Rivian Trade-In Policy Forces Full Equity Toward New Lease

If you’re thinking about leasing a Rivian and trading in your current vehicle, there’s something you need to be aware of—especially if you have positive equity in your trade. I ran into this issue myself when I leased my Gen 2 Rivian, and I’ve had multiple people reach out about the same problem.

First, let’s talk about what’s happening. Rivian has been offering competitive trade-in values, particularly for other EVs, as part of its All-Electric Upgrade Offer, which can knock up to $6,000 off a Max pack vehicle. That’s enticing. The issue? Rivian does leasing through Chase (aka Rivian Financial Services), and from my experience, they will not cut you a check if your trade-in is worth more than what you owe.

Here’s what happened to me: I went to trade in my Gen 1 Quad for a new lease. Normally, you’d expect to take some of that trade-in equity and use it as a lease down payment while pocketing the rest, maybe investing it or putting it toward something else, not with Rivian. They required me to put the full equity toward the lease, with no option to take cash back. The alternative? Finance the vehicle instead of leasing—but that meant losing out on the $7,500 EV lease credit. Not a great deal.

I know what you’re thinking—why not just sell the vehicle elsewhere, like Carvana or CarMax? I checked, but Rivian was offering around $5,000 more than the other places. So, I either had to take a worse offer elsewhere or put way more down on a lease than I wanted to.

And I’m not the only one. Multiple people have reached out with the same issue. If you have positive equity, your options are limited:

1. Take a lower trade-in offer from another company just to get cash back.
2. Put the full amount toward the lease (which might not even be possible due to lease down payment limits).
3. Finance instead of leasing, but then lose out on the $7,500 tax credit.
4. Walk away from the Rivian purchase altogether.

This isn’t just a headache for consumers—it’s a problem for Rivian. The company recently announced that deliveries in 2025 are expected to remain flat compared to 2024. At a time when they need to sell as many vehicles as possible, this trade-in policy is pushing people away.

Rivian and Chase need to figure this out. Sure, this might not affect everyone, but for those who are impacted, it’s a frustrating and unnecessary hurdle. If Rivian wants more people to lease, it needs to make the process smoother—not force them into putting more money down than they want to.