4 ms·

What’s even more remarkable is that it can also be leased for as little as €20/mo. That’s less than many people pay for their cell phone plan.

astura 7y ago
Presumably you'd also have to pay for insurance, right?
- asjw 7y ago
  Usually insurance is included in the lease plan
aquark 7y ago
That number seems incomplete at best .... if leasing is purely a financial transaction it seems odd it would cost €6,000 but lease for just €20\month unless there is a large up front downpayment required anyway. That would be a 25 year payback just to cover the initial cost. You certainly can't lease an existing €60,000 car for €200\month
mrep 7y ago
It's €2,644 and then €19.99 a month [0]. Super misleading. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22438418 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22438418
- micheljansen 7y ago
  Good point! Still cheap.
  - ianai 7y ago
    If you’re looking to spend 20/mo how likely are you to have about 132 months of payments available up front?
- pinko 7y ago
  Very misleading -- but that's still only the cost of two high-end iPhones, plus cell service! For a car!
IkmoIkmo 7y ago
After a downpayment of €2600 euros it says, and that's only including an 'ecobonus' of 900, which is a subsidy which only applies in France. Not sure what that means for other EU countries, but I'd take into account a downpayment of €3500 without subsidy (which is exactly half of the €7000 it costs without the subsidy). And it's explicitly a down payment, not a deposit. I don't know exactly how that works in combination with a 4-year lease of €240 a year, totalling €960. I assume after 4 years, the lease ends, you don't own anything, and you're down 3500+960 = €4460, or €€3560 in France. That equals €92 a month for the lease. If you factor in time value of money over 4 years (or financing the downpayment), you're looking at €100 a month minimum. Not sure if everything is included in this lease... insurance, taxes etc? I assume it does. Not a bad deal, particularly for young city-dwellers. But at just €100 more, for €200, I can get something like a Toyota Aygo which has an 800km range instead of a 75km range and refuels in a minute instead of 3 hours, and seats 4 instead of 2, and can take trips outside the city. Great city car, but spending 7k on a car that can't go to another city 30 minutes away, seems a bit silly. I think it's great for ridesharing though. We've had the Smart Electric cars in Amsterdam for a few years now at 25-30 cents per minute or so, they're quite nice. I typically use bike/publictransport, but when you're with a friend, it's raining or you have to go to the other side of the city, particularly after midnight or with annoying public transport transfers, the car is nice. But as you can see, it's already a niche category for me. Once these things become super cheap and ubiquitous, I'd love to use them more. Now I tend to have to walk a minute or two to the nearest one, and it's a bit expensive still. I think these cars would do a better job as they're 2-3x cheaper than the Smart. At some point the per-minute fee should drop for ridesharing to perhaps 15c per minute. At that point it gets interesting, because you get demand, and with demand it makes sense to make them ubiquitous, at which point there's a critical mass for them.

astura 7y ago

Presumably you'd also have to pay for insurance, right?

asjw 7y ago
Usually insurance is included in the lease plan

aquark 7y ago

That number seems incomplete at best .... if leasing is purely a financial transaction it seems odd it would cost €6,000 but lease for just €20\month unless there is a large up front downpayment required anyway. That would be a 25 year payback just to cover the initial cost. You certainly can't lease an existing €60,000 car for €200\month

mrep 7y ago

It's €2,644 and then €19.99 a month [0]. Super misleading. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22438418 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22438418

micheljansen 7y ago
Good point! Still cheap.
- ianai 7y ago
  If you’re looking to spend 20/mo how likely are you to have about 132 months of payments available up front?
pinko 7y ago
Very misleading -- but that's still only the cost of two high-end iPhones, plus cell service! For a car!

IkmoIkmo 7y ago

After a downpayment of €2600 euros it says, and that's only including an 'ecobonus' of 900, which is a subsidy which only applies in France. Not sure what that means for other EU countries, but I'd take into account a downpayment of €3500 without subsidy (which is exactly half of the €7000 it costs without the subsidy). And it's explicitly a down payment, not a deposit. I don't know exactly how that works in combination with a 4-year lease of €240 a year, totalling €960. I assume after 4 years, the lease ends, you don't own anything, and you're down 3500+960 = €4460, or €€3560 in France. That equals €92 a month for the lease. If you factor in time value of money over 4 years (or financing the downpayment), you're looking at €100 a month minimum. Not sure if everything is included in this lease... insurance, taxes etc? I assume it does. Not a bad deal, particularly for young city-dwellers. But at just €100 more, for €200, I can get something like a Toyota Aygo which has an 800km range instead of a 75km range and refuels in a minute instead of 3 hours, and seats 4 instead of 2, and can take trips outside the city. Great city car, but spending 7k on a car that can't go to another city 30 minutes away, seems a bit silly. I think it's great for ridesharing though. We've had the Smart Electric cars in Amsterdam for a few years now at 25-30 cents per minute or so, they're quite nice. I typically use bike/publictransport, but when you're with a friend, it's raining or you have to go to the other side of the city, particularly after midnight or with annoying public transport transfers, the car is nice. But as you can see, it's already a niche category for me. Once these things become super cheap and ubiquitous, I'd love to use them more. Now I tend to have to walk a minute or two to the nearest one, and it's a bit expensive still. I think these cars would do a better job as they're 2-3x cheaper than the Smart. At some point the per-minute fee should drop for ridesharing to perhaps 15c per minute. At that point it gets interesting, because you get demand, and with demand it makes sense to make them ubiquitous, at which point there's a critical mass for them.