Did you know that you can lease a used car? It's not exactly common, but it is possible, and now you can take the plunge on a pre-owned Tesla Model 3 or Model Y. It appears that you have to live in California or Texas, however, but the deals are pretty tasty: zero down and monthly payments as low as $225, according to The Drive (citing Tesla's X account), although I found a Model 3 with about 73,000 miles that Tesla appears to be leasing for $127 per month. The terms are 24 months, with mileage capped at 10,000 miles.
This is actually good news for consumers, who now have another way to pick up a used EV. It's not good news for Tesla, of course. As The Drive pointed out, the company probably has a lot of pre-owned inventory that it's trying to get rid of. Customers who go for the deal will also face a $2,000 delivery fee and a two-to-three week wait for their car in California with a lower fee in Texas ($500 for Dallas, nothing for Houston) but still a multi-week delay for delivery. One could look at this as yet another example of Tesla's travails amid declining sales and a sliding stock price. I prefer to see it as the company exercising its pricing power, as it has often done in the past.