because tesla doesn't lend money, they make and sell the cars, they do not own them once they are sold usually there is a separate entity that finances or leas

because tesla doesn't lend money, they make and sell the cars, they do not own them once they are sold usually there is a separate entity that finances or leases the cars sold at the dealership, such as mbfs for mercedes benz financial services, gmac for general motors (defunct) etc for tesla to offer the rebate directly they would have to setup a revenue split from the finance back end, or take a hit on the sales revenue, which is either difficult to get out of a bank, and not in the interest of tesla, respectively.