April 2026 Lease Incentives uncompetitive? Was March / end of Q1 any better?

[drivejoule]

I was cross-shopping for a luxury EV SUV and looked through the R1S lease offers available this month and they were not very compelling. The best % MSRP/mo deal is for a Dual Lg + Perf at ~1.36% before taxes/fees. That's $1360/mo for $100k MSRP. A Quad is ~1.8%! Was curious if anyone knew if these are typical lease numbers for Rivian or if it was substantially better in March / end of quarter? Would also love to see what people are paying on their leases, particularly gen 2 R1S's.

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[Owner]

I was looking in February and they were not compelling. Don't know about March.

 

[McLovin]

I was cross-shopping for a luxury EV SUV and looked through the R1S lease offers available this month and they were not very compelling. The best % MSRP/mo deal is for a Dual Lg + Perf at ~1.36% before taxes/fees. That's $1360/mo for $100k MSRP. A Quad is ~1.8%! Was curious if anyone knew if these are typical lease numbers for Rivian or if it was substantially better in March / end of quarter? Would also love to see what people are paying on their leases, particularly gen 2 R1S's.

I’ve been tracking them for 6-8 months now, and overall, they’ve been pretty “meh”. Granted, I got one if the best lease deals back in August, 2024 ($600/mo, $0 down), but same price vehicle today is running at least $450-500 more per month…so almost double what I’m paying.

I’m hoping they run decent specials once the R2s start rolling out.

 

[ribuck97]

Here:

Note that it even is dropped for the quad.

You then have residuals (I've never tracked what Rivian publishes on the calculator). % = Residual Value / MSRP. Most all EV residuals will be horrible, especially on the top trims. All the following are foor 10k miles, 36mo:

Dual Large Perf = ~58% residual
Dual Max Perf = ~57%
Tri = ~54%
Quad = ~50%

In March, Rivian was offering a $6500 bonus (but may have dropped residual). Then for some gen2's, those still had the federal $7500 credit as well (this knocks off $200/mo off the lease cost). Thus comparing a lease now to an older gen2 is not apples to apples.

Basically, you want high residual, lower msrp, and high bonus incentive to get a low lease payment.

What EV SUV are you cross shopping?

 

[Dark-Fx]

Will likely see some better deals once R2 is shipping in volume, but maybe not, since they can throttle R1 construction and prioritize R2 instead.

 

[ribuck97]

For grins... I just glanced at the numbers for the BMW iX XDrive60:

Monthly lease payments of $799 per month for 10k/36mo. Base MSRP of $89,950.

Purchase option price at lease end is $47,674, plus the purchase option fee disclosed in the lease contract. Residual is ~53%.

$799/mo is based on an adjusted capitalized cost of $72,555. ($4,520 dealer discount + BMW Lease Credit of $7,500 + $5,375 Buyer down payment).

Running the numbers, the lease interest rate is around 2.1% APR. There are a couple of assumptions:

1) Will the dealer discount the vehicle $4520? It could be more or it could be less.
2) A dealer will mark up the APR in financing the lease? Every 1% for their profit is another $50/mo ($849/mo for 3.1%).

...

Reverse engineered the Rivian Lease rate based on the cheaped R1S Dual/Large/Perf at $93,490 with $7k down ($3k bonus + $3500 down + $500 deposit) for $1175/mo. Rivian lease APR appears to be ~4.75%.

 

[drivejoule]

Hah, I actually did the exact same reverse-engineering you did and came up with the money factor as well (i calculated ~4.5%). I then compared it with the vehicles I was cross-shopping with. this was most easily done with the lucid gravity since they are also direct-to-consumer and have standardized incentives, MF, RV%, etc. it was harder to compare with dealership model vehicles like volvo ex90 so I gave that up pretty quickly. simply comparing the Lucid Gravity deals with the R1S alone is compelling. accounting for incentives, MF, RV%, and MSRP, and normalizing everything to % MSRP/mo, here are my findings:
R1S DS: 1.42%
R1S DL: 1.52%
R1S DL+P: 1.36%
R1S DM: 1.62%
R1S DM+P: 1.46%
R1S T: 1.54%
R1S Q: 1.79%

whereas for the Gravity Touring, it is 0.99-1.20% (depending on options) and for the Grand Touring, it is 0.97%

I love the R1S software and the idea of universal hands-free (Gravity is lacking on both presently) but the poor leasing prices right now are unfortunate. as someone else mentioned, hoping the R2 will bring further incentives to the R1S. (or that the R2 itself leases well! one can dream, right?)

 

[ribuck97]

I started with the Gravity Grand Touring but quit really quickly. Big delta between their 2026 and 2027 lease rates. 2026 is $950/mo (assume no $2k conquest) with $7.5k cap cost…. Makes it a $1140/mo payment.

I’m just banking on the 0% financing plus $1k+ incentive to show up again.

Ah well, its a fun game… thankfully no dealers.

 

[drivejoule]

the trick to leasing a Lucid is both timing and maximizing all possible incentives, as there's a lot. at a minimum, Studio select ($3k) and Conquest ($2k and genuinely has very loose requirements, you simply need your name on the insurance card of a premium car). if you have a trade-in, you can get another $2k or $5k bonus and then ask to cash out the remaining trade-in value so you don't put money down. the MY'27 Gravity is a complete ripoff for sure - the only upgrade is the monthly payment.

I'd like to see Rivian deliver similar incentives but more than likely they just don't need to because their R1S is better selling than the Gravity.

 

[ribuck97]

the trick to leasing a Lucid is both timing and maximizing all possible incentives, as there's a lot. at a minimum, Studio select ($3k) and Conquest ($2k and genuinely has very loose requirements, you simply need your name on the insurance card of a premium car). if you have a trade-in, you can get another $2k or $5k bonus and then ask to cash out the remaining trade-in value so you don't put money down. the MY'27 Gravity is a complete ripoff for sure - the only upgrade is the monthly payment.

I'd like to see Rivian deliver similar incentives but more than likely they just don't need to because their R1S is better selling than the Gravity.

Good notes. Especially about the "need to" with respect to Lucid incentives. Rivian may be coming to the same situation with the R1S.

Perhaps the 2026 deals are for built units that have been sitting for XXX days. That triggers the "Available Now". Subsequently makes me wonder how Rivian moves vehicles into their online store.

 

[ribuck97]

Booo, rates on 60/72 went up 1% this month. I wish they’d do the 0%/0.49% again

 

[VSG]

I love the fact that Rivian doesn't use dealers. What they offer to one person is the same as the offer to anyone else.

So if you don't like the offer, don't take it. Don't wring your hands and try to dicker with them - that's what the deal is. Take it or leave it.

And they don't need your advice either about what they "should" do.

Also, IMO, leases are a way to get you to "buy" more car than you can afford. Some car makers like BMW sell MOST of their cars through leases. I suggest leasing ONLY if it's a better deal for you than buying outright. But if you're only leasing because you can't afford to buy it outright (or with a loan) then think twice.

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