The Gasman

It took about a month to get my car. After seeing the OP in this thread I started researching and saw how difficult it was to realistically get one of these, so I made it a goal to get one. I emailed the Honda fit ev corporate email and managed to find out my local dealer was getting one on next allocation so I basically bothered people until I got the call that the car was in and I had dibs.

Since my wife had the longer daily commute she drives it mainly and we use it pretty much for all other local driving. The leviton charger makes it much more useful because of the quickness we get more usable mileage. So far we have about 2700 miles in 2 months.

If any Cali people are looking for a cheap alternative, a friend said in the Central Valley his dealer was giving an additional 3k off the fiat 500e. That's a phenomenal rate for the lease. The downside is it doesn't come with a 240 charger like the fit. The rav4ev has the big rebate back again too. It's about $200/month more than the fit and no free charger, but better range and bigger vehicle.

kevinS2OOO

The interior looks so beautiful. Congratulations!

cujet

Wow, that's a great deal. A car like that would work for me if I managed my energy properly.

However, I do prefer to drive in a sporty manner. So, I'd need to plug in at work (could be done at my office) I'll have to look into this.

imtigahwoodz

So I just found out Honda will be offering a 2 year lease extension and dropping the price to $199/mo!! This is awesome news as they are still standing by their original lease terms (unlimited miles, etc).

After about 1.5 years of ownership, I've accumulated just over 25K miles on the car. Battery life seems just as good as when I first got it. Only complaint would be the cold weather significantly reducing driving range. I'd estimate a 20-25% decrease in range during the winter months. Granted in SoCal, it's really only cold for maybe a month or two, but the guys in the east coast are reporting losses of 50% or more.

I would say real-world driving range is closer to 70-75 miles than the 82 listed. 80+ miles can be attained but thats under optimal driving conditions (weather, load, road conditions.

All in all, I'm very happy with this vehicle. I was thinking about getting the Tesla Model 3 if it comes out in a few years but that will be put on hold for at least 2 more years.

TommyDeVito

I've got 2 years left on my Leaf lease and my comments would be the same about it. My work is a very short commute and this vehicle is ideal for that. (No wear and tear on an engine because of the short start/stop distance). I've only accumulated 6k miles in one year and it barely costs me anything to run. About 1/10th the cost of gasoline. I put a level 2 charger in the garage and solar panels go up in a month so the sun will be powering the car. Don't know if I can wait on the Model 3, but will try.

s2k_9000rpm

does the amount of money you save on gas pay for the lease? when you go solar what does your break even look like?

TommyDeVito

Think of the car like this. Electricity cost to charge it per mile, compared to gasoline, well it's 10-15% of what gas would cost. And compared to the ICE, no maintenance. My Leaf lease is 3 years. Over those 3 years I need to change the in cabin air filter and rotate the tires, that's it. No other maintenance required unless the windshield wiper fluid gets low. If the savings over gasoline would pay for the lease.......that would be up to how many miles you drive in a month. At $200 a month for a fully warrantied vehicle that cost me $10 or less a month to power, for me it was a no brainer. I like having a warranty on anything, doesn't matter if it's a gas engine, diesel, or an electric car.

Solar is a harder comparison. Really depends on a lot of factors. How much sun you get in your geographic area, obviously the PNW it wouldn't be worth the trouble IMO. Where I live (TX), like AZ, perfect conditions. But also other things. Which way does your roof face? What is the slope of your roof? How large is your roof? How many sq. ft. is your house? How much electricity do you use in a month? It isn't some simple calculation. It's actually quite complicated.

My break even is day 1. I leased a system which requires no out of pocket costs, no installation costs, nothing. I won't spend a dime on the entire array until they've been on my roof for 30 days. The county cannot raise my property tax % because I don't own the system (My property tax rates are already rapidly increasing, didn't want to add to that). Since it's leased I'm not responsible for anything. I don't have to carry insurance on the panels (So in other words I don't have to increase my homeowners insurance). If anything happens to them, the company I lease them from fixes/repairs them with no out of pocket costs because they own the system, I just own the power. Any failure of the system, again not my problem. If I had to put a cost on it, the lease, it's about like $.09 per kwh to pay for it monthly, the lease is $90 a month for twenty years. That is a fixed cost so you can think of it as locking in a kwh rate for the next twenty years. But that doesn't take into account the power I sell back, or the credits I get for making more power than I use more than half the year. And the important part is that it's $.09 today, from day 1. When kwh hourly prices go up, next year, 5 years, over the next twenty years, my costs are fixed. I will only pay higher electricity rates in the summer.

s2k_9000rpm

i previously thought i would purchase solar before leasing, but you might have just changed my mind with that post. time to do more research. so the panels cost you $90/month, but how much power are you selling? better yet, how much is your electricity bill during the peak months when you need to pay?

marthafokker

FitEV is gone, but there was supposed to be a hell of a deal with 500e last weekend. 100 or so was leased last weekend.

500e Lease article

TommyDeVito

My array goes up next month. I won't have any hard data until I've had it on the roof for twelve months.

I will give you some advice. Get cracking on it. Once the Fed incentives are used up (only so much $ budgeted per year from the Feds) that's it and you'll have to wait until next year. I started this process last year. I pulled every move in the book and did some real OG bs to pull this off for what I'm paying. We can take it offline. I don't want to muck up the thread any more.