2012 Smart Fortwo Passion on 2040-cars

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$99/month EV lease deals still out there, in some places

Has the electric-vehicle market really gotten to the point where folks can take out a lease for less than C-note per month? Yes, if you're interested in a Mitsubishi i of Smart ForTwo EV, Plug In Cars has found. As Mitsubishi prepares to bring in the 2015 model-year version of the i, it's unloading some of the 2013s for as little as $69 a month in some areas, bringing in a bit of deja vu for those who remember the $69 monthly lease rate some Mitsubishi dealers were asking for early last year. Meanwhile, a Smart EV can be had for $99 (discounted from $139 a month), with a $900 down payment, at at least one Connecticut dealership. Moving up to $139 a month could get you into a new Nissan Leaf, albeit with a honking' down payment of about $6,600. Chevrolet Spark EVs can be found in California and Oregon for as little as $199 a month. And both the Fiat 500e and Honda Fit EV can be found at some dealerships with lease rates in the mid-two-hundreds per month. The upper end of the plug-in scale - a Tesla Model S - still runs north of $1,000 a month (before you apply Tesla's various calculations to get to their "effective monthly cost"). But when you can afford to drive a Tesla, who's really counting? Featured Gallery 2012 Mitsubishi i: First Drive View 20 Photos News Source: Plug In CarsImage Credit: Copyright 2014 Sebastian Blanco / AOL Green Mitsubishi smart Electric ev sales lease i-miev i mitsubishi i smart fortwo ed

Smart ForTwo Electric Drive will be cheapest EV at $25,000*

We're getting our first drive in the 2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive today, and Smart just announced pricing for the latest version of its all-electric minicar. The starting price for the ForTwo ED Coupe will be $25,000 (*plus delivery fees), making it the lowest price electric vehicle in the U.S. from a mainstream automaker - and that doesn't even include the available $7,500 federal tax credit.
With the tax credit figured in, the starting price works out to $17,500. Add in the required $825 destination charge and up to $2,200 for a home charger, and the 2013 ForTwo ED Coupe will essentially start at just $20,525 - $1,100 cheaper than the Mitsubishi i-MiEV. Of course, customers who already have home charging stations can save even more. Smart has said that it will offer two different home chargers that range in price from $1,300 to $1,700, and it is estimating installation will cost somewhere in the $300 to $500 range.
While we do know the starting prices for the new ForTwo ED, options and lease prices have not been announced. For comparison, the previous-generation ForTwo ED had a lease price of $599 a month.

Smart ForFour prototype spotted alongside next-gen ForTwo

Smart is continuing to test its upcoming ForFour (seen above) model and the replacement for the ForTwo (pictured at the right), this time doing some cold-weather work in Sweden.
As we've reported previously, the ForFour is an all-new vehicle, and it will have more in common with the smaller ForTwo than the short-lived last model that was co-developed with Mitsubishi. This ForFour is instead a collaborative project with Renault, and could spawn what will ultimately become the new Renault Twingo. Some reports have it that Renault is no longer interested in the Smart partnership, but the fact that these testers were wearing French plates and were spotted caravanning with a French-registered Dacia Duster adds a bit of circumstantial evidence that the match is intact.
The new ForTwo was also spied in these snowy environs. The two-seater is expected to be ready to roll before the ForFour - likely coming to market in 2014. The ForFour, meanwhile, might not show up until 2015.