Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Tesla is already getting to work trying to move more Tesla Model 3s from factories to customer homes before the end of the year. It sent out a new mailer a couple of hours ago offering what is truly a super low monthly leasing price — “for now.”
The monthly cost is $299 (or $285/month with a referral code), but there is some fine print. You have to put $2,999 down¹, and the 36-month lease is for 10,000 miles/year and of course requires credit approval. Also, the deal has the $7,500 federal EV tax credit rolled into it². Tesla actually markets it as $216/month in the email, but down in the fine print is a note that that is taking into account an estimated gas savings of $83/month. Tesla also notes that this is down from a previous monthly cost of $306 (which presumably means a leasing cost of $389/month minus an estimated gas savings of $83/month).
Any way you cut it, though, this is a highly appealing lease deal. This is for a Tesla Model 3 Long Range RWD with superb handling, top-of-class infotainment, luxurious suspension and soundproofing, seating that’s competitive with any other car, and 363 miles of range on a full charge (EPA rating). You can read and watch our review of the new Tesla Model 3 “Highland” here.
It’s really a hard offer to beat or ignore.
I’ll end with a couple of footnotes, though.
¹ I do find it funny (and a bit annoying) that Tesla has switched to using the typical pricing where you take $1 or $10 off of the next multiple of 10 or 100 or 1000 in order to play psychological tricks on the customer. Once upon a time, Elon Musk explained how he thought that was stupid and annoying, and Tesla didn’t do it. It’s a little thing, which is why it’s a footnote, but it comes to mind every time I see this kind of Tesla pricing since I recall Musk very much not liking this practice that Tesla now engages in, and he seemingly said that Tesla would never do that.
² On a more serious note, it’s important to highlight how policy matters. Without the $7,500 tax credit, Tesla couldn’t offer this low of a leasing price on the Model 3. Tesla only has this opportunity to roll in the $7,500 tax credit because Democrats in the House of Representatives, Democrats in the Senate, and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris revived the tax credit for Tesla when they controlled those two branches of government. Despite what some may say, this helps Tesla — a lot. Tesla is thus able to offer more competitive lease pricing against fossil-powered cars and other electric cars. Former Tesla Vice President of Global Public Policy and Business Development, Rohan Patel, recently explained this and also how Tesla is benefiting from other policies put into place by Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Democrats when they controlled Congress. Because of some stupid marketing events and poor messaging by Biden to give favor to unionized automakers, many Tesla fans ignore the fact that Democrats have done vastly more to help Tesla than the Republican Party ever did. But even simple marketing efforts like this one acknowledge the truth, as does this much more competitive Tesla Model 3 lease price.
Chip in a few dollars a month to help support independent cleantech coverage that helps to accelerate the cleantech revolution!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
CleanTechnica’s Comment Policy
