Choosing the right model and powertrain can make all the difference in two key ways.

First, the amount of depreciation your vehicle will deal with has to do with how popular and easy it is to resell down the line.

Generally speaking, the R1S will handle depreciation better far better than the R1T, for example.

And then you have to account for the fact that higher options tend to depreciate faster than purely higher trims.

Everything over the base model will suffer from more depreciation though when compared to the entry price point.

Second, the referral incentives often differ by model and/or powertrain. You're likely to get better referral bonuses for more expensive vehicles.

For both the R1S and R1T, my recommended sweet spots are:

Dual-Standard with Premium Audio Upgrade

or

Tri-Max

Optioning up to the Dual-Large or Dual-Max can cost considerably more than Dual-Standard with more limited upside and greater depreciation. 

Not to mention the big difference in default driving dynamics the auto-suspension and full-time AWD drive mode at "key up" that Tri and Quad models provide.

We've spent over a year with a Gen2 R1S and Gen2 R1T, both in the Dual-Max variant. And while they've been great vehicles, if we were buying today, we would choose Tri-Max for the driving dynamics difference alone, even if they offered no additional power or a faster 0-60.

Be sure to check out my 1-year Gen2 R1S review.

See my 1 year review of our Dual-Max R1S 👇

For this example I went and found a beautiful Storm Blue R1S Tri Max in the R1 Shop which we will use for the example calculation.

Note: Often the best Rivian offers apply to vehicles that are already built and ready to deliver in the shop!

No matter if you are custom configuring, or choosing from the shop, Rivian will list the "order price" which constitutes the MSRP you will need for the calculator.

In this example, we're looking at an extremely well equipped build that has an MSRP of $110,990

Here's an example of that in your first field. 👇

Example Lease Incentives

Example Finance Incentives

As mentioned in step 3, your mileage and term length impact your residual to try to accurately choose the miles you expect to put on the vehicle.

As for the term length, depending on how often you want to switch up your vehicle can impact if you choose 24 or 36 months, but know that going with 36 months is often ideal.

This is primarily due to the front loading of depreciation. Choosing 24 months can often increase your monthly payment by hundreds of dollars per month.

Warning! This one is not as obvious as it sounds.

You'll need to know all three of these values at the same time because they often influence each other.

Throughout this example, we were seeing a monthly payment of $1,532 per month.

However, this was with the defaults that Rivian uses, and there was an active Lease Bonus applied to their base math.

You almost needs to work backwards in order to generate a realistic monthly payment with the most favorable terms.

Down Payment: You almost always want to do a $0 down lease whenever possible. As if your vehicle gets totaled or stolen, that money down is often unrecoverable.

Going $0 down mitigated your risk considerably. In our example here, Rivian had been assuming you'd put an extra $1,500 down, but lets set that to $0 for an optimal lease deal.

Lease Bonus: This is essentially just a straight discount from the automaker to move metal. In the example we've been using, Rivian was running a $5,000 lease bonus on this particular trim, which is a direct capitalized cost reduction for you.

A lease bonus is essentially "free money" to lower your payment.

This is why being savvy about the current offers helps you choose currently incentivized models and powertrains.

Resulting Monthly Payment: This is generated by the two factors above. When we set the downpayment to $0 and we take advantage of the example $5,000 lease bonus, the monthly payment goes up from $1,532 to $1,576.

Pro-Tip: I've included a "Set to $0" that automatically updates your monthly lease payment!

Now that you've found all the variable inputs needed to properly analyze your lease vs finance, it's time to get some results.

Hit the "Compare Options" button to generate the report.

Thanks to Rivian being transparent with residual values now, we have everything we need to make an educated decision.

Lease Analysis

Unlike my dedicated lease calculator where I break down the nitty gritty finance terms like money factor, this lease analysis gives you a simple grade & total cost output.

This should give you a reasonable estimate for inferred APR, depreciation based on residual, and your other fees.

Combined, this gives your total estimated expense (before applicable taxes) during your stated lease term.

Finance Analysis

The finance analysis gives you a similar breakdown of APR, amount financed and the total cash expense you can expect by the same period as the lease term.

Here though, there are a few key differences.

First, is the fact that you have the potential to have built-up equity which we can directly compare to the projected residual given by the lease numbers.

Second, you have opportunity cost from tying up your purchase downpayment in a vehicle as opposed to an account that can generate a return on your capital.

If you put that money into an index fund, it would yield the highest return. However, to be more fair and consistent I calculated based on my favorite high yield savings account right now.

Recommendation

At the end of the day, you want a simple decision.

Lease or finance.

This comparison tool will always give you a clear signal which way to go for the recommended action, and why.

Sometimes the deal will clearly yield a proper savings amount, but there is an area of flex that I've added some personal positioning on the recommendation.

In cases where the lease is up-to 10% more "expensive" than the finance option, it will still point you towards leasing.

This is because EVs as a category can be more volatile in residual values, so you're effectively paying to downside insurance by going the leasing route.

Paying a premium only works up to a point, so this calculator will make it clear when that's the case and just how much you're paying for that depreciation protection.

Summary Images

Once you've generated this report, you can either download or directly share a summary image to share with a partner or joint decision maker who just wants a summary of the deal.

Similar to my dedicated leasing calculator, I'm very thankful that Rivian has opted towards more transparent lease information by providing the residual values up-front.

This "Lease vs Buy" comparison tool should give you increased clarity on which route to go once you've settled on which trim best suits your needs and wants in a vehicle.

As always, I hope this gave you the information you needed to make a truly informed decision around your next Rivian.

Depreciation continues to be the #1 obstacle to these vehicles for the foreseeable future... but with shifting incentives, at least now you can get a clear direction on which path is best.

Any time I can help the consumer get a more favorable deal on the thing they want, I'll do it 10 out of 10 times.

Stay Curious! ✌️

Sincerely,

Travis Ketchum