Lease FSD depreciation costs seems high?

[voip-ninja]

There is large depreciation up front with no lease buyout option so Tesla can have an inexpensive fleet of Robo-Taxis in 3 years. Smart move to throw that risk on the original lease owner.

That's not Tesla moving the risk to buyers. You are just talking about the same depreciation that affects every new car purchase.

In a lease the financier is taking on all of the risk since they set the depreciation in the form of a capped residual and have to honor it even if the actual resale value of the car tanks (new model, new technology, etc.), the car is involved in an accident and is repaired (lower resale value due to crappy carfax history), etc.

In fact I'd say that the risk for Tesla in this instance is quite high since, regardless of their technology, there are enormous regulatory hurdles to overcome in order to have a "fleet of robo taxis" on the roads that is made up of Tesla Model 3s with Gen 3 hardware.

 

[trm2]

Unfortunately many people, especially Americans, suck at math and finances.

True, 5/4 ths of people seem to suck at fractions.

 

[M3BlueGeorgia]

There is large depreciation up front with no lease buyout option so Tesla can have an inexpensive fleet of Robo-Taxis in 3 years. Smart move to throw that risk on the original lease owner.

Do you mean the lessee or the owner of the car (the lessor).
There's no risk transfer to the lessee. They just pay their 36 monthly payments and turn the car in. This is actually how most leases work.

Avoiding a pre-priced residual probably has accounting benefits for Tesla. It doesn't have to make an accounting provision to cover the risk the car might be worth less than the residual.

 

[Nocturnal]

Don't forget that many companies subsidize lease residuals to move excess inventory or push more cars to the profitable CPO pipeline. Tesla is not doing that, at least for now.

 

[JulienW]

True, 5/4 ths of people seem to suck at fractions.

...but 87% are better than average.

 

[voip-ninja]

Don't forget that many companies subsidize lease residuals to move excess inventory or push more cars to the profitable CPO pipeline. Tesla is not doing that, at least for now.

Right but subsidized leases benefit consumers, there’s nothing wrong with it.

CPO also lets customers with a smaller budget get into a lightly used car that has a factory extended warranty thrown in.

 

[M3BlueGeorgia]

Right but subsidized leases benefit consumers, there’s nothing wrong with it.

CPO also lets customers with a smaller budget get into a lightly used car that has a factory extended warranty thrown in.

More importantly, it allows companies like BMW to list their i3 at $44K, but use heavily discounted leases to hide the fact they are really selling them for something in the low 30s.
IMHO: A BMW i3 shouldn't be priced above $32K, even with the $7,500 tax credit.

 

[puregreddy]

This may be more of a model X/S thing. I know several folks who are very thankful that they leased theirs. They get to literally walk away from the early generation battery packs, the 'slow' MCU 1.0, AP1, etc....

It was compounded even more when the prices of new teslas were lowered, so trying to offload a used MCU 1/ AP1 would be very difficult considering the prices of a new MCU2/AP2 were very close if not identical.

 

[voip-ninja]

More importantly, it allows companies like BMW to list their i3 at $44K, but use heavily discounted leases to hide the fact they are really selling them for something in the low 30s.
IMHO: A BMW i3 shouldn't be priced above $32K, even with the $7,500 tax credit.

Again, doesn't really matter from the perspective of the leasing customer. All that matters is residual value and money factor and if the consumer feels like they are getting good value for money.

BMW are the absolute masters of lease mechanics and Tesla IS going to compete with them on leasing in California where I believe something like 75% of new BMWs are leased.

Many of these customers have a fixed budget for car and BMW has captured a pretty good chunk of that market.

Tesla is putting a hurt on BMWs business by snapping up all of the demand for a high quality, high performance electric car.

Now that it's trickling into the more budget conscious consumers it will be interesting to see how the rest of the year plays out. Tesla's lease prices are not particularly competitive.

 

[Dsans]

Guy makes post noting observations regarding new lease options and CEO’s specific claims. Two people make sarcastic or condescending replies. Welcome to the internet.

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