BMW and Nissan Are Offering Huge Discounts on EVs in San Diego

With all incentives combined, a Nissan Leaf in San Diego is now cheaper than the cheapest new car in America.
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California is already one of the best places in the U.S. to buy an electric car thanks to the $2,500 state incentive on top of the $7,500 federal break. However, if you happen to live in the San Diego area and you’re in the market for a Nissan Leaf or a BMW i3, there’s a new incentive the doubles the cost cutting of your new EV.

BMW and Nissan are collaborating with San Diego Gas & Electric to offer a whopping $10,000 discount on a new electric vehicle, according to Bloomberg. That brings the total incentive up to $20,000. For reference, the starting price of a BMW i3 is $42,400 and the Nissan Leaf starts at $30,680.

This is an insanely good deal. It brings the cost of the Leaf all the way down to $10,680 making it cheaper than a Nissan Versa S, which is the cheapest new car in the US starting at just $12,855. It also brings the cost of a BMW i3 well below the average new car transaction price in the U.S. making it a realistic option for a lot of San Diego citizens.

Of course, there is a catch. You can’t just travel to San Diego to snag this great deal. You have to be able to prove you’re a customer of San Diego Gas & Electric, so you have to live in the San Diego area to take advantage of the $10,000 incentive.

Why are BMW and Nissan offering such steep discounts? Simple, to compete with the Tesla Model 3. We can now put a dollar amount on how afraid other EV manufacturers are of the long-anticipated Model 3 which is now getting into the hands of eager customers. Nissan and BMW are reasonably concerned that if this EV revolution does come to pass, they want customers who will keep coming back for new electric Nissans or BMWs in the future.