Sorry for misunderstanding - I think a few things are being proposed in this thread. And I was interpreting that the conversation was leaning towards just buying the car and then transferring it.
Bonnie, as another person suggested, isn't your proposal of adding another owner, and then removing yourself, one of the "loopholes" that tesla doesn't want to happen?
And, as others have said, it's not just who tesla thinks owns the car. But it's also who's name(s) are on the pink slip (aka who the DMV thinks owns the car). If tesla allowed you to do the above, presumably both your names would be on the pink slip. I don't know if it's easy/hard to get a name taken off of that.
And finally, if you're interested in totally following the law, there are various gift giving limits in play - and those are of course, confusing as well. Don't quote me, but it's something to the effect that you can give as many people as you want, up to $12.5k *each*, per year tax free (yes I think it's as crazy as it sounds). But if you give any one person more than that in one year, it starts to eat from your lifetime gift giving limit which is in the millions (I think $5M). Anyway, simply gifting a $35k car is not totally free of implications.