With long delivery wait times, or even the inability to order, many prospective Tesla owners are turning to the existing inventory section of the website, hoping to snap up a new EV that becomes available in other states.
Previously this was a great way to quickly get yourself behind the wheel of a Tesla , so long as you didn’t mind paying a delivery fee to have it shipped to your nearest Tesla location. That fee ranges from $500 to as much as $2,500 for a cross-country delivery.
Tesla has now limited purchases of new existing inventory vehicles, requiring buyers to be in nearby states. The restriction was discovered by WaitingForTesla.com, a site which tracks Tesla’s inventory in both Canada and the United States.
When entering in a delivery zip code, you will now be presented with a message explaining which states the car can be delivered to and registered in. In the example below for a Model Y in Bartlett, Tennessee, Tesla is limiting delivery to customers within state, or Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
The limitation can even be as strict as to within the state only, as it is for this Model Y which can only be shipped and registered within California.
It is unclear why Tesla has added this new restriction, but in a discussion with us, WaitingForTesla.com believes it is being implemented to help prevent someone from buying a vehicle and quickly flipping it for profit, something which is not uncommon with the long delivery wait times and high demand for Tesla vehicles right now.
In researching other vehicles on Tesla’s existing inventory section, the restriction only applies to the “new”, and not “used,” Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.
Model S and Model X vehicles can still be purchased and shipped from one side of the country to the other, with the same fees as outlined above.
There are currently no existing inventory Model 3/Y vehicles in Canada.
