Hyundai IONIQ 5 (left) and IONIQ 6 (right) at Tesla Supercharger (Source: Hyundai)
There’s a loophole in the stricter IRA federal tax credit that only applies $3750 rebates on North American-built cars and separately $3750 on domestic batteries. For whatever reason, all EVs get the full $7500 applied to leases, however. So that has more people leasing EVs than ever before.
The number of electric vehicle models that can be leased for less than $400/month has grown by 50% since last August. The list now includes ten models with factory offers that rival lease terms on low-priced ICE vehicles such as the Toyota Camry LE, Chevy Equinox LT, and Honda HR-V LX. Two of those EV models have a range of over 300 miles.
1. 2023 Vinfast VF8 Eco – $268/month
On paper, the VF8 Eco looks pretty good, given an incredibly attractive average monthly lease cost that’s well under $300/month before tax and license. Its 264-mile range and 0-60 time of 6.5 seconds is in line with the competition, has a roomier than expected cabin and comes with amenities not typically found in a base trim such as heated front seats, adaptive cruise control, power-folding heated side mirrors, and leather-like seating surfaces. However, cargo space behind the rear seats of this 5-passenger all-wheel drive crossover measures at just 13.2 cubic feet, which would be excusable If that was the only shortcoming of this fledgling EV, but sadly it is not. Reviews by major auto enthusiast publications last spring have been negative, citing quality issues, quirky driving dynamics, and buggy software.
VinFast VF 8 (Source: VinFast)
Vinfast says improvements have been made to the VF8 since then, and at $249/month for 36 months with $944 to start before tax and license, it might be worthwhile to give it a test drive to experience how it measures up. If a three-year commitment is too risky, Vinfast’s online payment estimator says that a 24-month, zero-down lease is priced at just $299/month. Either way, the VF8 could save thousands of dollars over leasing any other all-wheel-drive crossover, gas or electric.
2. 2024 Nissan LEAF S – $332/month (Northeast), $357/month (elsewhere)
At $249/month for 36 months with $3219 to start, the 2024 Nissan LEAF S leases for $23/month less than the 2023 model did last August. The front-drive, five-passenger hatchback with 24 cubic feet of cargo space behind its rear seats is a carryover from last year, so it looks and performs as it has for a while, providing 149 miles of range on a full charge and a 0-60 time of 7.4 seconds. Those that yearn for more range and oomph can opt for a LEAF in SV Plus trim (0-60 in 6.8 seconds, 226-mile range), but its average monthly lease cost will be north of $400/month unless the dealer agrees to a substantial discount.
Nissan LEAF / Source: Nissan
Fortunately, we did find a number of dealers advertising thousands off MSRP on a 2023 or 2024 LEAF SV Plus. In fact, we found two dealers – Quirk Nissan in Massachusetts and Beaverton Nissan in Oregon – touting lease offers on an SV Plus with an average monthly cost that’s under $300/month before tax and license. Look for Nissan LEAF deals near you.
3. 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 – $333/month (SE Standard Range), $353/month (SE Long Range RWD)
This eye-popping offer of $242/month for 36 months and $3507 at signing is by far the best factory lease deal we’ve seen on the critically acclaimed, beautifully sculpted Hyundai Ioniq 5. The five-passenger crossover with 27.2 cubic feet of stowage behind the back seats, when in SE Standard Range trim, is good for 220 miles on a full charge and adequately accelerates from zero to 60mph in 7.4 seconds. Want an even better bargain? Committing another $55/month over the three-year lease term buys a whopping 37% bump up in range, for a total of 303 miles.
Hyundai IONIQ 5 Source: Hyundai
Want more bells and whistles, or all-wheel-drive, or maybe even both? It can all be had for under $400/month plus tax and license by scoring a big enough dealer discount. For example, Mission Hills Hyundai in Los Angeles has a rear-wheel-drive Ioniq 5 in SEL trim discounted by $2500 that’s leasing at $138/month for 36 month, $5787 at signing, which calculates to an average monthly cost of just $295/month. On the other side of the continent, McGovern Hyundai in Massachusetts is leasing an all-wheel-drive Ioniq 5 SE for $249/month for 36 months, $3499 at signing, which has an average monthly cost of $339/month. And Hyundai 112 on Long Island is advertising an Ioniq 5 SEL AWD lease at $426/month for 39 months with $1076 at signing, which does include the New York Drive Clean rebate, but it’s apparently priced with no dealer discount. These terms step over our $400 line in the sand, but negotiating a $1500 to $2000 discount should drop the effective lease cost of an all-wheel-drive Ioniq 5 SEL (255 miles of range, 0-60 in 4.4 seconds) to less than $400/month. Let us help you find a great Ioniq 5 deal in your area.
Here we go again! During last year’s EV price war, Hyundai slashed over $100/month off the effective monthly lease cost of its least expensive Ioniq 6, which at the time was the 240-mile Ioniq 6 SE Standard Range. Last week, Hyundai took another swing at their Ioniq 6 incentives, perhaps in response to Tesla reducing the monthly lease cost of cheapest Model 3 sedan down to $432/month. So now the 2024 Ioniq 6 SE, a sleek sedan capable of covering an astounding 361 miles on a full charge and sprinting from zero to sixty in just 6.2 seconds, can be leased for just $249/month for 36 months with $3499 due at signing, plus tax and license. Upgrading to SEL trim takes only $14/month more, adding larger wheel and tires, wireless device charging, leather-like seating surfaces, digital key, enhanced collision avoidance, and enhanced driving assistance to the already well-appointed SE trim.
5. Kia Niro EV Wind – $343/month (2023), $357/month (2024)
At $239/month for 36 months and $4499 to start, the factory lease offer on a 2024 Kia Niro EV Wind has an average monthly cost that’s $30/month less than the lease on a 2023 model back in August. Remaining 2023 models are slightly cheaper, advertised at the same monthly payment as a 2024 but requiring $500 less to start. The five-passenger, front-drive crossover goes 253 miles on a full charge, scoots from zero to 60mph in 6.7 seconds, and carries 23 cubic feet of cargo behind the rear seats.
The new-for-2024 Kona Electric SE leases for $259/month for 36 months and $3999 to start, plus tax and license. That computes to an effective cost that’s $10/month less than the factory lease offer on the first-gen 2023 model in base SE trim offered last August, but there is some give-and-take. On the plus side, in addition to fresh interior and exterior aesthetics, the redesigned front-drive five-passenger crossover grew six inches in length, contributing to more passenger space as well as a 33% larger cargo area behind the rear seats, now measuring at 25.5 cubic feet. The rub is that the base model now comes with a smaller 48.6 kWh battery and less powerful 133hp motor, dropping its range to 200 miles and slowing its 0-60mph time to 8.7 seconds. Those that long for the range and performance achieved by the Kona Electric of yore can pony up an additional $60/month for a second-gen in SEL trim, which scoots from zero to sixty in 6.7 seconds and goes 261 miles on a full charge.
2024 Hyundai Kona EV (Source: Hyundai)
As one might expect, the redesigned Kona Electric is pretty much selling at MSRP for now, less any factory incentives, which is currently at a very compelling $7500 whether you choose to lease or buy. There are several dealers offering discounts worth mentioning, though. Keyes Hyundai of Mission Hills in the Los Angeles area and Coggin DeLand Hyundai in Florida are advertising a $1000 discount on their Kona Electric inventory, Dahl Hyundai in Wisconsin is offering an SEL at $945 off, and Bob Howard Hyundai in Oklahoma City is discounting one 2024 SEL by $3780. Quantities are currently limited when compared to other Hyundai EVs and to its platform sibling, the Kia Niro EV, with the price-leading SE trim being the most scarce, accounting for less than 10% of the Kona Electrics currently on dealer lots. Find a Hyundai Kona Electric at a dealer near you.
7. 2024 Mini Electric Hardtop – $371/month
Mini keeps trimming the lease cost of its Electric Hardtop, now advertised at $279/month for 36 months with $3579 due at signing for a 2024 model. That calculates to an average lease cost that’s $22 less than the lease terms on a 2023 model back in August. The front-drive, two-door, four-seat hatchback with 8.7 cubic feet of cargo space behind its rear seats sprints from zero to 60mph in 6.1 seconds but travels only up to 114 miles on a full charge.
Mini enthusiasts that long for more range will have to wait until its 2025 refresh, which promises a bigger battery that should be good for 200+ miles on a charge. Until then, don’t be surprised if Mini continues to whittle away at the current model’s lease cost. As far as dealer discounts, estimates from car shopping websites indicate markdowns ranging between 2% (about $500-$700) to 4% (about $1300) can be expected, which should translate to a $10-$20/month savings from the factory lease offer. Check for a Mini Electric Hardtop deal near you.
8. 2023 VW ID.4 Standard – $388/month
If size is all that matters, The VW ID.4 Standard could be viewed as the best factory lease deal on this list since it’s the only one that can carry five people and over 30 cubic feet of cargo at the same time, just barely edging out the Subaru Solterra by a cubic foot or so. However, settling on the Standard trim level means settling for rear-wheel-drive and a smaller battery, limiting its range to 209 miles and its zero to sixty time to 7.6 seconds. If more range and performance is desired, the decked-out ID.4 Pro S AWD goes 255 miles on a full charge and sprints to 60mph from a standstill in 5.5 seconds. VW’s lease offer on the Pro S AWD is a relatively reasonable $379/month for 36 months with $4499 to start, which computes to an average monthly lease cost of just $471/month.
Dealers practically sold out of the Solterra in Premium trim after Subaru declared a no-down, $399/month lease offer last August, which is a bargain for a five-passenger, all-wheel-drive EV that hauls 29 cubic feet of cargo behind its rear seats, hits 60mph from standstill in 6.5 seconds, and covers 222 miles on a full charge. By our observation, dealer stock of the Premium and Limited trim levels remained depleted as the killer lease deal was continued into the new year, leaving only the top-of-the-line Touring trim available. Good news is that dealerships have some 2023 Premium and Limited Solterras in showrooms again, and Touring models are being discounted generously. But don’t expect these 2023 deals to last long since scores of the improved 2024 Solterra are in transit to retailers, and although Subaru is holding the line on its MSRP going into the new model year, it may be wise to assume the alluring lease terms will no longer persist.
Last and certainly not least is the 260-mile Tesla Model Y, which is seeing its most competitive pricing ever and leases starting at $379/month with the terms outlined below.
Tesla has the most robust charging network by far, and there are more Model Ys on the road than any other EV, guaranteeing many accessories, repairability, and general knowledge of the vehicle. You can also skip the annoying dealership experience.
Bump the car up to Long Range 310-mile AWD for $430/month. Extras include optional 7-seats, tow hitch, premium paint, FSD and 3.5 sec 0-60 Performance option. Use our referral link to get 3 months of FSD for free.
Elon Musk announced last night that Tesla is planning to “roughly double” its Robotaxi fleet in Austin next month. While an expansion of the pilot sounds positive on the surface, a look at the actual numbers reveals that Tesla is missing its own “end of year” target by a massive margin.
Just last month, Musk explicitly stated that Tesla aimed to have 500 Robotaxis in Austin by the end of the year. Now, “doubling” the current estimated fleet suggests the actual number will be closer to 60.
We have been closely tracking the rollout of the “Tesla Robotaxi” pilot in Austin, which launched back in June using Model Y vehicles.
Unlike the “Cybercab” unveiled in October, these vehicles are standard Model Ys equipped with Hardware 4, and critically, they are not driverless. They are part of a “supervised” pilot, meaning a Tesla employee sits in the front passenger seat (or driver’s seat for highway stints) to monitor the system with a finger on a killswitch ready to stop the car..
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The service has been plagued by availability issues. As we reported recently, users in Austin are frequently met with “High Service Demand” messages, with wait times often exceeding 40 minutes. It’s not necessarily because there’s really “high demand”, but because Tesla’s ‘Robotaxi fleet” remains tiny.
In response to complaints about the service being “essentially unusable” due to lack of supply, Elon Musk took to X (formerly Twitter) late Tuesday to promise relief:
“The Tesla Robotaxi fleet in Austin should roughly double next month.”
For those frustrated by the wait times, more cars are certainly welcome. But for investors and analysts tracking Tesla’s autonomous driving promises, this announcement serves as a confirmation of a significant missed deadline.
How many Tesla Robotaxis are in Austin?
To understand why “doubling” is actually a disappointment, we have to look at what Musk promised just a few weeks ago.
During his appearance on the All-In Podcast, which aired on October 31, 2025, Musk was explicitly asked about the scale of the fleet. His answer was unambiguous:
“We’re scaling up the number of cars to… probably we’ll have a thousand cars or more in the Bay Area by the end of this year, probably 500 or more in the greater Austin area.”
Let’s do the math.
Based on observations from the Austin community and tracking of the vehicle VINs and plate numbers, the current Tesla Robotaxi fleet in Austin is estimated to be around 30 vehicles. In fact, 29 different Robotaxi license plates were spotted in Austin.
If Tesla “roughly doubles” that fleet in December, they will have approximately 60 vehicles on the road.
That is a far cry from the 500 that Musk projected just weeks ago. In fact, it represents a shortfall of nearly 90% against the target.
This massive miss in deployment targets is particularly ironic given Musk’s recent comments about competitors. When Waymo announced earlier this month that it had reached 2,500 active robotaxis across the US (with about 200 in Austin alone), Musk scoffed, calling them “Rookie numbers.”
Yet, the data shows that Waymo currently operates a fleet in Austin that is roughly 3x to 4x larger than what Tesla hopes to have after its expansion next month. And unlike Tesla’s pilot, Waymo’s Austin fleet is operating fully driverless, without human chaperones in the front seat.
Electrek’s Take
Another clear case of Elon Musk’s shifting the goalposts in Tesla’s autonomous driving programs, something we’ve unfortunately become accustomed to with Tesla’s autonomy timelines.
Musk said “500 cars by end of year” just a few weeks ago. It shows he is just saying numbers and nothing is grounded in reality.
Let’s be real about what this means. It means the “unsupervised” dream is still stuck in “supervised” reality. Scaling a fleet to 500 cars when you need 1,000+ human employees to drive them (staffing multiple shifts) is an HR nightmare, not a software update. The fact that they are only getting to ~60 tells me that the “supervised” requirement is the hard limit on their growth right now.
An aerial view of a 33 megawatt data center with closed-loop cooling system on October 20, 2025 in Vernon, California.
Mario Tama | Getty Images
The data centers that power the artificial intelligence revolution are driving up electricity prices for households — and price relief may not be coming anytime soon, according to energy experts.
Residential retail electricity prices in September were up 7.4%, to about 18 cents per kilowatt hour, according to the most recent data from the Energy Information Administration.
Electricity prices closely tracked inflation from 2013 to 2023, but will likely outpace inflation at least through 2026, according to an EIA forecast from May. Some regions will be hit harder than others, it said.
Energy experts and economists point to electricity-hungry data centers that underpin AI projects as a key reason for the price inflation.
These data centers are vast warehouses of computer servers and other IT equipment that power cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other tech applications.
Read more CNBC personal finance coverage
The basic reason for rising prices: Electricity demand — including actual and forecasted demand — is outstripping new supply.
Data centers are expected to consume anywhere from 6.7% to 12% of total U.S. electricity by 2028, up from 4.4% in 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy estimated in December 2024.
John Quigley, senior fellow at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, pointed to the “data center frenzy” as the primary driver of higher electricity prices for households.
“They’re pretty much the whole boat when it comes to increases in electricity demand,” Quigley said.
“It’s going to get worse,” he said.
Affordability is the ‘most salient issue’ in politics
Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate, former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger delivers remarks during her election-night rally at the Greater Richmond Convention Center on November 04, 2025 in Richmond, Virginia.
Win Mcnamee | Getty Images
To be sure, data centers aren’t the only contributor to higher electricity prices, experts said.
But escalating electricity prices “can strain household budgets … undermine economic competitiveness … and hinder the electrification of energy systems,” researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory wrote in a recent analysis.
Rising electricity prices for U.S. households also come as politicians continue to leverage the affordability theme to garner support.
New Jersey governor-elect Mikie Sherrill and Virginia governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, both Democrats, promised to lower electricity bills for state residents. During her campaign,Spanberger said she wants to “make sure data centers don’t drive up energy costs for everyone else in Virginia.”
“Affordability remains [the] most salient issue in politics,” Chris Krueger, a strategist at Washington Research Group, wrote in a research note on Tuesday.
Rising energy bills are pushing households deeper into debt, according to a recent analysis by the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank.
The average overdue balance on utility bills has risen 32% since 2022, to $789 from $597, it found. Utilities include electricity and other costs like gas and water.
Households that use electricity to heat their homes are estimated to see their winter heating bills rise to $1,205 this season, up about 10% from $1,093 last winter, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.
“Consumers may again feel the pressure on their utility bills in the coming months, particularly if the winter is a cold one,” according to a Bank of America Institute report from October.
Booming electricity demand
the Google Midlothian Data Center in Midlothian, Texas, US, on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025.
Jonathan Johnson | Bloomberg | Getty Images
AI euphoria has been driving the U.S. stock market ever higher — and fueling speculation that the market is in a tech-fueled bubble that might soon pop.
Regardless of whether the market’s AI rally proves sustainable, the scale of the technology’s growth is unmistakable.The International Energy Agency expects worldwide electricity demand from AI data centers to more than quadruple by 2030.
“Global electricity demand from data centres is set to more than double over the next five years, consuming as much electricity by 2030 as the whole of Japan does today,” Fatih Birol, IEA executive director, said in that analysis.
The effects will be “particularly strong” in countries like the U.S., where data centers are projected to account for almost half of the growth in overall electricity demand, according to the IEA analysis.
The U.S. economy is on track to consume more electricity in 2030 for processing data than for manufacturing all energy-intensive goods combined, including aluminum, steel, cement and chemicals, the IEA found.
Forecasted demand has fueled the need for new infrastructure like power lines, substations and power plants, the costs of which companies at least partly pass on to residential consumers, said Quigley of UPenn.
In other words, households are partially subsidizing the AI data center expansion, he said.
While AI-driven electricity demand is happening across the U.S., some electric grid managers are better at managing costs than others,” said Quigley.
“The amount of the [price] increase will vary by region,” he said.
Amazon’s largest AI data center has seven completed buildings, with 30 total buildings planned on 1,200 acres in New Carlisle, Indiana, shown here on October 8, 2025.
Erin Black
For example, extreme weather like hurricanes, storms and wildfires contributed to “sizable” price growth in some states like California, where wildfire risk mitigation and liability insurance were “major cost drivers,” according to an October report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a U.S. Energy Department laboratory managed by the University of California.
After accounting for the impact of inflation, 31 states actually saw electricity prices decline from 2019 to 2024, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers. Seventeen states saw price increases after inflation, especially in states on the West Coast and in the Northeast, they found.
Nationally, average retail electricity prices increased by 23% over that period in nominal terms, meaning before accounting for inflation, they found.
Increasing residential electrification, including electric vehicles, is among other factors pushing up electricity demand, according to the Bank of America Institute.
Just over a year after Uber announced a strategic partnership in the Middle East with autonomous vehicle specialist WeRide, the companies have officially begun offering the public robotaxi rides without a driver or safety operator present on board.
Today’s latest milestone involving robotaxi operations in the Middle East dates back to September 2024, when Uber and WeRide initially announced a strategic partnership to bring autonomous rides to the UAE.
Three months later, the partner officially launched autonomous rides in Abu Dhabi, but with a safety operator present in the vehicle. At the time, Uber and WeRide said the supervised rides were “laying the groundwork” for a true driverless commercial operations planned for 2025.
That day has come.
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WeRide and Uber have confirmed that commercial robotaxi operations are officially underway in Abu Dhabi without any safety operators on board – a first for the Middle East.
Source: Uber
Uber rolls out Middle East robotaxi operations in Abu Dhabi
Uber shared details of its latest milestone late this evening or in the afternoon in the Middle East, depending on where you are.
Beginning today (Wednesday) customers in Abu Dhabi can select an UberX or Uber Comfort ride that enables them to be matched with a fully autonomous WeRide robotaxi without a driver inside. Riders in the Middle East can also increase their chances of hailing one of these driverless rides by select the “Autonomous” option in the Uber app.
In order to qualify, the prosepctive rider’s route must be part of WeRide’s operating territory in Abu Dhabi and a dedicated WeRide GXR Robotaxi vehicle (seen in the featured image above) must be available.
Similar to Uber’s partnership with Waymo in Austin and Atlanta, the global rideshare network will oversee fleet operations for WeRide vehicles, handling end-to end rider support. It has tapped Tawasul Transport to facilitate vehicle cleaning, maintenance, inspections, charging, and depot management. WeRide will remain responsible for vehicle testing.
As you may recall last spring, Uber and WeRide announced an expansion to their strategic partnership beyond the Middle East (although Dubai will be the city for its next robotaxi rollout). Over the next five years, Uber and WeRide intend to deploy true driverless public rides in 15 additional cities, some of which will be in Europe.
As promised, here’s some b-roll footage from Uber showing how riders in Abu Dhabi can order a WeRide robotaxi:
Source: Uber
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