United Alliance Federal Credit Union, a financier for Tesla Motors’ new Model S, is working toward becoming a finance partner for the carmaker’s certified pre-owned program, Vice President of Consumer Lending Jon Krumdick told AFN.
“We’ve already started talking to them about it,” Krumdick said. Hartsdale, N.Y.-based United Alliance FCU formed a relationship with Tesla in early 2013, when it expressed interest in financing Tesla’s Roadster CPOs. “I made a lot of calls to Tesla to try to get the right person, and ultimately never really got anywhere,” Krumdick said. “That didn’t stop us from still trying to figure out a way. So we went through social media sites. Ultimately it got to a point where Tesla came back to us and said, ‘We’d love to work directly with you guys.’”
At the time, other banks and credit unions were “a bit averse” to financing used electric vehicles, Krumdick said. “We were not,” he added. “Forward thinking, innovative type things are where we have had some success.”
Tesla quietly launched the Model S CPO program’s website — which offers the pre-owned cars in 11 states — at the end of April, but has yet to make an official announcement.
In the meantime, the company increased production in the first quarter, manufacturing 11,160 vehicles while averaging more than 1,000 cars per production week, according to the company’s 1Q results released last week. Direct leasing, however, declined quarter over quarter, with 592 cars leased through Tesla, down from 647 cars leased in 4Q14.
The company earned $155 million “from either the warehouse line or our banking partners related to our leasing business,” Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja said on a first-quarter earnings call.
