Rivian Lease Buyout Guide: Comprehensive Slide Deck

[JonKohler]

I've created a comprehensive slide deck that captures all I've learned about lease buyouts, which is what I did when getting my R1T Tri Max in December. Given the federal EV rebate ending and the rest of the leasing offers that stack this quarter, this is an attractive option for those looking to either do a normal lease and buy it later or folks who simply are going to purchase anyway and want to get the best deal.

I linked the deck below to show real, practical examples of exactly how the math breaks down for each of the different popular configurations that are currently incentivized. I've also pointed out the lease offers, called out important gotchas, called out other ways to stack and save money, and more.

Google Slides - Rivian Lease Buyouts - A Better Way to Buy a Rivian (usually)

The TL;DR summary:

• Using lease incentives, it is possible to get a deal on purchasing
• Based on current incentives thru Aug 31st, I provided real examples, with screenshots and punching all of the numbers into my calculator spreadsheet, for:
  • Tri Motor: ~7.8k (~6.7%) better cash out the door
  • Dual Motor Max Performance: ~8.9k (~9.3%) better cash out the door
  • Dual Motor Standard: ~6.2k (~7.8%) better cash out the door
• Note: This is the only way to get a discount on a quad motor
• The key to all of this is leasing then buying out the lease, which could be done with cash or a loan
• Pay close attention to "Order By" dates and "Deliver By" dates, which I called out in the Understanding Lease Offers section

Here is the table of contents from the deck, with hyperlinks to take you exactly to each section:

1. Current Combinable Offers
2. Understanding Lease Offers
   1. Endless Adventure Bonus
   2. Federal EV Lease Credit
   3. Electric Refresh Offer
3. Other ways to save money
   1. Utility Incentives
   2. State Incentives
   3. Accessories in Gear Shop (use points!)
   4. Deal Sweeteners (free stuff!)
4. Lease Buyout
   1. What the heck are you talking about?
   2. Why and Why Not
   3. How does it work?
   4. Using Auto Loans as the funding source
5. Show me the numbers
   1. “The Spreadsheet”
   2. Example: Tri Motor
   3. Example: Dual Max Performance
   4. Example: Dual Standard

I'm also happy to take feedback. If I've misrepresented something, typos, or other things folks would see as valuable, I'm happy to integrate that here, lemme know!

As always, happy to help out the community. Feel free to drop a line here, or reach out on DM if you'd like to chat more.

Update 19 August 2025.
Based on all of the chatter here, I've refactored the "Calculator" portion of the spreadsheet.

Here are the highlights for this revision:

• Cleaned up "What you see in the Payment Estimator" to be in the exact same order that you see them on the screen, which makes it easier to follow
• Cleaned up "What you need to consider outside of estimator" to group all of those types of things together
• Refactored "Lease Internals" section to align directly with how the lease contract, Section 11 "our Lease payment is determined as shown below" content looks, so it should be easier to map my calculator with the lease contract Rivian/Chase will send you, to keep me/these numbers honest!
• Important: I added a Money Factor calculator, as this is not in the Estimator or the Lease Contract (at least the one I got in December).
• Advanced: Added a "Lease Buyout Cash Flow Analysis" example, where I take a look at what it would be like if you leased and simply "held" that cash. In my example, I used a simple high-yield savings account rate of 4% as a placeholder. The TLDR of that entire section is about visualizing how alternative cash flow choices might look

To use this:

1. Download/clone the spreadsheet
2. Enter your own numbers, as they appear in the Payment Estimator on Rivian's website into "Lease Calculator Helper" cells B4 through B17
3. Enter your tax rate in cell B20
4. The spreadsheet will calculate the rest for you

Update 25 August 2025
Updated slide deck, change log:

• 25 August 2025:
  • Updated Current Combinable Offers slide with the latest table
  • Updated Endless Adventure Bonus slide to reflect the addition of 2026 Tri
  • Updated Lease Buyout Spreadsheet and Added Lease Helper Spreadsheet Changelog to note recent improvements (which is now a more generic “Lease Helper”!)
  • Rebased all examples with the latest calculator output, and dropped trade-in estimate to make it more generic
  • Added a bit explaining Gear Shop points

Update 6 September 2025

• Added "Using Auto Loans as the funding source" to the deck, with a callout to USAA, who others have reported positive experience with (and they seem to have pretty good rates at time of writing)
• Rebased the 2026 Dual Motor Standard option, as the endless adventure bonus went down to 3000 (was 6500)
• Fixed endless adventure slide, to show that 25/26 DM Large Perf now is 6500 (was 3000)
• Added section header slides to break up example, to make them easier to scroll thru on the left side

Update 17 September 2025

• Updated Current Combinable Offers slide with latest table, which moves “Delivery By” to Sept 30
• Updated Notes on calculator to call out lease tax treatment for NY, which taxes the top portion of the lease contract, but the buyout you pay on the residual (supposedly).

Cheers, Jon

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[Audiotek]

There is no savings in a model where you lease then do a buyout.

My suggestion is to do a R2 pre-order then buy it new. Get a vehicle that you can afford.

 

[JonKohler]

There is no savings in a model where you lease then do a buyout.

I think you are thinking of leasing for the entire term, then purchasing it after the lease term has run its course. In that case, you're absolutely right, there is no savings because the lease rent charge

What I am talking about is simply leasing for like 2 weeks, then immediately buying it out when presented with the payoff option at Chase.

There are absolutely savings when you lease and then //immediately// buy out. I've personally done it myself, and I put together a full cash flow analysis to support it. In my personal case, I saved roughly ~3400 dollars on a tri max after all was said and done from a 'cash out the door' perspective vs just cutting Rivian a check for the purchase directly.

The current incentives are far better, as they have both the federal EV lease credit and the endless adventure bonus.

If you go down that route, savings are in the 9-11k range

My suggestion is to do a R2 pre-order then buy it new. Get a vehicle that you can afford.

I'm assuming this comment was not for me, as I already own outright a R1 tri. For the larger community, this post is simply about how to get the best possible discounts leveraging the lease + immediate buyout method

 

[JonKohler]

I do not disagree with your perception in the value you received during your purchase experience.

To be clear, it's not a perception, it is hard numbers.

The decision matrix here is really simple. If you would otherwise cut Rivian a check/ACH/wire/etc. for X thousand and live in an area that does not disincentivize leasing like Texas, you can lease + buyout immediately to capture the value of the lease-based incentives.

Those discounts would otherwise not be available in a purchase-only (whether that was a 'bag of cash' or working with a loan, etc.).

My 29 years in high-finance like alternative investments, life insurance and annuities also, finance-tech like cyber security and artificial intelligence suggest otherwise.

Cool. I'm not sure what that adds to the thread, but I think the point you were getting at in a broader sense is how to manage cash flow on assets and where the best incremental returns can come from.

I don't disagree at all on those points. For example, one idea that we could probably both get behind to maximize cash flow and diversification, instead of handing a bag of cash, you could buy it out with a credit union loan, or some other financial product. In that case, it's just a regular auto loan.

Or, if you have the ability to do it, don't take a loan but rather pay yourself by saving up the cash in a HYSA product, then paying the "loan" / "lease" monthly from the HYSA and leveraging that as sort of an arbitrage between the loan rate. This is exactly what I do on my wife's auto loan at 5%, where I "pay" my HYSA at 4%, and outflow to the monthly bill at 5%. Beats the heck out of paying it from a 0% checking account, etc

Anyhow, stepping back from all of that, what I'm entirely trying to say here is that it is possible to get a discount on the input to a traditional auto loan, using the lease incentives.

TLDR: If you are in a financial position to "buy" a Rivian with a loan or any other form of payment, think about leasing it for sub-1month and capture the leasing credits. That's it.

 

[ndmiller]

You're "savings" are compared to buying up front only.

You can make almost $11K in interest with the 90K over 36 months if you don't buyout the lease immediately.

 

[JonKohler]

You're "savings" are compared to buying up front only.

You can make almost $11K in interest with the 90K over 36 months if you don't buyout the lease immediately.

Sure, which is what I was saying above, but that only gets attractive if the lease money factors (i.e., interest rate) are screaming low (effectively below the HYSA rate). I suspect that you would not be able to get a traditional HYSA product with a rate that was consistently above the lease money factors rivian is offering for the duration of 3 years.

Said another way, that 11k only happens if the lease MF/interest is zero, yea?

 

[ndmiller]

Said another way, that 11k only happens if the lease MF/interest is zero, yea?

94K @ 4% interest over 36 months is $11,940.32 the same or $2-3K more that your scenarios. The other difference is the lease buy has $0 in cash on hand, while the lease keeps $94K- payments liquid cash available for other uses.

 

[jimboski93]

Good analysis, and to paraphrase what said above and in the deck - if you've decided that you are going to buy the vehicle, I'm not sure why you wouldn't do the lease and immediate buyout.

 

[SANZC02]

Curious about sales tax costs, I did not see that covered in your analysis.

If you lease and buyout aren’t you paying sales tax twice? First when you lease to get it registered and second when you purchase from the lease company. That is expensive in states like CA where the minimum tax rate is 7.25% up to 10.25% depending on regional rates.

 

[JonKohler]

Curious about sales tax costs, I did not see that covered in your analysis.

If you lease and buyout aren’t you paying sales tax twice? First when you lease to get it registered and second when you purchase from the lease company. That is expensive in states like CA where the minimum tax rate is 7.25% up to 10.25% depending on regional rates.

Good question, it is covered in the analysis. If you look under the hood at the spreadsheet () there, Cell B14 takes the estimated tax from the Rivian payment estimator and Cell B41 takes the tax rate to calculate the rest.

If you lease and buyout in texas (or perhaps other areas with punishing lease taxation, I'm unaware of any others) you pay twice. But in other areas (many, most?) you are taxes on the lease portion of the lease, and not the residual portion. Some states collect that all up front, and some drip it over each payment. Then, if/when you buy it out, you're taxed on the payoff.

In a super crude example, let's say the car was 100 dollars with a 10% tax rate, and a 60% residual. You'd pay $4 if you just leased the car, because the lease portion was $40. Lets say in this simple example, you pay the tax upfront for lease.

In a lease + buyout, in the crude example, you'd pay $4 when you start the lease, then $6 dollars when you buy it out.

Thats how it worked out for me in Vermont. I looked up the california regulations and it appears that way, but you could confirm with the local DMV.

Special note on texas: In texas, they consider a lease as one taxable transaction, so they hit you for the entire amount on the first go. In my crude example, they'd take all $10 up front! Then Texas considers the buyout a second taxable transaction, and they hit you for the payoff, so you might not completely double dip, but its non-trivial.

TLDR, do not do this in Texas, and make sure you check with the local DMV to understand the tax treatment

 

[Zorg]

In CA, sales tax is better with a lease since sales tax is only charge on the amortized portion, and on the residual only if buying out the vehicle. Technically, for those that change vehicles often and not buy out their vehicles, leasing saves the tax amount on the residual. It's not chump change at say 9%.

 

[Zorg]

Texas is probably the most aggressive state when it comes to applying sales tax.

 

[JonKohler]

94K @ 4% interest over 36 months is $11,940.32 the same or $2-3K more that your scenarios. The other difference is the lease buy has $0 in cash on hand, while the lease keeps $94K- payments liquid cash available for other uses.

The last bit is the 'money' here, and I agree with you. The net positive there is the liquidity/optionality.

Keep in mind, Lease + Buyout doesn't necessarily mean you have to go 100% cash. You can buy out a lease with a loan, and keep your cash onhand too.

Otherwise, the missing piece from your comment is that the lease itself is likely more expensive, sometimes in the 6-8% interest range, so the aggregate interest on the lease will be higher than the aggregate interest on the HYSA.

The other tricky bit is that outside of lets say a CD, HYSA's fluxuate, so they might up from 4%, or could go down, but the lease contract is a fixed rate, so thats going to burn at the same rate no matter what.

Ultimately, this level of optimization is about doing what's right for one's broader financial strategy, and that's all person/family specific.

My TLDR for this entire thing is: If you were planning on buying with cash or a loan, do a lease and buy it out instead with cash or a loan. That will allow discount capture. Nothing else (optionality, alternatives) is in the mix there. The whole point is on how to have as little cash 'net' go out the door as possible.

Thx for the back and forth, I appreciate it - Jon

 

[mogambo1]

I've created a comprehensive slide deck that captures all I've learned about lease buyouts, which is what I did when getting my R1T Tri Max in December. Given the federal EV rebate ending and the rest of the leasing offers that stack this quarter, this is an attractive option for those looking to either do a normal lease and buy it later or folks who simply are going to purchase anyway and want to get the best deal.

I linked the deck below to show real, practical examples of exactly how the math breaks down for each of the different popular configurations that are currently incentivized. I've also pointed out the lease offers, called out important gotchas, called out other ways to stack and save money, and more.

Google Slides - Rivian Lease Buyouts - A Better Way to Buy a Rivian (usually)

The TL;DR summary:

• Using lease incentives, it is possible to get a deal on purchasing
• Based on current incentives thru Aug 31st, I provided real examples, with screenshots and punching all of the numbers into my calculator spreadsheet, for:
  • Tri Motor: ~9.5k (~8%) better cash out the door
  • Dual Motor Max Performance: ~10.3k (~10.5%) better cash out the door
  • Dual Motor Standard: ~11.3k (~13.8%) better cash out the door
• Note: This is the only way to get a discount on a quad motor
• The key to all of this is leasing then buying out the lease, which could be done with cash or a loan
• Pay close attention to "Order By" dates and "Deliver By" dates, which I called out in the Understanding Lease Offers section

Here is the table of contents from the deck, with hyperlinks to take you exactly to each section:

1. Current Combinable Offers
2. Understanding Lease Offers
   1. Endless Adventure Bonus
   2. Federal EV Lease Credit
   3. Electric Refresh Offer
3. Other ways to save money
   1. Utility Incentives
   2. State Incentives
4. Lease Buyout
   1. What the heck are you talking about?
   2. Why and Why Not
   3. How does it work?
5. Show me the numbers
   1. “The Spreadsheet”
   2. Example: 2025 Tri
   3. Example: 2025 Dual Max Performance
   4. Example: 2025 / 2026 Dual Standard

I'm also happy to take feedback. If I've misrepresented something, typos, or other things folks would see as valuable, I'm happy to integrate that here, lemme know!

As always, happy to help out the community. Feel free to drop a line here, or reach out on DM if you'd like to chat more.

Cheers, Jon

I have used your code JONATHAN1281738 today to order R1S Dual-Performance-Max Battery Pack- Red Canyon-Sound-Vision Package. Just FYI.

Thanks for the spreadsheet, I have downloaded it and filled it with my information. Since I don't understand few items in it, I may reach out to you later with few questions.

I hope you won't mind.

 

[JonKohler]

Thanks for the spreadsheet, I have downloaded it and filled it with my information. Since I don't understand few items in it, I may like to reach out to you later with few questions.

I hope you won't mind.

No problem at all, happy to help. Always happy to shoot the breeze on any of this stuff. Cheers

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