Leasing or subscription
Registration figures from the original auto-schweiz Excel files, analysed by us. As of 2026-08-31.
This page is the reading version. Calculators, filters and charts on this topic are on the home page, in the section of the same name. To the section on the home page →
Leasing or rental?
When you buy, you pay for the car. When you lease, you pay only for the value it loses while it is yours. With electric cars that is currently turning the usual verdict around.
- A leasing contract does not finance the purchase price but the expected depreciation — so what decides is not the rate but who carries the residual value.
- Because electric cars are currently losing value unusually fast, an operating lease can be cheaper than buying here — not because of the rate, but because the risk sits with the provider.
- Never compare on the monthly rate, compare on total cost: down payment plus all instalments plus the final payment. The calculator below does exactly that.
You are not buying the car, you are buying the depreciation
What is financed is the difference between the purchase price and the expected residual value — not the whole price.
A leasing contract works like this: the vehicle price minus the value the car is expected to still have at the end of the term. That difference plus interest is spread across the months.
Everything else follows from that. The higher the assumed residual value, the lower the rate — and the greater the risk that it will not be reached in the end. What mainly separates the contract types is who carries the residual value.
The worked example
An electric car at CHF 50’000, a four-year term, an assumed residual value of CHF 22’000. What is financed is CHF 28’000 plus interest — not CHF 50’000. Over 48 months that is roughly CHF 583 of capital per month, plus the interest.
If the provider instead assumes a residual value of CHF 26’000, the capital share drops to around CHF 500 a month. The rate looks better and the risk at the end is bigger: if the vehicle does not reach CHF 26’000, on a finance lease the lessee pays the difference.
Four routes — and the residual value decides between them
With a finance lease you carry the residual-value risk; with full service and a subscription the provider does. Everything else follows.
| Route | Who carries the residual value | Commitment | What is included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finance lease | you | 24–60 months | the financing only |
| Operating lease / full service | provider | 24–60 months | servicing, tyres, road tax, often insurance |
| Car subscription | provider | 1–24 months | practically everything except electricity |
| Lease takeover | the original contract | remaining term | whatever the contract taken over says |
The second column is the decisive one. With a finance lease the residual-value risk stays with you: if the car is worth less at the end than assumed, you pay the difference. With an operating lease and a subscription the provider carries it — and has it paid for through the rate.
With electric cars, leasing can for once be the better deal
Not because the rate is lower, but because the depreciation risk sits somewhere else.
Used electric cars lost 8,3 percent of their value on average in 2025, used petrol cars 0,2 percent. In the first quarter of 2026 a further 3,2 percent was added for electric cars. The figures are under «Used or new».
That turns the usual argument around. Anyone buying an electric car today carries a depreciation risk that nobody can seriously quantify — short model cycles, falling new-car prices, charging technology that improves every year. Anyone taking an operating lease or a subscription pushes exactly that risk to the provider.
With a combustion car, leasing is usually the more expensive way to drive. With an electric car in this phase of the market it can be the cheaper one.
At this point there is a calculator in the section of the same name on the home page. It works there because it needs JavaScript — here there would only be an input field you can type into without anything happening.
The four figures that determine the contract
Down payment, term, mileage limit, residual value. All four only shift when and by whom it is paid — not what the car costs.
Down payment
It is not a discount but an advance payment — and in a total loss it can be gone.
Also called a special payment or first instalment. It lowers the monthly rate, but you pay the same amount, only earlier.
What gets overlooked: if the vehicle is stolen after eight months or written off, the insurer pays the current market value to the lessor. Your down payment has then been partly used up and the rest can be lost. GAP cover closes that gap — it is included more often in full-service contracts than in finance leases.
Term
Longer means a lower rate and higher total cost — with an electric car, additionally: more time outside the battery warranty.
Usually 24 to 60 months.
The battery warranty typically runs eight years or 150’000 to 200’000 kilometres and mostly guarantees 70 percent remaining capacity. A term that goes beyond it moves a risk to you that the manufacturer carried before. On a new-car lease over 48 months this does not matter. On taking over a car that is already four years old it very much does.
Mileage
Set the limit too high rather than too low — extra kilometres cost more than unused ones bring back.
The residual value stands or falls with the distance driven. Hence a mileage limit in the contract, and a per-kilometre charge above it. Staying below brings little back — the refund is almost always lower than the excess-mileage rate.
Residual value and return
This is where most disputes arise — and two steps prevent most of them.
The car is inspected on return, and anything beyond normal wear is charged as a loss in value. What counts as «normal» is set out in a return catalogue that very few people read before signing.
- Ask for the return catalogue before you sign. It is part of the contract, but rarely part of the sales conversation.
- Arrange a pre-inspection four to six weeks before the return. You can then have minor damage repaired yourself more cheaply, instead of being charged at workshop rates.
With an electric car, additionally: have a battery test done in good time and attach the certificate. If the SoH is above the expected value, that is an argument against a deduction. How and where is in the blog under «Where to get a battery check».
What applies legally in Switzerland
Leasing contracts with private individuals fall under the Swiss Consumer Credit Act. From that follow things that cannot be contracted away: a right of withdrawal, a cap on the effective annual interest rate, a duty to assess creditworthiness, written form and disclosure of the total cost.
This does not apply to companies. A lease in the company name is a contract between merchants — with no right of withdrawal and no interest cap. Anyone self-employed who puts the vehicle in the company name gives up that protection. This is rarely a conscious choice.
Gap, stated openly: these statements come from general knowledge of the Consumer Credit Act, not from the text of the law. Neither the length of the withdrawal period nor the cap on the annual interest rate is given here as a figure while it is unsourced — and the cap is adjusted periodically. Also unsourced: whether GAP cover is customarily included in Swiss full-service contracts, and by how much the refund for unused kilometres falls below the excess-mileage rate.
Lease takeover: a short remaining term, but do the maths
A contract from 2023 assumes a residual value an electric car hardly reaches today — the rate in it is more likely too high than too low.
You take over a running lease from someone who wants out. Remaining term, rate and mileage limit are fixed and transparent. There are Swiss marketplaces for this, and the transfer runs through the leasing company, which has to agree to the change and check your creditworthiness.
What it is worth it for: short remaining terms of one or two years that you would not get on a new contract. No down payment, if the previous holder has already made one. And a vehicle that is available immediately instead of after a delivery time.
The catch the providers do not mention: the contract was calculated at the time it was signed. For electric cars, residual values have fallen since. The original lessee is not handing it over out of generosity, but because they are sitting in a contract that no longer works for them.
Hence the test before any takeover: add up the remaining instalments plus any final payment and set them against a new offer for a comparable vehicle over the same period — the calculator above does exactly that. If the takeover is not clearly cheaper, you are taking over the previous holder’s problem.
With combustion cars the comparison more often favours a takeover, because their residual values have stayed stable.
Rental: when the commitment is the problem
The shorter the commitment, the more expensive per month. What you are buying is the option to get out.
| Duration | Form | Providers | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Days to weeks | classic car rental | Sixt, Europcar, Hertz, Avis | The most expensive per day, but with no commitment at all |
| 1–24 months | Mid-term rental | Arval, Ayvens, rental firms with their own programmes | Originally a corporate product, increasingly for private customers too |
| 1–24 months | Car subscription | see the provider list | A monthly flat rate, mostly everything except electricity |
| From 24 months | Leasing | manufacturers and independent lessors | The lowest monthly rate, the longest commitment |
The line between mid-term rental and car subscription is blurring. In substance it is the same product approached from two directions: the rental firms are extending their rental periods upwards, the subscription providers are coming from the fleet side. What counts for you is not the label but what is inside the rate and how short your notice period is.
The providers in the Swiss car subscription market
Where a provider comes from explains how it calculates — which is why the list is grouped by origin and not by price.
What is shown here is a snapshot with a date. Anything not documented appears as «not checked» and not as an estimate.
Loading the provider list …
What you are actually comparing
- Minimum term and notice period. The biggest difference between providers, and the one least visible in the price. The range runs from cancellable monthly to tied in for twelve months.
- Mileage package and the rate for extra kilometres. Chosen too small means an extra payment, chosen too large means you paid for it for nothing.
- The insurance excess. They all advertise «insurance included». The excess in the event of a claim differs considerably, and it is rarely on the offer page.
- Who may drive. Some contracts cover only the contract holder, others the household. And not every provider accepts drivers from 18.
- Charging. With electric cars the biggest cost block after the rate. Some include a charging card, one advertises free charging — exactly what is covered there needs reading. Price differences at the charger are considerable, see «Used or new».
- Motorway vignette, delivery, return. Small amounts, but they show how a provider calculates. Anyone who supplies the vignette annually rather than once is counting on a longer commitment.
- Takeover and handling fees. Charged by some providers at the start and not visible in the monthly rate.
Where this overview comes from and who earns from it
The provider list rests on three sources, and two of them are interested parties:
FlexDrive is a comparison portal which, by its own account, is financed through referral codes for an internet provider and an analytics tool — that is, not by the providers it compares. It lists 19 providers with filters for minimum term, notice period and electric drive.
buyauto.ch compares car subscriptions and ends by recommending a lease takeover — its own product. The operator states this openly. The comparison table is still usable; you read the conclusion knowing this.
Clyde compares itself with its direct competitor Carvolution in an overview of its own and comes off well. The statements about its own scope of services are sound, the assessment is not neutral.
This site earns nothing from any of the providers named — unless a brokerage agreement comes about. Then it will say so here, and the amount is the same for every provider.
The subscription fallacy: «all inclusive» does not mean «cheapest»
A car subscription bundles insurance, servicing, tyres and road tax into one rate. That makes it convenient, and per month more expensive than a comparable lease where you carry those items yourself. The premium is the price of convenience and of the short commitment.
Work out both routes against each other: the leasing rate plus insurance plus servicing plus tyres plus road tax against the subscription rate. With an electric car the comparison is closer than expected, because an EV has fewer wearing parts and the servicing item is smaller.
And factor in the option value. Anyone who realises after a year that an electric car does not fit their daily life can get out of a subscription with a short notice period, and out of a four-year lease not at all. That exit option is worth something — with technology you are driving for the first time, quite a lot.
What fits which case
The holding period decides: under a year a subscription, three to five years an operating lease, over seven years buying.
- Buy if you drive the car for more than seven years, drive a lot and can charge at home. The depreciation then spreads over enough years and you pay nobody a margin for taking on a risk.
- Take an operating lease if you are planning three to five years, want predictable costs and do not want to carry the residual-value risk — with electric cars in this phase of the market a serious argument.
- Subscribe if you are planning for under twelve months, want to try the electric car out first or need a stopgap.
- Take over a lease if you are looking for a short remaining term and need a vehicle immediately — and have done the counter-calculation.
- Rent if it is a matter of days or weeks.
- Finance instead of lease if you intend to keep the car anyway. A loan is then often cheaper, because you spare yourself the residual-value construction and the return catalogue.
No price list, and why not
Monthly rates depend on the model, the term, the mileage, the down payment and the offer of the day. A price list here would be wrong within a few weeks, and a wrong figure is worse than none. The same goes for excesses and per-kilometre rates: with most providers they only appear in the configurator and depend on the model.
What this page does: explain the mechanics so that you can read an offer, and compare the providers so that you know who to ask in the first place. You get the figures there — and work them against buying here.
Where to go from here
Depreciation, charging prices and the battery test are under Used or new. The counter-calculation against buying is done by My EV. Where to get a battery check is in the Blog. And for several vehicles the Fleet tab applies.
