When I bought my LEAF in Dec 2014, I negotiated a price including a $2000 incentive from Nissan. Turns out that incentive was from NMAC (Nissan’s financing arm) and was only avail if I took a loan with them. Ok, what’s the interest rate? 0%. Wait, you give me $2K at signing and finance the car at 0% for 60 months? Ok, sign me up!

In terms of selling below their invoice price, they also get an advertising holdback that scales with cars sold, so they’re still making a small amount on the sales floor. The real money at a dealership is made in the service bays, not on the sales floor. This is what really sucks for dealers about electric cars. In 42 months, my LEAF has never seen the dealer again and I’ve only added washer fluid and changed the wiper blades once.