Tesla has launched a new financing promotion in the United States, offering a 0% interest rate for new Model 3 and Model Y purchases. However, unlike their other recent low interest rate offers, this one comes with a couple of important conditions.
This 0% interest rate offer is currently not available in Canada.
Over the last few months Tesla has attempted to boost sales by offering low interest rates to buyers in the US. The company has lowered interest rates from the typical 5-6% range, all the way down to as low 0.99% in Q3 for Model Y buyers. The financing offers appeared to work with the automaker posting a 6% increase in deliveries in Q3 year-over-year, while most legacy automakers posted losses during the same time period.
Now Tesla has taken it a step further, offering what is essentially free money to buyers – a 0% interest rate on new Model 3 and Model Y purchases.
However, like we said, there are some important conditions. One is that is to qualify for the 0% rate, you must add Full Self-Driving (FSD) to your order, currently priced at $8,000 in the US, and the term of your financing must be 72 months or less.
The other is that you must also have at least a 15% down payment, which means Tesla’s other financing incentive that has been extended until the end of the year, $0 due at signing, can not be combined with this offer.
However, if you have less than 15%, you can still qualify for a low 0.99% interest rate.
Tesla has not given an end date for this promotion, only saying it could “end at any time without notice.”
0% APR for new Model 3/Y if you purchase FSD Supervised
— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) October 9, 2024
US only, applies to orders placed today or later
According to Tesla’s online configurator, ordering the now entry-level Model Y Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive (RWD) without FSD will get you an interest rate of 5.29% on a 60 month term, equating to $693 monthly payments (with a referral discount of $1,000 applied and a $9,000 down payment).
Adding FSD brings the interest rate down the 0%, but even with the $8,000 added to your purchase, the monthly payment is only slightly higher at $740 per month.
However, that’s only part of the picture, because you still have to take into account the interest you will be paying over your term. If you finance at the posted 5.29% rate, that amounts to over $6,000 in interest alone, making it a better choice financially to add FSD to your order, so long as you have enough for the larger down payment.
All of this is without taking the $7,500 federal tax credit into account, which would bring the monthly payment down even lower.
