Tesla's Final Model S, Model X Reportedly Come With a $50,000 Penalty for Flippers

The Tesla Model S and Model X are finally on their way out of production, 14 years after the first reached the market. The company may be talking about robots more than cars these days, but it is still an automaker—and that means it still understands the value of a limited-run sendoff. But those last cars, the Model S and Model X Signature series, are reportedly being offered with a major caveat.

According to the confoundingly-named site Not a Tesla App, order documents required to purchase the car come with a "no resale agreement" that restricts reselling of the car within a year of purchase. The deal stipulates that owners must sell the vehicle back to Tesla in that window or face a penalty, which could include legal actions to stop the sale, a $50,000 fine, or a fine of "the value received as consideration for the sale or transfer." The document also claims that Tesla reserves the right to refuse to sell future vehicles to any owner in violation.

Tesla

That sort of agreement is not all that unusual in the collector car space; such an agreement was the center of a controversy between Ford and supposed GT reseller John Cena. What makes the Model S Signature agreement so strange is that the line is not particularly notable, seemingly differentiated from a standard Model S Plaid only by badging and a series-specific spec that is standard across all of the limited-run cars. The reported starting price of about $155,000 already represents a more than $30,000 premium over a standard Model S Plaid, too.

Whether or not a collector's market does eventually form around these capstone Teslas, the agreement should keep resellers at bay for at least a year. In the meantime, buyers should have no issue finding mechanically similar Model S Plaids used for under $40,000.

Fred Smith's love of cars comes from his fascination with auto racing. Unfortunately, that passion led him to daily drive a high-mileage, first-year Porsche Panamera. He is still thinking about the last lap of the 2011 Indianapolis 500.