Næstved · 17 Sept 2026
When a Tesla changes owner, the car's service history does not follow. It remains with Tesla, and the previous owner loses access to the documentation for the inspections and repairs they have paid for. This is neither a fault nor a technical limitation. It is described in Tesla's own support guide.
Tesla's own guidance says it bluntly
In the guide to adding or removing vehicles in the Tesla app , Tesla writes, "Transferring ownership gives the new owner access to all the features of the Tesla app and removes vehicle information and access from the previous owner." And further, "Each Tesla vehicle can only have one owner and one Tesla Account at a time." And the guide says the same thing to the seller: "Make sure you no longer own the vehicle or you no longer need access to the vehicle before removing it from the Tesla app." So this doesn't happen by accident. Access to the car's information is linked to an account with the manufacturer rather than to the car.
The seller cannot document and the buyer cannot see service history
The two sentences have a consequence that is worth thinking through. When the seller has lost access and the car can only be in one account at a time, the buyer of a used Tesla is left with a car whose past neither party can show themselves. The seller cannot document the work that has been paid for and that is part of what the car is worth. The buyer cannot look, but must trust what is told. Several of our own employees drive a Tesla and have experienced just that in a change of ownership.
It's about more than tidiness. A used car's history is where the patterns become visible. The same component that has been changed three times. The repair that was carried out a month before the car went on sale. The inspection that was never done. This is the information that a buyer would pay attention to, and that a seller with something to hide would rather not show. When the history is only with the manufacturer, what would otherwise have been obvious becomes invisible. We think that's too bad. The car owner has paid for the work, and the car owner should be in the driver's seat of his own service data.
The warranty you don't know you have
This also applies to the work that has been carried out under warranty. When a component is replaced under warranty, the new part usually comes with a warranty, and it is worth money to the person who owns the car afterwards. But if the replacement is not in a place that the owner can get to, he or she does not know that the claim exists. Then you pay for a repair that was covered, and you never discover it. It is not a theoretical risk. It is the direct consequence of the fact that the documentation for the car is located in a place from which the owner is excluded.
Seller and buyer are both stronger
In Digital Servicebook, the service history belongs to the vehicle, and this changes the situation for both parties in a transaction. The seller can show the work that has been paid for and substantiate the price at which the car is offered, instead of asking the buyer to take it at his word. The buyer can look for himself before the money changes hands and assess the car's past on the same basis as the seller. The new owner inherits the entire history, including what was done before the car was purchased, and access does not disappear because the car changes hands or because it goes to a different workshop than the one that did the work.
The documentation for a car is only worth something when it is available!
