If you were thinking that leasing a GMC Sierra Denali EV is the way to go, you might be interested to know that it’s incredibly expensive. A lease for 36 months with no money down and 10,000 miles per year costs an eye-popping $1,745 per month. That’s nearly $2,000 for a lease payment.

Why Leasing a GMC Sierra Denali EV So Expensive

Why indeed. Well, let’s take a closer look at the numbers. As it turns out, the GMC Sierra EV has a low residual value, but it also comes with a very high interest rate. Combine these two figures and you end up with a ridiculously high monthly lease payment. The GMC Sierra EV in this example costs nearly $100,000, which is already way more expensive than the average vehicle.

But does that explain why the lease payment is so high? The 2024 GMC Sierra EV has an equivalent interest rate of 8.18%, which is slightly higher than the 2024 Hummer EV truck’s interest rate of 8.06%. Another factor is the Sierra EV’s residual value of only 53%, quite a bit lower than the Hummer EV’s residual value of 76%.

If you were to lease the 2024 Hummer 2X EV for 36 months, with no money down, and 10,000 miles, the monthly lease payment would be $999. Considering that the Hummer EV retails for $98,000, there’s a huge disparity between its lease price and the GMC Sierra Denali EV for roughly the same retail price.

GM Inflates EV Residual Values

The biggest issue for the GMC Sierra EV is its low residual value. According to CarsDirect, GM inflates the residual values of most of its EV models to reflect a $7,500 tax credit that customers get when leasing the vehicle. The odd thing is that this incentive doesn’t appear to be available for the GMC Sierra EV. However, this is likely due to the Sierra EV’s high price tag.

There is an $80,000 price cap on EV models that are eligible for the federal tax credit. Since the GMC Sierra EV retails for a price close to $100,000 it’s ineligible for the $7,500 credit. You might be thinking that the Sierra’s sibling, the 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV, might be cheaper to lease. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

The Silverado EV is cheaper than the Sierra, but it’s still very expensive at $1,449 per month for 39 months. Not only that but $4,099 is due at signing. This is for a lease that includes 10,000 miles per year and is based on the RST trim that costs $96,495.

A Better Way To Get the GMC Sierra Denali EV

If you have your heart set on having a GMC Sierra Denali EV, then you might consider waiting until 2027 or 2028 for lease returns to get a lower residual value and a vehicle that may only have 30,000 to 50,000 miles on it. At that point, you’re likely to pay a lot less for one than either buying or leasing at this point. The only downside is there may not be many leases of the vehicle in the first place due to the high price.