Tesla Creates A Lease Program For Small Businesses
Tesla promises a "straightforward and transparent" and "user friendly" lease program, with agreements less than three pages long and "written in plain language."
Customers will be able to sign electronically, and can sign for the car its 17-inch touchscreen display upon delivery.
Last year, the automaker introduced a lease-buy financing scheme that CEO Elon Musk called "revolutionary." After 36 months, customers can keep their Model S or return it for the same residual value percentage as a Mercedes S Class.
The goal, according to Musk, "is to give customers complete peace of mind." Musk promised to personally back every purchase made under the financing program - even if Tesla is unable to do so in the future.
The lease program announced today will make it easier for small and medium sized businesses to take tax deductions, Tesla said in a blog post. To handle the leases, it has set up a subsidiary, Tesla Finance.
Here's the full blog post:
A year ago, Tesla introduced a Resale Value Guarantee that gives customers the option to return their Model S after three years for a known value. When combined with a car loan provided by Tesla's banking partners, this program gives customers the functional equivalent of a lease - and, because they own the car, they also get the benefit of the $7,500 federal electric vehicle tax credit. Many of our customers have chosen to take advantage of the Resale Value Guarantee.
In the meantime, however, our customers in small and medium sized businesses have been asking for a leasing program for the ease and simplicity of being able to deduct the payments from their business taxes. We've been listening to those requests, and today we're happy to announce the launch of leasing for business owners.
Our leasing program is straightforward and transparent, and we've designed it to be user friendly. To begin with, business customers can easily see upfront their monthly cost of leasing while configuring their car on our website.
While customers have become accustomed to lease agreements that run as long as 10 pages, we found that we could say all that needed to be said in less than three pages - and it's written in plain language.
In keeping with the Tesla way of doing things, our customers can handle and sign their lease agreements completely electronically. Customers are able to view an electronic version of the lease agreement upfront before delivery. Even the signature process at delivery is simple: a one-button tap on the 17-inch touchscreen in their new Model S is all it takes.
The Tesla business lease is available through Tesla Finance, a subsidiary we've set up especially to offer this new product to business customers. The lease program completes a suite of products, including the Resale Value Guarantee and loans from our banking partners, that covers a comprehensive range of financing needs for Model S customers. These financing options, when combined with the fuel savings of Model S, provide an attractive value proposition compared to what's available for a gasoline-powered car.
The Tesla Motors Team