- Potential buyers can now rent Tesla cars for $60/day from some dealerships
- If they decide to buy, the rental payments fold into the purchase price
Potential Tesla buyers can now rent cars from some Tesla dealerships to test out the ownership experience. At just $60 per day, it’s one of the cheaper rental car offers in America.
The company announced the program quietly over the weekend in an email. Tesla Superfan Sawyer Merritt posted details on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
The program allows potential owners to rent a Tesla for three to seven days, with fees starting at $60 per day. That includes unrestricted use of Tesla Supercharger stations and unlimited mileage. For now, the program appears limited to some California dealerships, and renters can’t take the cars out of state.
But, should they later choose to buy, the dealership will apply up to $250 of their rental fees toward the purchase price.
InsideEVs reports the $60 price covers the Model 3 or Model Y. Dealerships will rent the Cybertruck for $75 per day, and the Model S or Model X for $90 per day.
All of the rental cars are premium models — surely an attempt to sell potential buyers on high-end trims — but high-performance versions, such as the famous Plaid edition, are not available.
The move could help drum up business at a time when electric vehicle (EV) sales are dropping. A $7,500 federal EV tax credit expired at the end of September. Some automakers have found ways to continue offering the discount on their own, but experts from Kelley Blue Book parent company Cox Automotive expect EV sales to drop off dramatically in the fourth quarter without the discount.
