The 2025 Chicago Auto Present opened this week, and I’ve been struggling a bit with method this story concerning the decline and fall of what was as soon as the American auto trade’s premier industrial automobile present – however one factor was completely clear: the Nissan LEAF is one of the best new automotive deal in Chicago. ***
Like every wild deal like this, there are asterisks and caveats. And (I promise) I’ll completely get to these. That stated, I’ve some musings concerning the state of the Chicago Auto Present that I’ve shared, beneath, to type of “set the stage,” if you’ll. If you wish to skip these, you possibly can can click on right here to get proper to the nitty-grity on that 2025 Nissan LEAF deal, or just click on right here to discover a Nissan LEAF deal close to you.
2025 Chicago Auto Present Map
If in case you have fond reminiscences of the Chicago Auto Present from years previous – and never even that a few years previous; like, pre-COVID years previous – skip the 2025 present.
As soon as upon a time, the Chicago Auto Present occupied each primary halls, with one other corridor housing industrial vehicles and distributors, and drive activations outdoors and within the parking zone. Since that heyday, the present has shrunk considerably. It’s all the way down to a single corridor now. Depressingly, the present can’t even fill that with OEM shows, and has labored a lot of distributors, drive occasions of each the EV and ICE-powered varieties, and even navy recruiters into enormous swaths of flooring house. Regardless of the compacted nature of the shows, the present flooring is just not packed. It is possible for you to to take a seat in any automotive you need, for so long as you need, with minimal likelihood of interruption.
I used to be fortunate sufficient to have the ability to stroll the present with my good pal and trade legend, Greg Lucia. Greg is finest recognized for an iconic, gonzo PR stunt he pulled off whereas he was working at Toyota that concerned the House Shuttle Endeavour being towed to its last vacation spot on the California Science Middle in Los Angeles throughout the 405 freeway by a then-new Tundra.
Oddly sufficient, we each honed in on a particular yr, 1997, as one which stood out.
“I had a part-time job at Sears whereas I used to be in school,” I advised Greg. “I used to be making $9/hr. plus both 1% or 3% of every thing I rang up. It labored out to a fairly regular $12/hr., and that cash was adequate that there have been a bunch of automobiles I might have fairly purchased. I ended up with a ’98 Dodge Dakota pickup. Handbook. My cost was $218/mo.”
“These had been neat vehicles,” he stated. Including, after a considerate minute, “I don’t suppose you can try this, right this moment.”
Greg is clearly appropriate. Auto Reveals have turned a nook. As an alternative of being someplace that any able-bodied particular person might go and, with an inexpensive quantity of effort and willingness to place within the hours, pick a enjoyable, reliable automobile. In such an financial local weather, it’s no marvel that the automotive you drove stated one thing about you above and past what you can afford. In the present day, the closest factor to that mid-sized Dakota might be the present Ford Ranger. The mid-sized Ford begins at $32,820 … however the common part-time mall job doesn’t pay any greater than I made again in ’97. If something, it pays much less.
I questioned what potential worth a standard auto present might provide a school child in 2025, when one thing like a base Ford Mustang that began at about $15,800 in 1997 has greater than doubled to $31,920 and the price of school has risen even greater, over 140% in the identical interim, whereas wages have largely stayed the identical.
Deeply entrenched on this gloomy temper, I plodded alongside between the comparatively subdued Nissan and Volkswagen cubicles in direction of the ComEd presser (see the present map, above), that was already below means.
ComEd $100M industrial EV rebate program
ComEd selected the Chicago Auto Present to put out the 2025 model of their useful electrification rebate applications that can provide clients entry to $100 million (up from $90M final yr) in funding alternatives designed to take away up-front price as a barrier to widespread adoption of EVs and the growth of charging infrastructure in northern Illinois. $53 million of that finances is earmarked particularly enterprise and public sector clients, with as much as $7500 accessible for every light-duty (Class 1 or 2) EV bought by a ComEd industrial buyer.
That was when it hit me: this is why native occasions just like the Chicago Auto Present exist — to focus on offers which can be distinctive to the world, that retailers like Motor Pattern and Automobile and Driver and even Electrek (if we’re being trustworthy) would possibly overlook attributable to elements like geography, worldwide audiences, or another basic lack of curiosity.
Permit me then, to elucidate how a parks district, or a police division, or a automotive sharing fleet, or a supply fleet, or every other firm, incorporation, or LLC in northern Illinois can rating a fully killer deal on a Nissan LEAF.
Structuring that $9,140 Nissan LEAF deal
For 2025, Nissan’s groundbreaking LEAF S begins at simply $28,140 earlier than incentives. That’s already greater than twenty thousand US American {dollars} much less than the $49,740 common transaction worth of a brand new automobile recorded simply final month. However $28,140, you’ll discover, is much more than $9,140. Right here’s how we get there:
- Nissan themselves are desperate to get these LEAFs off supplier tons to make room for the next-generation model. So keen, actually, that the corporate is providing $7,500 in buyer money proper off the bat.
- If you happen to’re an Illinois resident, you can get one other $4,000 from the state if you happen to purchase between now and April thirtieth.
- Lastly, if you happen to’re a ComEd industrial buyer you possibly can rating a 3rd rebate — this one good for as much as $7,500 if you happen to spend greater than 50% of your time driving the automobile in a low-income or “EIEC” space.
- Now, we do some math: $28,140 – 7500 – 4000 – 7500 = $9,140 … and that’s earlier than any supplier reductions or negotiations come into play. (!)
For that $9,140 you get a clean, succesful EV with 149 miles of vary* whose solely actual shortcomings are its comparatively sluggish charging velocity* in comparison with one thing like a Hyundai IONIQ 5, after all, the CHAdeMO charging commonplace* that each different model has deserted and for which valuable few public charging choices exist.
And, admittedly, these are three very actual, very scary asterisks.
For a enterprise, although? For a parks district or metropolis official or lab courier or automotive share service that has some devoted parking house to place their very own charging into? That’s not as a lot of an impediment because it is likely to be to you and me. Heck, a younger, bold school pupil who realizes they will match a number of robotic lawnmowers below the LEAF’s spacious 23.6 cubic foot (668 liters) hatch would possibly simply discover the cash wanted to start out an LLC in Illinois and discover any variety of enjoyable, expressive, sensible information automotive they can truly repay with a part-time hustle on the 2025 Chicago Auto Present in any case!
That’s my take, anyway — you will get tickets to the 2025 Chicago Auto Present right here, discover ComEd’s enterprise and public sector EV rebate program right here, then let me know what you consider all these musings (and whether or not or not you suppose I might get a number of Automowers into the again of a Fiat 500e) within the feedback.
SOURCES | IMAGES: ComEd, Nissan, the twisted thoughts of Greg Lucia.
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