So if it’s zero percent interest, and the total amount of monthly payments adds up to 46 K CHF while the cash value of the car is also 46K
They shouldn’t Restwert be zero after lease period?
That‘s correct.
That sounds to me rather like “financing” (paying the car fully out, usually over 5+ years), whereas with “leasing” (1 year onwards) there is typically a residual value at the end.
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Guys…
In leasing Downpayment + Leasing rates are usually not equal the Price of the car. Thus there is a residual value.
It is p.ex.visible on the tesla site.
Downpayment: 10k
48 monthly rates à 381 CHF
= 28288 CHF Payed to the leasing company.
Why do you think there should be no residual value?
Yes but it wasnt easy. We insisted that we would cancel the leasing (you can do that in the first 2 weeks) if we don‘t get it.
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Edit: 
I’m answering to the OP, which isn’t the topic of the current discussion. Please ignore this message and move on./Edit
As an aside:
That’s why they’re offering it. I would never take financing conditions into consideration when it comes to evaluating whether or not to buy a vehicle, nor on what model to choose. They, however, matter when the actual model and age range has been chosen and it comes to deciding how to “buy” it.
Or the actual residual value they expect there to be is over 20k and you only get a 0% lease if you actually buy the car (you’d have paid more than the depreciation of the car during the time you’ve used it otherwise).
As I understand it (and I’m an amateur so take it with a grain of salt), there are two ways they can make money with those deals:
-
increase the volume of vehicles sold and have an agreement between to automaker, seller and/or financing provider.
-
Make it an opaque deal that will hide real costs and allows to actually set the margins and “actual” interest they want/can.
Anything with no guarantee that you can buy the car at a defined price that, when added to the costs of the lease + the downpayment comes down to exactly the price you’d pay for the car in cash may fall into the 2) category.
Right, businesses exist for the public good. 
Rest assured they are.
Their own interest first, then client’s/partner’s.
You can however usually tune the deposit and residual value with them, so that you pay more/less before/during/after the lease - depending what you would like to do with the car afterwards.
Because in the original post it was mentioned that total amount of lease payments add up to 46K CHF
And my understanding was that new car also costs the same amount 46 K
Maybe I misunderstood the post.
For this deal to make sense one of the following needs to be true. Otherwise what’s the point of calling is 0%
- total payments for monthly payments (over 4-5 year period) is much less than actually value of the car
- Residual value of car after end of lease is zero
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Didnt read this post.
To my knowledge it is not usual within leasing, that downpayment and monthly payments (w/o interest) are adding up to 100% of the value.
This would mean depreciation to 0% in 4 years.
Total amount of lease payments = (downpayment)* + monthly installments + residual value
*if any
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Thanks for all the input.
In the meantime, I decided not to buy the new model y, we simply wouldnt use it enough. Am now looking a bit into 3-4 year old certified pre owned model 3s - I think the value depreciation on those is a bit less, and maybe I could get one for a bit less than 25k.
Or we go for a golf / passat variant occasion, also 25k.
On the leasing - Tesla offered 0% with Migros Bank - the total amount (downpayment of 10k + monthly rates over 3 years + restwert (around 20k) add up exactly to the purchasing price.
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Sure, you may find plenty directly on Tesla’s official web site starting from ca. 22k. Happy hunting ! 
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I’m a car enthousiast, and document all my costs related to my car. When I bought it (Alfa Romeo 159), the previous owner has documented his purchase contract + all service bills since 2011. The car is from 2007. That means that over the last 15 years, I have the following data points:
- New price in 2007, price in 2011, price in 2021 (when I bought it).
- Residual value based on depreciation.
- Maintenance cost per year / per km.
- Insurance and taxes.
This all comes down to 0.30-0.40 CHF/km based on my yearly mileage of 20.000 km.
From 2011-2021, most of the costs were depreciation (30-60%)
From 2021-2024, most of the cost were fuel and maintenance (60-80%).
First of all, when you are leasing, you are dealing with 3 parties. The buyer, the seller, and the “financier.” None of these parties are volunteering, so everybody wants a piece of the pie. Therefore, by default it will not be cheaper than cuttting out the middleman.
When you buy a new car, you pay for the initial depreciation. This can be up to 20-25% for the first 4 years. Depreciation usually “flattens out” after 6-8 years, to roughly 8-12% depending on mileage, condition of the vehicle, perceived market value and so on.
There are some model Y’s on autoscout, and the 3 year old models with 40.000 km are 35-45k.
That means they depreciated roughly 20-25% per year.
Even with 0% financing, you are paying for this huge depreciation.
All rambling aside. A car brings you from A to B. This can be achieved for roughly ~0.25 CHF/km. Everything more than that is luxury, comfort and so on.
My advice (if you really want a tesla): Buy a Tesla second hand, take leasing if you can’t pay 30-40k in one go, and pay it off as quickly as possible. Based on 20.000km a year, you should be paying roughly ~0.35-0.45 CHF/km which is pretty good for a car of that value.
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