Of course, you are right, Mark, what I wrote wasn't correct. They keep the registration, but it IS registered in your own name. Which is good, because I have a personal registration waiting to be plastered on my model S.
Hitachi Finance or Wing Hang Bank seem to be the ones to try.
After I called Tesla today, I got these points clarified. For those of you who already know, sorry to bore you, for the rest of you, here goes:
- Whatever date you confirm your specs, it will be 14 days from that date, and after those two weeks, 1) you won't be able to change configuration, and 2) not get your deposit back if you cancel (correct me if I am wrong, this is how I understood it)
- No need to pay anything apart from your deposit, until the day where the car is actually ready to be handed over to you. I was afraid they would ask for more down payment, to confirm your order.
- Insurance offered will be confirmed, as the date is closing for deliver. I tried to get something more formal, whether or not insurance is confirmed to be offered or what.
It will be interesting to see how the Tesla model S will position with financing, and in particular, insurance premiums.
What will normally happen is that they will retain the original vehicle registration document and a signed form from you to them. They can then take legal ownership of the car at any time. They will give you back the registration document when the lease is paid-up. It is a bit of a hassle for yearly license renewal (you have to go through them), but avoids having to have an ownership transfer (and another owner on the vehicle record) at end of lease.