Tesla Military Discount: $500 Off With ID.me, Not the Old $1,000

Tesla does have a military discount, and it is $500. Tesla’s Made in America for Everyday Heroes page, read October 9, 2026, takes $500 off the pre-tax price of a new Tesla for verified military members, their spouses, and surviving spouses. The $1,000 figure is out of date: news reports put the discount at $1,000 when Tesla launched it in July 2024, and at least one discount site updated in July 2026 still quotes it. Tesla’s fine print says the offer can change or end without notice, so the number on your order screen is the one that counts.

The discount is the small money. The large money sits in a Tesla lease or loan, and the federal rule that applies depends on who holds the contract. Tesla sells the car, but your lease may belong to Tesla Lease Trust or to a bank, and your loan may sit with Tesla Finance or one of ten partner lenders. Everything below comes from Tesla’s own support pages, read the same day.

What Tesla offers military buyers

The offer page shows Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck, and it says that once you are verified you will see the adjustment applied to the price before you place the order. That sentence is your check. If the Design Studio total has not dropped by $500, stop and fix it before you click order. Tesla’s page never mentions leasing, so a future lessee should confirm the credit shows in the lease quote, too.

What $500 is worth on a Tesla loan

Tesla prints its own payment math. At 1.99% for 72 months, the Current Offers page lists a payment of $14.76 per $1,000 financed.

• Finance $500 less and your payment drops by $7.38 a month ($14.76 times 0.5).
• Over all 72 payments, that is $531.36 you do not pay.
• Because the deduction comes before tax, you also skip sales tax on that $500. At an illustrative 6% state rate, that is another $30.

Now the cost of getting the order wrong. Tesla’s terms say to verify first and order only after ID.me sends you to the order page, and that the offer “cannot be applied retroactively.” Order first and you risk losing the $500.

Tesla’s lease exit versus § 3955

Under 50 U.S.C. § 3955, you can end a vehicle lease with no early termination charge if you entered active duty on orders of 180 days or more after signing it, or if, already serving, you signed it and then got PCS orders out of the continental U.S. (or out of Alaska, Hawaii, or a territory to anywhere outside it) or deployment orders of 180 days or more. A stop movement order, indefinite or for 30 days or more, also qualifies if you signed the lease on such orders and it keeps you from using the car. You deliver written notice and orders, then return the car within 15 days. The car lease termination guide walks through those triggers. Here is how they collide with Tesla’s own terms.

Two Tesla details matter here. First, the Early Lease Termination option in the Tesla app quotes Tesla’s standard exit from the left column. It is not your SCRA notice. Second, Tesla ended lease transfers after November 27, 2024, so handing the car to someone else is no longer a way out.

The mileage line is the charge that survives. At Tesla’s published $0.25 a mile, 3,000 miles over the allowance is $750, and § 3955(e)(2) lets the lessor collect it. Run your own figures in the lease termination calculator before you send notice.

Tesla is often not your lessor or lender

Tesla’s leasing page tells you to find the lessor’s name on your lease agreement, in the Documents section of the Tesla app. It lists five lessors and their phone numbers: U.S. Bank (800-872-2657), Ally Bank (877-247-2559), Santander Consumer (888-222-4227), Chase (800-336-6675), and Tesla Finance (844-837-5285). The SCRA notice goes to whichever one is on your contract, not to the Tesla store.

Loans work the same way. Tesla’s financing page names eleven financiers, from Ally and Capital One to Wells Fargo and Tesla Finance LLC, and it says Tesla has no access to your payment history when a third party holds the loan. Tesla lists one Ally number for leases and a different one, (888) 925-2559, for loans. The site’s lender pages cover the SCRA desks at Ally, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo.

A Tesla loan and the 6% cap

The SCRA rate cap in 50 U.S.C. § 3937 reaches only debt you took on before active duty. Tesla’s promotional rates on its Current Offers page (October 9, 2026), 1.99% to 3.99%, sit below 6% already, so a pre-service Tesla loan at one of those rates gets nothing from the cap. It matters only for an older or non-promotional Tesla loan above 6% that you signed as a civilian. The auto loan rate cap guide shows the letter and the math.

A Tesla you finance while serving gets no SCRA cap, and the Military Lending Act does not help either. 32 CFR 232.3(f)(2)(ii) excludes credit “expressly intended to finance the purchase of a motor vehicle” when the car secures it. The military car loans page explains what that leaves you with. One protection does carry over to a pre-service loan: if you paid a deposit or installment before entering service, 50 U.S.C. § 3952 bars repossession without a court order, as the repossession guide explains.

Use the Tesla discount and your SCRA rights

1. Verify through ID.me from Tesla’s Everyday Heroes page before you order, and confirm the $500 shows in the Design Studio price before you click order.
2. Open the Documents section of the Tesla app and read the lessor or financier named on your lease agreement or Retail Installment Contract.
3. On qualifying orders, send that lessor written notice and a copy of your orders. Skip the app’s Early Lease Termination quote. Draft the notice with the letter generator.
4. Return the car within 15 days of delivering notice. Keep the inspection report and your odometer disclosure.
5. Check the final bill: prorated payments, taxes, title and registration fees, and excess wear and mileage only. Lease amounts you paid in advance for the period after termination must come back within 30 days.
6. For a pre-service loan above 6%, send a § 3937 request with your orders to the financier on your contract, not to the Tesla store.

If a lessor keeps money you paid ahead, you are not the first. BMW Financial Services agreed to pay more than $2.1 million to 492 service members over unrefunded lease amounts, a case on the enforcement ledger.

The law behind this: 50 U.S.C. § 3955

Termination of residential or motor vehicle leases: read the statute , or read § 3955 in plain English, with its enforcement record .