Tesla last November ended an unusual policy that prohibited U.S. leasing customers from buying their cars at lease-end.

The policy started in 2019, when Tesla announced that customers could lease its mass-market Model 3 sedans but would have to return them at the end of the lease for use in its planned ¡°robotaxi¡± network.

¡°You don¡¯t have the option of buying,¡± Chief Executive Elon Musk said at an investor gathering in California in April 2019. ¡°We want them back.¡±