Back when GM was going down the tubes, we heard an awful lot about a futuristic electric car that would save the company. The Chevy Volt finally has a price tag, and it’s set at a luxurious $41,000 (before a substantial tax rebate).

On a three-year lease, however, the Volt can be yours for $350 a month, keeping it competitive with the much cheaper (to buy) and hideous Nissan Leaf.

Unlike the all-electric Leaf, the Volt can eat gas if you don’t get a chance to plug it in or you drive beyond its quoted 40-mile electric range. — PZS

Autoblog:

General Motors’ recently hired vice-president for sales and marketing Joel Ewanick took the stage at the Plug-In 2010 conference in San Jose, CA today and finally revealed that the 2011 Chevrolet Volt will have a base price of $41,000 (including a $720 destination charge) before federal and state tax incentives. While GM hasn’t gone as aggressive as most people had hoped on the sticker price, the real deal appears to be the $350 per month for 36 months lease. That matches the monthly payment that Nissan is charging for the Leaf EV.

The effective purchase price of the Volt will be cut to $33,500 with a $7,500 federal tax credit (hence the asterisk in the title), but buyers will have to finance the $41,000 and get the credit back on their next tax return. Lease customers will have the credit factored in to their payment. The Volt lease requires a $2,500 down payment (vs $2,000 for the Leaf), but GM is including a clause in the lease contract that allows leasers to buy the car at the end of their term so that the automaker don’t have another standoff with customers like it did with the all-electric EV1.

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