The Elon Musk-led maker of electric cars said on Thursday the tally represents the “single biggest one-week launch of any product ever”, reckoning that the figure “corresponds to about $14 billion in implied future sales”.
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In a post titled “The week that electric vehicles went mainstream”, Tesla said the deposits will equate to $14 billion in future sales. “This interest has spread completely organically”.
“Unlike other major product launches, we haven’t advertised or paid for any endorsements”, Tesla wrote in the blog post.
The Model 3 will cost 35,000 dollars (£24,423) and have a range of at least 215 miles (346km) per charge, the company’s chief executive, Elon Musk, said.
For perspective on just how much of a production increase that may be, Autoblog notes that Tesla delivered a total of just 50,000 vehicles in 2015.
“Definitely going to need to rethink production planning”, Musk Tweeted last Friday, when the orders exploded out of the gate and stood just short of 200,000. Today, Tesla confirmed that preorders for the Model 3 have now crossed the 325,000 mark.
As such, it is imperative for Tesla to maintain a positive cash flow going into 2017 because there will be folks who are going to withdraw their pre-orders and take back their money.
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Tesla said “severe shortages” of parts for Model X in January and February had cut into planned production. For example, the nose of the vehicle looks to see a redesign to put it closer in style to the Model X and Model 3, while the ventilated seats from the Model X are also expected to come into the Model S. I dig the nose on the Model 3 a lot, in fact it’s what draws me to the auto, but CNET said it won’t be “exactly” like that. “We expect the final Model 3 reservation disclosure on Wednesday, per management; however, we continue to view fundamental upside scenarios in the name as more limited given the recent stock appreciation”.
