Sales of electric vehicles reached record numbers in 2024, and the momentum looks to carry over into 2025. Even with the federal tax credits in jeopardy with the new administration, automakers are likely to continue to offer competitive programs to move their EV units. Volkswagen fired the first shot of the new year with a $149/mo lease on the ID4
Volkswagen’s ID4 EV has had a rough road. Early production cars suffered from several quality issues. The model was under a stop-sale since September due to a faulty door latch that could open doors unexpectedly. Now that VW has found a fix, the automaker hopes to lure people back into the showroom with a lease that undercuts most rivals.
Like most leases, you’ll want to examine the fine print. This is for a two-year program at 10,000 miles per year and does not include tax and fees. Unlike most leases, that advertise a super cheap payment only to have the caveat of several thousand down to make the math work, VW only requires $1,000 out of pocket. That works out to an effective lease cost of about $190 per month before tax and fees and a payment -to-MSRP ratio of 0.4 percent. Naturally, this is the least expensive ID4 Standard with rear-wheel drive and only 204 miles of range.
According to Cars.com, there are about 380 units of ID4 Standard trims in the entire country. That’s a decent amount of inventory, but dealers tend to have a more healthy stock of of the more expensive S trims at 620 units and Pro and Pro S trims with 493 and 420 units respectively. Our review found that it is probably worth splurging on some of the longer-range models with upgraded equipment. While the payments on those cars are going to be higher, it’s likely that the competitive ratio of payments to MSRP will remain similar to the base model special.
Tom McParland is a contributing writer for Jalopnik and runs AutomatchConsulting.com. He takes the hassle out of buying or leasing a car. Got a car buying question? Send it to [email protected]
