Tesla is no longer letting people who lease its cars to buy the vehicle once the lease expires.
That’s a policy shift that comes as the price of new and used cars continues to surge. The change apparently took place late last week.
An update on the Tesla webpage reads: “All Tesla vehicles delivered on or after April 15, 2022, are not eligible for purchase.”
It is, in some ways, an expansion of an older Tesla policy. In 2019, the company said it would not let people who lease a Model 3 buy the car at the end of the contract, saying it planned to use those vehicles as part of its autonomous ride-hailing network.
Nearly six years after the company announced plans for that Uber and Lyft competitor, however, it has yet to deliver. In the meantime, though, supply-chain issues have made it more difficult for auto manufacturers to meet demand, causing a backlog of orders for new cars and a sharp increase in used vehicle prices.
Tesla cars have been a regular presence among the vehicles with the greatest year-over-year price increases each month. In March, a Model S averaged $75,475, a $22,612 increase over what it cost in March 2021, according to iSeeCars. (A new Model S starts at just under $95,000.) Some Tesla models, last year, were selling for more than new ones cost.
Customers who leased their cars before April 15 could still be eligible to purchase the vehicles, depending on the terms of their lease. Those who opt to lease a vehicle after that date will have the option to upgrade to a new vehicle or extend the lease when it ends.
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