You can “subscribe” to the new Hyundai Ioniq for $275 a month

In a world where people are growing more and more afraid of commitment, automotive manufacturer Hyundai has announced it will be helping to save you from the big C word by allowing you to subscribe to its newest vehicle.

Hyundai’s new subscription program is named Ioniq Unlimited+ and it lets you subscribe to its new 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric for a simple pricing plan. If you want to subscribe to the 2017 Hyundai Ioniq, it’s going to cost you $2500 USD upfront but it could end up being even less than that because of rebates which you can qualify for. After the $2500 down payment, it’s going to cost you $275 for a base model, $305 for the middle package, and $365 for the fully loaded package.

So what’s the difference between subscribing and leasing? With Hyundai, the line is a little more blurry than other car companies.

Compared to Book by Cadillac, Cadillac’s subscription program it announce earlier this year, the pricing is extremely cheap. With Book by Cadillac users must pay a monthly fee of $1500 varying on the vehicle which they choose to rent. But at the moment it appears to be a bit more versatile, allowing you to switch vehicles whenever you want, up to 18 times in a year.

Prices include any maintenance the vehicle may need as well as mostly everything else for the first 50,000 miles. You also get reimbursed for any fees which may come from public charging, and possibly even charging at home but it’s not clear yet. But unless you live in California, I’m sorry to say that this won’t be available for you, yet.

Most of the subscription program can be done online, but you’ll have to go to a dealership to pick up your vehicle and sign papers. Once you have the vehicle it can be yours for up to 36 months with no limit on how many miles you put on it in that time. It was unclear to me if you would need your own insurance for this service, but I know that for Book by Cadillac users would not need their own as it would come included with the monthly fee.

The 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Electric falls in between the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Bolt EV, it has a range of 124 miles which is less than the 235mile range of the Bolt EV but more than the Nissan Leaf. If you were to purchase one of these from a dealership instead of subscribing to their Ioniq Unlimited+ program the cars models run between $29,000 and $36,000 USD but that’s not including any applicable incentives.

Another clear difference between the Book by Cadillac and Ioniq Unlimited+ is that Cadillac is letting its subscribers choose from a wider range of vehicles including Escalade, XT5, CT6, and V-Series vehicles. But the Ioniq program only lets you subscribe to its Ioniq Electric.

Could car ownership be a thing of the past? With the combined efforts of the above-mentioned services as well as things like Uber, Lyft and even Car2Go, it certainly appears to be heading in the same direction as Blockbuster.

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