It’s been over a week since Tesla Motors unveiled its $35,000 Model 3 electric car. As of now, prospective owners have now put in orders for more than 325,000 cars. This was a much larger response than even CEO Elon Musk and Tesla expected. Musk sent out a tweet relaying that no one at Tesla thought the orders would be that high and that the response was two to four times higher than they expected it to be. This translates into a huge profit in sales –assuming supply can meet demand.
Tesla requires a $1,000 deposit for people to secure their spot in line for the $35,000 mid-sized sedan. Many people put a deposit down before even setting eyes on the vehicle. Amazing. That is a testament to the Tesla brand and the faith that people have in Musk.
Production for Model 3 is set to start late 2017 and Musk’s goal is to deliver as many as 500,000 cars per year. This won’t be easy. Especially because there is still tweaking being done to the design itself. Consider that last year, Tesla turned out 50,000 electric cars. Tesla admitted that they fell short of their goal for delivering Model X SUVs due to their own “hubris in adding far too much technology.”
With the design still being tweaked, we will see what sort of timeline becomes set in stone. The car is still a work in progress and, judging by Musk’s twitter responses, we could see changes in a number of areas. These include: the trunk space and opening, the car’s nose, the steering wheel column, the instrument panel, the back seat area, and more.
From ABC News:
The key metric many people were waiting for was range per charge. The Model 3 can go 215 miles on a single charge. Musk also committed to doubling the number of Tesla’s public charging stations from 3,600 to 7,200.
It also includes semi-autonomous driving features, including automatic lane changing and lane keeping, and can accelerate from zero to 60 in less than 6 seconds, Musk said.
We are very hopeful that Tesla can come up with a way to meet demand. As Musk already said, orders have already far exceeded their expectations. They will have to come up with a real plan to execute production in a way that doesn’t have the masses going crazy.
Do you think they will be able to pull it off? What is the most exciting feature of the Model 3 so far for you? Would you / have you pre ordered a vehicle? Do you think that there should be a cap on pre orders? Comment below!
