If you want one of Tesla’s final Model S or Model X vehicles, you have to sign a “No Resale Agreement” clause. But I really don’t think anyone wants them.
Tesla announced it would discontinue the Model S and Model X after sales declined in 2025. Just in time for Elon Musk to focus on his alarmingly unsafe steering wheel-less Cybercabs! The final send-off for the Model S and Model X is the limited Signature Edition, with just 350 total models available. Despite the changes just being cosmetic, like its red and gold paint, Tesla is charging $159,000 for these things. The Model S Plaid was $94,990 and the Model X Plaid was $99,990. The two that were losing sales, I should repeat.
Those who actually bought the Signature Edition must sign a “No Resale Agreement” that mentions a $50,000 fine you must pay to Tesla if you try to flip the vehicle. The agreement states that you may not sell the vehicle within the first year of ownership, unless Tesla agrees to your reasoning. And even then, it can only be sold back to Tesla. This is likely due to Tesla wanting to maintain exclusivity and demand for these Signature Edition vehicles. Also, they come with non-refundable things like a lifetime of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) and Premium Connectivity.
I’m not here to tell you that Tesla is ridiculous for its resale clause or anything. Plenty of automakers have done stuff like this for their limited edition models. I’m just laughing at the idea of anyone buying a $160,000 Tesla.
The downfall of Tesla should be studied
Tesla is often touted as the heavy hitter in the EV space, since it sells far more than smaller startups. But Tesla isn’t actually making an insane number of sales, as Elon Musk would have you believe. In 2025, Tesla sold a combined 50,850 units of the Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck. Tesla doesn’t like to give exact numbers, but Electrek reported that about 30,000 Model S and X were sold, with some quarters delivering only about 10,000 units.
While Tesla is still the best-selling EV brand in the United States, it now has to share that space. Unfortunately for Tesla, the automaker hasn’t done much to keep its vehicles competitive. All it did in 2025 was give the vehicles a new paint color, a bit more range, and ambient lighting for $5,000. Meanwhile, 2025 saw plenty of new arrivals and innovations from Mercedes, Lucid, Porsche, and BMW. Being around for a long time doesn’t really mean much when you become stagnant, especially when there is more competition than ever in a market that has fewer customers than ever.
Americans don’t want luxury EVs. They’ve made it clear. We saw plenty of desperate sales earlier this year as expensive electric vehicles sat in dealer lots. Paying $50,000-plus for more screens, longer range, and more AI isn’t worth it for the majority of Americans who are struggling to afford $25,000 vehicles. In fact, so few families were buying these cheap alternatives that automakers believed no one was interested and cut these attainable models from their lineups. Now, car brands are learning the hard way that the luxury EV space is not the answer. You see Rivian pivoting to its frat bro-friendly R2 and Ford hoping to partner with Chinese automakers (sometimes) to make $40,000 EVs.
Meanwhile, Tesla just continued forward with its models, hoping to get by on brand recognition and familiarity. This could have worked if Full Self-Driving mode hadn’t been sued repeatedly over its dangerous shortcomings. While there are still some people out there who blindly trust Elon Musk, his continuously broken promises and concerning exaggerations have not made Tesla as appealing to those who still even want an EV after the U.S. government removed the incentives.
And it doesn’t really seem like Tesla even cares that its passenger cars don’t work as intended — I’m pretty sure it couldn’t wait to push out the long-standing Model S to make room for its Optimus robots in that factory. It’s almost like Tesla is admitting it can’t keep up with the style, technology, and driving experience offered by other electric automakers and has given up. In the United States, drivers are even opting for the Toyota bZ. It’s cheaper and more reliable. Tesla’s abundance of driver-assistance and AI tech isn’t enough to win over families on lower budgets. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, Tesla is losing to Chinese automakers who are producing cheaper and more advanced EVs. And doing it much faster.
It seems Tesla is giving up just as things are getting tougher. But it wants $160,000 from you first.
That brings me back to where we started: Who is buying this thing? There is probably flipping potential, sure, but that’s just between all the Tesla glazing fanboys. There is no actual market for a $160,000 Model S with a special color — and to make money on a flipped one, you’d need to charge even more. Americans cannot afford that. There is a chance that the Signature Edition models will be worth a lot later (or maybe falsely believed to be worth more, like people that keep around old Pokemon cards that no longer carry value). But that’s because Tesla will seem like a fossil in the future. This is the car that paved the way for EVs, but then grew lazy and boring as other cars followed the same path. It’s like people on Pawn Stars trying to sell those big chunky first-generation cell phones they’ve held onto.
It may be better off in a museum or as a reminder of how far we’ve come since.
