In the market for a car? You should probably buy one in about two months. That’ll be the sweet spot when finance rates are best, inventory needs to be cleared, and end-of-year sales events start. But if you want an EV, you should put down your phone and go buy one as soon as you can. Like, right now.
The $7,500 federal tax credit for new electric car purchases is going away on September 30, which means you have about two weeks until the EV market undergoes a massive shift. With 20 vehicles on sale today still eligible for the full discount, there are lots of deals to be had. But you have to act quickly.
CarsDirect put together a list of some enticing lease offers available at several dealers across the country. These dealers want to take advantage of the tax credit as much as buyers do before it goes away forever, so they’re pulling out all the stops to get people in the door. If you’re in the market for an EV, you likely won’t have a better chance at a deal than right now.
At the very top of the SUV list is what’s likely the best deal on a new Honda you’ll find anywhere for the foreseeable future. Dealers are currently pushing the Prolouge SUV in some states with a $0 per month lease deal, and $3,799 due at signing. That means an effective rate of under $160 per month for the 24-month lease period before taxes. From CarsDirect:
The 2025 Honda Prologue has the deal of the year with a One Pay Lease that you probably won’t see advertised. The Prologue EX is now listed at $3,799 for 24 months. That’s a 20% price cut compared to last month’s offer of $4,800.
[…]
The offer includes $20,300 in lease cash and is by far the best lease on any SUV. It also translates to an effective cost of only $158 per month. Odds are that it won’t get better than this before EV incentives go away at the end of the month.
There are a couple of catches. The first is that the price includes a loyalty discount or a conquest bonus, so you either have to be coming from another Honda or a competitor brand. The deal is also only available in the following states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington D.C., Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.
Add in taxes and fees, and that one-time payment can eclipse $5,000 with ease. Still, for two years and 10,000 miles of driving in a shiny new Honda, that’s not bad. And while there are also some finance deals for the Prologue floating around, we’d recommend avoiding real ownership in this case. A short-ish lease is the absolute best way to experience this car.
CarsDirect doesn’t link to any Honda site or dealer specials page, so I decided to throw in my contact info into the website’s portal, which connects users to dealers. A representative for Metro Honda, a dealer in New Jersey, called me within two minutes (yes, that quickly) and confirmed the lease deal’s existence. They even told me the down payment was negotiable, even after saying I didn’t have a trade-in to offer. If I were in the market for a Prologue, I’d probably be over there right now.
The dealer also stressed this lease deal was only good until September 30, which makes a lot of sense considering all of the tax rebate stuff. It’s important to note that you don’t actually have to take delivery of the car before the 30th—you just need to have a contract in place and make at least one payment before the end of the month, according to the Internal Revenue Service. So if you have an extra month left on your current lease, it might be worth heading to your nearest Honda dealer anyway.
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Top photo: Honda
hat tip to Motor1!
Slightly tempting.
I assume that a customer has to actually QUALIFY for the full, $7,500. federal tax credit to achieve this $200./month price, right? Like, the dealer is counting on getting that money from the government in order to provide that deal?
Or is this particular deal unrelated to the federal tax credit that’s about to go away?
Um, typo, twice. One in the headline, quite embarrassing if one cares, one in the body.
An absolutely amazing car, especially with the 19″ wheels. Comfortable as a flying carpet, and turns on a dime.
I almost went to lease one with a buyout – the Elite was ending up being around $43k out the door. I was planning on getting an Elite and swap he 21″ for 19s.
The lease itself was around $14k total with 15k miles/yr.
Unfortunately I ended up seeing what they retail for used ($30k for a 6 months old one with 3500 miles on the clock), and realized no one really knows what this car costs because no one ever paid retail for it. Honda are selling it at loss to make an EV clientelle for their “real” EV three years from now. Same as the first Pilot being an Isuzu.
Also, I heard that a blown airbag automaticall totals it, as the battery’s pyrofuse blows as well, and is not serviceable, requiring replacing the whole pack.
But otherwise, an absolutely amazing vehicle.
Lucky we got our lease in February, less than $3k down and less than $300 a month for 3 years.
We’re in NC so wouldn’t get the deal above anyways, but a guy at work was looking for something before end of month and said there’s no Prologues in stock for them to even test drive.
Ours is an EX too, which is fine, it’s got all the things we want, well maybe could’ve used a power liftgate but for now it does us great.
Damn… and we have no sales tax in Oregon.
If my head math is correct that is 50 cents a mile. Considering low maintenance costs you could lease one use it as a company car write off the standard amount allowed and probably end up getting it for free or getting paid to lease it if you can get by on 27.39 miles a day.
Even cheaper. I leased an Ioniq 6 for a similar price to these Prologue deals ($5,500 for two years at 12k miles/year). The cost comes out to 25 cents/mile for the lease and under 2 cents/mile for electricity here in Colorado.