Tesla is binding buyers of its 350-unit Signature Edition Model S and Model X to a one-year resale ban enforced by $50,000 in liquidated damages.
The contractual mechanism aims to prevent a secondary market from forming before deliveries begin.
Every Signature Edition order carries a document titled the Signature Edition No Resale Agreement, according to order paperwork shared on X by user ‘cybrtrkguy.’
Buyers must sign it before taking delivery.
The clause is the most aggressive anti-flipping provision Tesla has deployed since the original Cybertruck Foundation Series contracts in late 2023.
Terms of the agreement
The agreement opens by characterising the vehicles as “a limited release” and commits buyers to not sell or otherwise attempt to sell the car within the first year following delivery.
Owners forced to sell by unforeseen circumstances must notify Tesla in writing and allow the company what the document describes as reasonable time to repurchase the vehicle.
The buyback price is the original purchase price reduced by $0.25 per mile driven, reasonable wear and tear, and the cost of bringing the car up to Tesla’s Used Vehicle Cosmetic and Mechanical Standards.
Owners can sell to a third party only if Tesla declines the buyback and issues written consent.
Breach of the clause — or a reasonable belief by Tesla that a breach is imminent — triggers one of two remedies.
The company may seek injunctive relief to block the title transfer, or demand liquidated damages of $50,000 or the full value received from the sale, whichever is greater.
Future vehicle sales to the buyer can also be refused, the Elon Musk-led company warns in the document.
A separate clause confirms that the Luxe Package bundled into every Signature Edition — Full Self-Driving (Supervised), lifetime Supercharging, four years of Premium Service, and lifetime Premium Connectivity — does not transfer in full to any subsequent owner.
The Recommended Maintenance, Wheel and Tire Protection Plan, and Windshield Protection Plan carry over automatically to the new buyer.
Full Self-Driving (Supervised), Free Supercharging, and Premium Connectivity terminate on title transfer and the next owner must subscribe separately.
The non-transferability of those three items is not Signature Edition-specific. Free Supercharging and Premium Connectivity have never carried over to second owners under Tesla policy.
The FSD component reflects a broader Tesla shift from February 14, 2026, when the company ended the $8,000 one-time FSD purchase option and moved to a subscription-only model.
Any Luxe Package vehicle ordered after that date — across the 2026 Model S, Model X, and Cyberbeast lineup — has FSD locked to the original owner.
The Signature Edition inherits those standard Luxe Package terms; the No Resale Agreement is the genuinely new provision.
Why the clause exists
The commercial case for the restriction is the scarcity Tesla itself engineered.
Only 250 Model S Plaid sedans and 100 Model X Plaid SUVs will be built, all in an exclusive Garnet Red paint not offered on any current production Tesla.
The $159,420 sticker price already carries a $34,520 premium over the Model S Plaid inventory price of $124,900 and a $29,520 premium over the Model X Plaid at $129,900, both reference prices including a $15,000 markup Tesla imposed on all remaining inventory on April 5.
The Cybertruck precedent
Tesla attached a near-identical $50,000 liquidated damages clause to early Cybertruck Foundation Series purchases in late 2023.
At the time, secondary-market Cybertruck prices ran as high as $200,000 to $350,000.
The restriction drew immediate buyer backlash. Tesla removed it, reinstated it, then dropped it for good by mid-2024 as Cybertruck supply caught up with demand and resale premiums evaporated.
Tesla never publicly enforced the penalty against any Cybertruck flipper, though some buyers reported being blacklisted from future purchases.
The Signature Edition deployment differs in a critical respect.
The Cybertruck clause was attached to a vehicle with indefinite future production, which undermined the urgency of the scarcity framing.
The Signature Edition is a closed run tied to a defined production ceiling and a factory conversion already underway.
What happens next
Signature Edition deliveries begin in May 2026, with Tesla planning a sunset ceremony Musk first referenced on April 1.
The Fremont lines that built every Model S and Model X since June 2012 will be repurposed for Optimus humanoid robot manufacturing, with a target of up to one million units per year.
The Signature Edition production run is the final tranche of a nameplate pair that delivered more than 610,000 units over 14 years and fell to fewer than 19,000 combined sales in 2025, a fraction of Fremont’s 100,000-unit annual capacity.
Tesla will report Q1 2026 financial results on April 22.
