Recently, due to the soaring prices of used cars, Tesla has tightened its lease sales policy again, and now no longer allows any lease customer to buy the vehicle after the lease term ends.
In the United States, Tesla’s official website offers three ways to purchase/use a car: full payment, lease, and loan. Taking the Model 3 as an example, the current lease price is a down payment of $4,500 and $659 per month for a lease term of 36 months.
Usually, for users who choose to lease a car, buying the vehicle when the lease term ends is a common practice. However, as early as 2019, Tesla announced that it would not allow people who lease Model 3 to buy the vehicle at the end of the lease term.
Tesla claimed at the time that the reason for canceling the buyout option was that it planned to use these vehicles in its upcoming autonomous ride-sharing network:
Please note that customers who choose to lease their vehicle will not have the option to purchase it at the end of the lease, because with the launch of the Tesla Network, it will be added to the fleet for use in the ride-sharing Tesla Network only.
Three years have passed, and the autonomous ride-sharing network has not yet appeared, but the second-hand car market has undergone significant changes. The ban on buying leased vehicles still has great appeal to Tesla.
According to data from CoPilot, as of the end of January, the average price of 1-3 year-old cars was $41,121, an increase of over 50% compared to $27,301 in January 2020 (before the pandemic). The average price for 4-7 year-old used cars was $31,046, an increase of nearly 50% compared to $20,757 before the pandemic.
With such a huge price difference, Tesla will not turn a blind eye.
According to the update on its website, Tesla is now expanding its no-buyout policy to all vehicles:
If you lease a Tesla before April 15, 2022, you may have the option to purchase your leased Tesla. Check your lease agreement to see if you qualify.
- All Tesla vehicles delivered on or after April 15, 2022 are ineligible for purchase.
- Third-party dealerships and individuals are not eligible to purchase leased vehicles.
In other words, starting on April 15, all newly leased Teslas will not be able to be bought out at the end of the lease term.
It can be expected that Tesla only needs to do simple maintenance and then resell the leased vehicles as used cars to obtain a considerable profit.Please download the 42 Garage App to stay up-to-date with the latest new energy information. For more immediate communication, you can click here to join our community.
🔗Information source: Tesla
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.