Tesla says the restrictive new changes to its service plans were posted by mistake

Over the weekend, we noticed that Tesla had updated its website to say that buyers could no longer transfer their extended warranty and prepaid service plans to new owners when selling the car.

Instead, the website said, owners of those plans could only cancel them for a pro-rated refund. Today, however, Tesla emailed us that the website was updated in error and that Tesla owners can continue to transfer their plans to a new owner in a private sale.

The full statement:

A change to Tesla’s Extended Service Agreement was posted with an error. Tesla owners can indeed transfer the unused portion of their Extended Service Agreement with the sale of their Tesla. Our practice of refunding the unused portion of the Extended Service Agreement also continues. In addition, Tesla owners can transfer the unused value of their Extended Service Agreement towards an Extended Service Agreement for a new Tesla Model S or Model X.

The change never made much sense, so we’re glad to see it was an error — though it came from somewhere. It’s more than just a typo. Perhaps it’s text intended for another market, or a change that was decided on and then reversed.