’t match up very well to the leasing options available from other manufacturers. For example, Fiat, Chevrolet AND Nissan all offer lease contracts for $199 per month, while Ford offers $284 per month. $200 per month seems to be a very reasonable price for many city drivers.

How much would it cost to lease a Honda Fit?

As of right now, $389 per month, almost double the price of its competitors. Obviously, this is a problem. Fortunately, it’s an easy one to fix. All Honda has to do is lower the price. So, as of June 1, you’ll be able to lease a Honda Fit for just $259 per month, a full 30% reduction in price.

Why $259 is Cheaper than $199

Our more mathematically skilled readers will notice a small problem here – $259 per month is more expensive than $199 per month. You may be asking, why reduce the price at all if you’re still going to charge 30% more than the competition?

The answer is twofold.

First, while the Nissan Leaf, Fiat 500 and Chevy Spark all come in at under $200 per month, they each require a signing fee of either $999 or $1,999. The Ford Focus e isn’t much better with a fee of $929. The Honda Fit EV, however, only requires $259 paid upfront. Already, you can see that this would make up for several months of slightly higher payments.

But there’s more…

In addition to a cheaper signing fee, Honda will also offer several benefits to tenants that you won’t find when leasing any other electric vehicle. First, there is no mileage limit. No other EV lease agreement allows unlimited mileage; the maximum is 12,000 per year. Second, the Fit EV comes with collision coverage. This releases you of some potential financial responsibility. Lastly, the all-electric Fit comes with a free 240V charger unit (although installation is the buyer’s responsibility) and complementary routine maintenance by the local Honda dealership.

So, even though the monthly fee for the Honda Fit EV is about $60 more than the most competitive options on the market, it actually works out cheaper when the other factors are taken into consideration. If you want to see all of this data presented side-by-side, I highly recommend you check out this handy chart the folks over at Autoblog Green put together:

If you currently lease a Honda Fit EV, you’re in luck. This new rate will automatically be applied to any current lease agreements, starting June 1.

While the market for electric vehicles still has a long ways to go, this is a very encouraging sign for the industry. The fact that EVs are important enough to manufacturers to engage in a bidding war for best price can only be good for the consumer. And if you haven’t bought an EV yet (I’m guessing that’s most of us), maybe if you wait another year they’ll be even cheaper. Only way to find out is to wait and see!