"Biggest one-week launch of any product ever." - Tesla Model 3 continues to prove its mainstream appeal with order numbers that keep on climbing. 325,000 orders, meaning 14b USD of revenue if they fulfil every order. The electric car market is healthy indeed.
We speculated shortly after the weekend has passed following the official unveiling of the Tesla Model 3 about exactly (a) how high the number of pre-orders will climb and (b) how many can Tesla reasonably expect to take before it calls time out.
It seems that the answer to both those questions is north of 325,000 units, because that’s the amount the California-based electric vehicle maker chose to disclose as a yardstick. We’re sure it has since climbed a since they’ve chosen to publish it.
Tesla deserves a lot of credit, and although they haven’t shown much of the Model 3, this past week by itself should send a clear message to other automakers, making them think hard about their own all-electric strategy. Clearly there is an eager market.
With each order of Model 3, prospective owners are asked to spec up their car before placing the US$1,000 deposit. Tesla has done the math, revealing that the average as-configured price for each car is roughly US$42,000. This leads to a total of 14 Billion US dollars in implied sales come launch.
Mind you, figures like 325,000 are punitive compared to the number of pre-orders on popular electronic devices such as the iPhone, which routinely total in the millions the week following an introduction each year.
But Tesla is quick to point out that this is a product category that is still very young and done without any advertisements or paid endorsements. It also is a purchase that is much more expensive and involves an entirely new way of paying (and/or ordering) for a car: online.
Tesla said: “This has been a true grassroots effort driven by the passion of the Tesla team that’s worked so hard to get to this point and our current and future customers who believe so strongly in what we are trying to achieve,” said the company. “Most importantly, we are all taking a huge step towards a better future by accelerating the transition to sustainable transportation.”
Any way you cut it, that’s is a lot of orders to fill Tesla’s logbook, and come the end of 2017, there will be at least that many individuals waiting to receive the own Model 3. Granted, as with any other queue, they won’t (and can’t) all expect to receive their cars within the same short period, but by the same token won’t be too happy if Tesla pushes their deliveries well into 2018 either.
Busy times ahead for Tesla.
