Yes, ideally (for the leasing company) the residual would equal the real world value at the end of the lease. If the residual is higher than market value at the end, it's advantageous for the lesee because he paid for less car than he used. If it's lower, then it's also advantageous because...
They're not stealing from you.
At the end of the lease, you don't HAVE to buy it at the agreed upon residual. You can tell them to drop the price to market, or go pound sand. They'll usually drop the price to market because they don't want to have to recondition the car for resale at the...
So you're saying that GM Financial is not a "wholly owned captive finance subsidiary of General Motors", and as such it's losses aren't eventually reflected upon GM (through loss of value of the subsidiary)?
They're artificially inflated numbers. That's where the $7500 tax rebate is going (to prop up that).
When the rebate goes away, the cars will have to drop their price to be net the same because they won't sell any otherwise.
I'm somewhere between the "just in case" and "nothing but a Model3".
I know I need something in a few years, and a cheaper, smaller, model S would be great and meet a lot of the check boxes. (The supercharger network is a big plus for road trips unless DCFC really takes off).
But if something...