Tesla expands used car business online with inventories on Autotrader and cars.com

As we recently reported, Tesla used car business, or “remarketing business” as it is called internally, has been in full expansion with more inventories.

Now, Tesla is making a surprising new move by bringing the new inventory on third-party websites.

Tesla holds a tight grip on its used vehicle market through its “certified pre-owned” program. As previously reported, it resulted in the Tesla Model S retaining its value better than gas-powered cars in its segment – losing only 28% after 50,000 miles, according to an Autolist report.

But now more 3-year-old Model S vehicles are coming off of their leases, which results in the inventory constantly growing.

The automaker also recently updated its fleet of loaner vehicles to deploy fully-loaded P100Ds in all service centers. It is resulting in more vehicles used as loaners coming into Tesla’s used car inventory.

Tesla used to only sell those cars through their website and network of company-owned stores and galleries.

Now they recently started listing those cars on third-party websites Autotrader and cars.com:

To be clear, Tesla vehicles were already listed on those websites, but only vehicles owned by other dealerships and individuals. It’s the first time for Tesla vehicles directly owned by the automaker.

Apparently, not all of Tesla’s stores are listing their inventories on the websites, but Tesla operates some bigger centers that hold inventories for larger regions, and several of those stores seem to have their inventories listed.

The new strategy could help them sell more used cars by exposing them to new markets.

Tesla also recently introduced a new kind of warranty for certified pre-owned cars (CPO), or ‘certified used cars’.

The company used to not offer a warranty or “recertification process” for their 4-year-old Model S vehicles, but the new program includes them with a new updated version of its used car warranty.

Instead of 4 years and 50,000 more miles for the more recent used vehicles, they get “a two-year, 100,000 miles (160,000 km in Canada) maximum odometer pre-owned limited warranty with 24-hour roadside assistance” and they also receive “a full inspection, remaining battery and drive warranty”, like more recent cars.

I shared my experience buying one of those cars in June.

As of last quarter, Tesla had almost $1.5 billion in finished goods in inventories. Not all of those are used cars, some of them are already sold and in transit or part of Tesla’s fleet of display and test drive vehicles. But the company did note in its latest financial results that they expect their used car business to grow during the second half of the year.