Lease to buy and federal ev credits

Ask the Hackrs Buy/Finance
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So I wanted to buy a new car soon since used car prices are so high and use that to get a new car. I was going to just pay cash for a new car but realized I don’t qualify for the federal ev credit. My tax liability is pretty low. But I heard that some banks have been rolling that credit into a lower RV or as a down payment. So I wanted to just lease a car for a few years and then just buy it out. With the federal ev credit being 7500 and an oregon credit being 5000, there’s 12.5k credits available for EV cars or 8.5k if I wanted to go cheaper and buy a PHEV.

I have a couple questions about leases because I’ve never leased a car before.

Normally, you want a high RV right? But if you plan on buying out your lease, do you want a lower RV? If a car is 50k and has a RV of .60 after 3 years, does that mean if I wanted to buy the car, I would pay 30k (50,000*.6)? Trying to figure out if the residual value is always the buy out value.

Is the RV always going to be the end of lease pay off cost?

Since I plan on buying the car at the end, does it matter if I get the lowest mileage to get a lower monthly payment?

Has anyone else had dealerships/banks give you the ev credit? And how did they give that to you if they did?

Right now I’m debating between the Polestar 2 and Prius prime. Anyone have any experience with leases with either? I’m not a huge car person so the cheaper prius prime is enticing but cant ignore how good the polestar 2 looks.

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The polestar gets the tax credit passed on in the form of a high residual value. Works well if you’re leasing but not if you plan on buying it out. You want someone that passes it on with an equivalent incentive amount.

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Have you tried looking for a Prius Prime in OR? Last word is that they are in very short supply and terribly marked up over MSRP. That will negate any EV or tax benefits.

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ah that makes things annoying, maybe I won’t be getting a polestar.

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I did see one the other day with a 1500 cash incentive and at MSRP. Most dealerships around here seem to add additional fees but a couple of them won’t.

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