rav4buyer said:
Since Tuesday is the first day of October, you can purchase Mon Sep 30th to qualify for the lease deal, and then have the dealer actually book it on Tuesday, so you get the "free" 30A EVSE on top of it. This is what I did over labor day weekend, but they ended up extending the deal so it didn't matter.
What a great idea!
Dianne should move a ton of Rav4 EVs this weekend through Monday. For those thinking that a better deal is waiting for you in October, I seriously doubt it.
The 2014 model year cars won't have the same deal, just like the 2013 model year cars didn't as they tried to unload all the 2012 cars. The 2013's are almost sold out, so you do the math.
Toyota has contracted for exactly 2600 cars, and that's based on how many credits they estimate for each car. Currently, that should be 3 credits for each "Type II - 100+ miles range" car sold in California. But, if the car is sold and REGISTERED out of state, they likely only get half or less credits for CARB states (the "traveling" provision") and perhaps ZERO for a non-CARB state. So, the incentive is for them to make every attempt to keep the cars in state is HUGE.
So, if they can't get 2600 * 3 = 7800 credits for the three model years as planned, they can't make any more Rav4 EVs to compensate for the lost credits... which means that they will have to pay a $5000 per credit penalty per car not produced, plus buy credits on the open market to make up for the cars that didn't get 3 credits each.
Clearly, Toyota is no doubt becoming increasingly agitated with out of state sales. This isn't hard to figure out, folks!!! They built the car for one reason, and it is costing them TENS of millions of dollars to sell them to you (so they can sell oil burner cars in California and other CARB states). They can't prevent a dealer from doing "interstate commerce", but they can make it difficult for you to own and purchase the car out of state.
We have already seen the scheme of dealers not getting paid for service and warranty repairs who are out of state (and therefore are not certified dealers).
1. Intentionally limiting sales to California only
2. Not including CHAdeMO, even though Toyota is a founding CHAdeMO member
3. No unlimited mileage leases out of state... already happening.
4. Harassing dealers who want to service / warranty repair the car by not paying them!!! Yes, it's happening.
5. Limiting the listing of charging stations in the Navigation unit to California only
In the future, I predict different incentives for out of state, to wit:
6. Limiting the discounts on the car to only California sales and registration
7. Different Toyota interest rate / lease money factors on sales out of state
8. Limiting the car in some obtuse way (making Entunes not work, or some other petty method to make the car less attractive out of state)
9. Limited parts availability to non-California states (i.e., you can't even pay cash for the parts, let alone get warranty repairs)
10. Any other way that the lawyers will sign off on to make sure that the car is likely to be sold and registered only in California through 2014 model year
So, for out-of-state buyers, things will get worse,
I ABSOLUTELY GUARANTEE IT.
For instate, the discounts will likely go down until they feel the pressure to sell model year 2014 cars. The CARB-ZEV credits are attached to the model year.
If you don't buy by Monday, at least you can say that you had plenty of info to ponder.
