May 2026 lease deal analysis (R1S, R1T)

[drivejoule]

Hi folks,

I went through the different trims for the R1S and R1T lease deals this month and back calculated the money factors and RV%, and standardized everything to % MSRP/mo ($0 down, before taxes and fees), accounting for the new incentives. The analysis is based off a rule of thumb that a % MSRP/mo of <1% is a good deal because that is roughly the lease rate at which a luxury EV such as Rivian is a better value than a 0% APR 60 month loan. This holds true under the assumption that one is deciding between two back-to-back 3 year leases vs 6 years of ownership then selling; residual value at 6 years is ~30%; and cost of "naked" ownership in years 5-6 without insurance is ~$2,000. All my data and some guides walking through the lease structure are available on drivejoule.com. A full lease tracker comparing April/May data across the R1S, R1T, as well as Lucid models, is available here. Here are the highlights:

1. Overall, most trims lease better than last month, but generally still lease relatively poorly. This holds true for both R1S and R1T, although the R1S leases slightly better all around.

2. The best lease deals this month are on the Dual Standard trims. This is in part due to the $3k lease credit but also due to the markedly improved (roughly halved) money factor compared to last month. The R1S leases at 1.17% MSRP/mo and the R1T at 1.23% MSRP/mo.

3. Those vying for a higher trim are best served leasing Dual Large + Perf or Dual Max + Perf for either the R1S or R1T.

4. Please do not lease a Tri or Quad. The 1.99% loan APR on the Tri this month is a significantly better value than the 1.51% MSRP/mo lease. As for the Quad's 1.74% MSRP/mo... even the 5.6% APR 60 month loan is a drastically better value. Even a 15% APR 60-month loan is a better value.

5. If you are not needing to lease this month, June may see better rates.

Happy to answer any questions.

A summary of the lease terms last and this month are below, including each trim's lease credits (if any), MF, RV%, the starting estimated monthly rate for a base spec, and the % MSRP/mo - all assuming $0 down, taxes/fees excluded. The Dual Max without performance was left out because the May inventory was too sparse at the time of analysis.

R1S:

R1T:

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[ribuck97]

Awesome. Rivian disagrees with your numbers (so does leasehackr calc). Most expensive DLP I can find in the store is $99,690 (one FG, one HMG). Rivian shows $1208/mo w/o taxes, fees, etc. Leasehackr calculates residual to ~57.065% and RV to ~3.01% to get to $1208/mo. Obv still not exceptional

Great work.

 

[drivejoule]

Awesome. Rivian disagrees with your numbers (so does leasehackr calc). Most expensive DLP I can find in the store is $99,690 (one FG, one HMG). Rivian shows $1208/mo w/o taxes, fees, etc. Leasehackr calculates residual to ~57.065% and RV to ~3.01% to get to $1208/mo. Obv still not exceptional

Great work.

Thanks for the feedback! You're likely seeing the advertised "Est. lease" rate, which sneakily assumes some large amount down (in this case, $6,500). Once you set down payment to $0, you'll find the monthly rate with $0 down is $1,395 before taxes and fees, which is approximately 1.40% of the MSRP ($99,690). See screenshots below. I appreciate you keeping me honest!

I will edit my original post to clarify one thing, which is that my "est. monthly" column is the base monthly rate for that trim. In other words, $1,247/mo is the starting monthly lease rate for the DLP this month. It goes up from there with options.

 

[ribuck97]

Right, I'm calculating the RV because they tell you. I'm using LH to add in the $7k down until the lease payment in LH gets the Rivian amount by increasing MF (APR). Adding cap cost reduction won't change the RV/MF, just reduce payments. With the $3k incentive and $500 deposit, I get $1310/mo on that $99,690. Obviously using a different MSRP gets the different payment.

We should just make it a "Monthly Incentives thread" giving MF and RVs

I'm seriously half tempted to call and ask to have my 0%/0.49% financing I was approved for

 

[drivejoule]

Gotcha - you were inputting the exact Rivian configurator values (MSRP 99,690, RV ~57.07% ) into the leasehackr calculator and titrated the money factor to get the monthly payment of $1,208, is that right? Which spat out a slightly different money factor APR of 3.01%? Part of the reason for that is there is actually a tiny range of MF and RV% between the base and top spec within a trim. For simplicity sake I just listed the base values in the table. If you take the lowest MSRP DLP in the configurator ($83,990), you should be able to back calculate the MF to ~0.00135 and the RV% to ~57.18%, hence the values in my table. At the top of the DLP (same one we're looking at), it is ~0.00132 and ~57.065% by my calculations (see below). The other part that may be contributing to the small discrepancy is I excluded the order deposit and any other fees (aside from the built-in $1,895 destination fee) from these calculations. There is all assuming no $3k incentive for the DLP this month

I went ahead and tried back calculating via your method on leasehackr and with $0 down, 57.07% RV, and got an MF 0.00132 (APR 3.17%) to reach $1,395/mo. Then adding $6,500 down brings it to $1,208. Screenshot below. This should be attributable to the tiny range of MF/RV I mentioned above. Let me know if you have any other feedback, I appreciate it!

A running monthly lease breakdown thread seems like a great idea! As does snagging that 0%/0.49% financing...

 

[ribuck97]

Let me make sure I got this right: $83990 DLP base is $1029/mo with a RV of $48,096.

Looking at the stipulations, Rivian states the lease rate requires a $7k cap cost reduction. This entails your $500 deposit + $6500 cash(if inventoried, $3k incentive applies).

RV = 48096 / 83990 or 57.264% (got it, easy)
MF = Insert 83990, 57.264, and 7000 down in leasehackr calc. Ensure "Pay acquisition fee upfront." is checked. Raise MF until payment is $1029. MF = 0.00181 or 4.34% APR.

You have to pay the $500 deposit (cap cost reduction) to get the vehicle (as far as I know). You don't have to pay any of the $6500 downpayment (I'd only apply the incentive). All the downpayment does is reduce the monthly, drain your wallet, and its gone if you get in an accident driving off.

I made a mistake in leashackr by NOT checking the "Pay acqfee upfront".

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