@JackIT You can sell the car prior to the termination of the lease to Carmax as I did with our Audi Allroad and got a check for $1100 rather then just turning it in. If you think the car is worth more then the residual this is a good option to explore. My brother did it with his A3 also and walked away with $4000. But if you buy it you can sell it at anytime to anyone. With a lease you can buy it but often times they won't let you sell it to a private party. You'd have to buy it, pay sales tax and then sell it so you'd have to have quite a bit of positive equity to pull that off. In the Carmax example, dealers have a resale license and sales tax is irrelevant, it makes it easier to get equity out if it but they offer less then a private party would. though undoubtedly leasing is better off over 3 years the issue that you are aquiring a car that is still in development and continues to improve over time is one you might find yourself realizing that you saved.
US Bank inflates the residual by $7,500 to account for the tax credit, making leases more attractive then they would be otherwise. And from what I hear, they also have some punitive early lease termination clauses.
So while this may work on Audi and other brands, it's not worth pursuing on a Tesla leased through US Bank. In fact keeping the Tesla at the end of the lease if also typically a bad decision. Because of the inflated residual and it being considered a "used" car, not only do you not get the $7,500 tax credit, you're actually paying US Bank the $7,500 via inflated residual