Hyundai Ioniq Electric Unlimited+ Subscription Program Scrapped

Ioniq Electric Unlimited+ has reached its limit, will be replaced by more traditional lease

According to CarsDirect.com, the Hyundai Ioniq Electric will no longer be offered with a “subscription lease”. Under the Ioniq Electric Unlimited+ subscription, buyers were able to drive without concern for traditional lease mileage caps, charging costs, or maintenance costs.

This unique offer was announced with $2,500 due at signing and monthly payments starting at $275 for 36 months. The monthly payment was increased for the 2018 model year to $295/month. Select California buyers could have gotten into the Ioniq for relatively cheap and it included some interesting benefits:

  • $0 initiation fee after rebate
  • Hassle-free transaction
  • Initial tax, title, license and fees (except California sales tax)
  • Unlimited mileage (no mileage penalties)
  • Electric charging reimbursement
  • Scheduled maintenance [for first 50,000 miles]
  • Vehicle wear items

Most of these benefits were minor. However, the unlimited mileage and EV charging reimbursement were nice features.

Moving forward, the 2019 Hyundai Ioniq Electric lease will start at $239 for 36 months with $2,500 at signing. With it are the usual 10k, 12k and 15k mile allowances. This new lease does not come with the many other benefits of the previous offer either. Still, it is an affordable way to start driving an efficient electric vehicle. This new price places the all electric version of the Ionic about $40 a month cheaper than the plug-in hybrid version.

Unfortunately the lower price is unlikely to improve sales numbers in the states. Since the vehicles launch, the Ioniq Electric and Plug-In models have been selling pretty well worldwide. But 2018 U.S. sales are estimated at less than 1,500 combined through September. None of this is a surprise considering the electric is only available in California in very limited numbers. Hyundai has cited battery supply issues as the reason for the low production numbers.

Hopefully Hyundai can improve their battery supply situation in time for the new longer range version in 2020. The U.S. could certainly benefit from greater inventories.

Source: CarsDirect

Source: Read Full Article