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Elon Musk on Tesla hitting 400,000 reservations: “the Model 3 was probably the real wake up call for the rest of the industry.”

The impact of the Model 3 is being felt in the automotive industry long before it actually hits the market in about 18 months. Since the reveal last month, GM has hinted that the range of the upcoming Bolt will be closer to Tesla’s, Ford announced that it is developing a vehicle to compete with the Model 3 and Fiat-Chrysler might even copy Tesla’s platform.

During his recent visit to Norway, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he was surprised by the number of reservations the company received for the $35,000 all-electric sedan and referred to the event as a “wake up call” for the industry.

After meeting with the Norwegian Minister of Transport and Communications Ketil Solvik-Olsen last week, Musk also met with the Norwegian EV Association. The association’s secretary general, Christina Bu, published a summary of her meeting with the executive.

During the meeting, Musk said:

“100,000 would have been an impressive number. Now, with some 400,000 pre-orders, the number is almost unbelievable. I can´t wait to bring it to Norway. The Model 3 was probably the real wake up call for the rest of the industry. No one seemed to care when the Roadster was launched.”

His comments are similar to what Tesla Vice-President of Business Development Diarmuid O’Connell said in Amsterdam when Tesla was approaching 400,000 reservations earlier this month:

“It delivers a message to the industry that there’s incredible demand for great electric vehicles out there.”

Although Musk is probably right about the impact of the Model 3 being more significant than the introduction of the Tesla Roadster, it’s quite clear that the industry was also watching when the automaker launched its all-electric sports car back in 2008.

Then GM Chairman, Bob Lutz, later admitted that the Roadster was the reason why he pushed for the Detroit-based automaker to bring the Chevy Volt to market.

Featured Image: Beautiful pictures of a Tesla Model 3 prototype in the Marin Headlands [Gallery] –  with permission courtesy of Joseph Neuman.

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Comments

  1. quiviran - 8 years ago

    The industry has been trying to pretend demand wasn’t there for over 10 years. The events surrounding the demise of the EV-1 and the electric pickup trucks of the same era clearly revealed demand. The fossil car industry and Big Oil thought they could politic and ignore it away. The world will become a better place as a result of Elon Musks convictions. Fossil cars and Big Oil convictions, not so much.

  2. tommyg - 8 years ago

    More like 400,000 and 1

  3. RJ Will - 8 years ago

    Sales this year of electric & hybrd electric vehicles already available are dismal & do not point to any public acceptance of EVs.

    • EV_excellent - 8 years ago

      Of course they are dismal, why would anyone buy any thing when 200+ miles EVs are around the corner?

    • David Stein - 8 years ago

      RJ, you do not realize the long-range impact. Oil will enter terminal decline, most likely after next year (2017) and the auto industry knows the writing’s on the wall. They are developing EVs to be ready for transitioning to renewable energy. They have to. See page 379 (page 415 in the pdf) of http://www.manicore.com/fichiers/Australian_Govt_Oil_supply_trends.pdf for the big picture. There is a long development lead time and they’re doing the preliminary work. You don’t think they’re investing billions for nothing, do you?

  4. azentropy - 8 years ago

    First of all I have my reservation although I’m probably around 100,000 or so as I did it online right when that option became available.

    Yes 400K is fantastic and IS a real wakeup call to the rest of the industry IF they can actually deliver a car with those specs (performance, range, attractiveness) at that price and the industry is convinced they can too. If the industry is still thinking that it sounds great but there is no way Tesla can deliver then I doubt much will change. At minimum I hope they finally realize that EV cars don’t have to be some dang ugly!

  5. danfrederiksen1 - 8 years ago

    WKTEC was the reason for the Volt. The Roadster was just the easy excuse. Lutz is a putz.
    Ghosn, you fucked up

  6. AceDiamond - 8 years ago

    So, Musk went to Norway with a briefcase full of cash to get the very pro-BEV Sintef to modify its EMF study conclusions:

    1. Gasoline is unhealthy, so it is OK for BEVs to be a health hazard.
    2. BEVs are safe, as long as one ignores the long term health effects. Sintef completely ignored the long term health effects, which are the main concern.
    3. BEVs are safe, just make sure you position that powerful electric motor and wiring as far away from the occupants as possible.
    4. BEVs are safe, but please note that this study completely ignored the EMF from batteries and wiring.
    5. BEVs are safe, but this study did not consider Teslas on account of the ultra-powerful electric motors and huge batteries, and the deathstar of all power inverters stuffed under the kids seats.
    6. BEVs are safe, but please note that a lot more research is necessary.
    7. BEVs are safe, but please use shielding….what’s that??? Shielding EMF is difficult??? Well, we’ll just say again that more research is necessary.
    8. BEVs are safe, because it is OK to kill children in BEV experiments as long as this will advance socialism in the world.
    9. BEVs are safe, because we live in a world where you get X-Rays and MRIs when you go to hospitals, and BEVs are even more essential to our survival than important medical tests.
    10. BEVs are safe, because you’re going to die anyway.
    11. BEVs are safe, because oil fuels ISIS and they have no other way of making money.
    12. BEVs are safe, because so many liberals are invested in Musk, so it is OK to kill children as long as the socialist liberals make money.
    13. BEVs are safe, because Musk and Obama spend valentine’s days together, so lets not ruin things for them…what’s a little more kids getting sick…kids die from other causes all the time.

    • Fred Lambert - 8 years ago

      We don’t block your posts. We have moderation and they were awaiting approval. Here, I approved your propaganda. Happy?

      • emilmelgaard - 8 years ago

        Why would you approve that?

      • Fred Lambert - 8 years ago

        I dont approve of what he wrote, but I approve his right to write it.

        I only mentioned it because he posted it 3 times because he thought i was removing it, but he is a new user and no one had moderated his comments yet.

    • Emil Wessel Melgaard - 8 years ago

      1. Yes, as long as BEVs are healthier than ICE cars, it’s an improvement from the current situation.
      2. BEVs are completely safe in terms of long term health effects.
      3. The electric motor and wiring is completely safe.
      4. EMF is completely safe. Are you also afraid of light?
      5. The power inverter is not located under the seats but behind the right front wheel.
      6. A lot of research has been done, and BEVs are completely safe.
      7. EMF shielding is very easy, but totally unnecessary for low-frequency or low-power fields. You will not find ionizing radiation in a Tesla.
      8. No children have ever died in a Tesla.
      9. Both medical equipment and BEVs can coexist. Of those three, only X-rays has been proven to have adverse health effects with excessive use, but it also saves many lives.
      10. BEVs are safe independently of that.
      11. That is one reason to reduce oil dependency, and there are many other.
      12. Ok, I’ll stop.
      13. …

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