Hyundai announced a subscription program that combines a Hyundai EV, plus insurance, plus maintenance into one monthly package. They’re calling it Evolve+ EV. It’s available for the Ionic 5 & the Kona Electric. And the starting cost is $899 per month for the basic RWD Ionic 5, and $699 per month for the Kona EV. Technically it’s not a month, it’s a 28-day subscription cycle. So they’re figured out how to squeeze almost 13 months of payments into a 12 month year lol.
Whew – I’m not sure who’s teaching math these days. Or common sense. But here we go kids, welcome to the future you’re getting with EVs. It’s world of monthly subscription withdrawals that eat up your paycheck. And keep you broke while you actually own nothing. Walk with me here lol…
Let’s take the Ionic 5 for example.
It starts at $899 per month (28 days), and it includes insurance. So let’s estimate the cost of that insurance at $150/month & throw that out… because you’re gonna pay car insurance on any vehicle across the board. That essentially makes the payment $750/month. Right?
But that’s $750 per month, and you own nothing. Let that sink in. You’re not paying towards the ownership of an Ionic 5; you’re just paying for transportation. It might make sense if you want to test-drive “what it would be like” to live with an EV for a month or two. But…
As part of the Evolve+ EV subscription agreement, you’re limited to 1,000 miles per month.
So that means you’re paying 75¢ per mile you travel… IF you travel all the allotted 1,000 miles. However, if you travel LESS than the 1,000 allotted miles, your cost-per-mile goes up accordingly. For example if you only travel 500 miles that month, you paid $1.50 per mile. So whether you drive 1 mile or 1,000 miles, the monthly cost is the same. Does that make sense?
Now with Evolve+ EV, unused miles DO roll over to the next month… so fortunately you will have an opportunity to use them later if you keep the subscription going. But because you’re only paying for transportation AND NOT towards the actual vehicle/asset, you’re paying for those 1,000 miles whether you use them or not.
See in the old world, when you financed a car, you were paying towards ownership. Your monthly car note PAID OFF THE CAR, and no one monitored how many miles you put on it because it was yours. With a subscription service like Hyundai’s Evolve+ EV… you’re just paying for transportation. See the difference? It’s a rental. But that sounds off-putting so the auto industry changed the name to ‘a lease’. And now with EVs, they’re glamming it up to the word Evolve lol.
Great – now let’s talk about what happens if you go OVER your 1000-mile-per-month ration.
If you go over 1,000 miles in a month, Evolve+ EV takes out their clipboard & tallies an extra $20 per 100 miles up to 1,500 miles. At which point they really twist the knife & charge you an extra dollar-per-mile after that. So if you drive 1,500 miles in a month, you’ve spent $1000 that month for your transportation (not including charging). And if you were to get froggy & drive 2,000 miles in a month… it’ll cost you $1500… to rent a Hyundai.
Because again, you own nothing at the end of this subscription. And… ANNNNND… they’ve put an invisible fence around you… and made it near impossible to travel without apprehension and/or counting the miles. It’s not a bad car; it’s a bad deal. We’ve always said the business model for EVs was going to immitate the business model for cell phones… and here we are.
Remember way back 4-years ago when a $400-450 car payment was fair, and your monthly note was paying off a car that you owned? Now 4-years later, we’re normalizing paying $900/month for a EV Hyundai that we don’t own. Ok good luck; we hope you make good choices.
*Evolve+ EV is a month-to-month subscription program where you can cancel whenever you’d like. It’s initially only available in select cities. And you must have a 3-year clean driving record & a 650+ credit score to qualify.
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