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EVNorth

Break my lease?

Exit now vs. ride out the lease

In Canada, ending a lease early almost never forgives the payments you already owe - those are due either way. The real cost of exiting early is the termination fee and any excess-km penalty. This tool weighs that one-time cost against the fuel and maintenance you save by switching to an EV sooner.

Your lease

12 months
20,000 km

Just picks a realistic L/100km figure - swap in your exact numbers below.

$9.97
$1,050
$2,289

Cost of exiting early

$400

Typically $200-$500 - get the exact number from your leasing company before deciding

0 km
15¢/km

Common Canadian range is roughly 10-20¢/km - check your contract

$0
$0

Leave at $0 unless your leasing company confirms in writing that it forgives remaining payments

The EV you'd switch to

Picking a preset fills in price, energy cost, and EVAP rebate below - all still fully editable.

$42,640
$0

Set to $0: Ineligible for EVAP despite being under the price cap, because it's assembled in China (Giga Shanghai). EVAP requires manufacture in Canada or a country with an active free trade agreement. Does qualify for Quebec's $2,000 provincial rebate - provincial programs don't carry the federal free-trade requirement.

$0
$0
$0.78
$480
$3,131
Exiting now and switching to the Tesla Model 3 wins
$1,166

Switching now saves you this much over the remaining 12 months, after paying the early-exit fees. This ignores the EV's purchase price itself, since you'd pay that whether you buy it now or after your lease ends - it only isolates the cost of switching sooner.

Breakdown

One-time cost to exit early
$400
  • Termination / disposition fee$400
  • Excess-km penalty$0
  • Other exit fees$0
Running-cost savings, switching now
$1,566
  • Toyota RAV4 Hybrid running cost / mo$444
  • Tesla Model 3 running cost / mo$314
  • Saved per month$131
  • × 12 months remaining$1,566
Cash needed today to exit + take delivery$43,040

Why this is the right comparison

Every guide to ending a Canadian lease early says the same thing: you're still on the hook for the payments left on the contract, whether you hand the car back today or in 12 months. Buying out, trading in, transferring, or a straight early return all price around that reality - none of them make the remaining payments disappear for free. So the payments themselves are a wash between “exit now” and “wait it out,” and the decision comes down to two things only: the termination/excess-km fees you'd pay only because you're exiting early, versus the fuel and maintenance you save by driving the EV instead of the gas car for those extra months.

If that net number is small either way, the bigger levers are usually a lease transfer (get someone else to take over the remaining term - often the cheapest exit) or simply confirming the exact payout quote from your leasing company, since “early return fee” terms vary a lot by manufacturer.

This is a simplified model - it excludes financing/interest, the EV's resale value down the road, and the risk that rebate programs or gas/electricity prices change between now and your original lease-end date. For the full purchase-price-included comparison over several years, use the main EV vs. gas calculator.