Customers ordered the Model 3 with a $1,000 down payment, which is fully refundable until 2010. Tesla held $283.4 million in customer deposits at the end of 2015, according to its recent annual report. Musk also committed to doubling the number of Tesla’s public charging stations from 3,600 to 7,200. People who want to buy the new electric auto can pay $1000 to make the reservation.
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Tesla has had the market for luxury electric cars and SUVs largely to itself – the Model S is now the best-selling large luxury sedan, gas or electric, in the US – but it faces increased competition from electric vehicles in development by Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche, Aston Martin and other luxury brands.
Tesla declined to comment on the rumors but released a statement saying the company is “constantly innovating and adding new features to our vehicles”. Hopefully the Model 3 can stand as an exception to that rule.
Tesla’s Model 3 has been riding high over the world as its orders has hit the US $3 billion mark in just one week. That evening, Musk unveiled the four-door sedan in Los Angeles, at an event that was live-streamed on the Internet. The company has received more than 325,000 reservations, it said in an update Thursday morning.
And the backlog only continued to swell from there, passing 325,000 reservations to become what Tesla is calling the “single biggest one-week launch of any product ever”. “Most importantly, we are all taking a huge step towards a better future by accelerating the transition to sustainable transportation”.
The orders for Model 3, Tesla’s first mass-market auto which will sell at an average price of $42,000, are “very positive” and reflect tremendous enthusiasm for the vehicle, analysts said.
Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla, has said that the company will be able to produce 500,000 Model 3s a year when running at full capacity.
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So many early Model 3 buyers will likely have to wait till 2018, if not 2019 to take delivery of their new cars.
