After a highly anticipated multi-steps reservation process starting with Tesla and SpaceX employees, followed by in-store reservations, which created long queues at Tesla’s retail locations, and finally online reservations just an hour before the unveiling, Tesla finally launched the Model 3 – its first mass market electric vehicle.
All those reservations were sight-unseen and yet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that the company already had a staggering 115,000 Model 3 reservations with deposits and they are still coming in. At a base price of $35,000, it represent a future backlog of orders worth over $4 billion.
Update: now up to 129,000 132,000 150,000 reservations after the unveil. Tesla had about 100,000 reservations sight-unseen and 50,000 mores by the end of the event in Hawthorne./
In comparison, it took the company years to get just 20,000 reservations for the Model S and X. It shows how much credibility the automaker gained over the past few years. Of course, the deposit amount is also a lot smaller than it was first Tesla’s second generation cars – $1,000 vs $5,000.
The fact that so many reservations came in without the car being unveiled proves the incredible demand for a long-range all-electric and relatively affordable car.
Now that the Model 3 has been unveiled, there’s no telling how many more reservations it will get until it finally hit the market in late-2017. Especially since it looks bad-ass. Full post with a gallery and specs coming.
Update: Tesla Model 3: everything we know after the unveil, safety, range, charging [Gallery + Video]
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- Model 3 prototype interior
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+1 in the morning
A knockout . . . but, aluminum or steel?
Someone asked that on one of the periscope streams. The Tesla person said “more steel than aluminum” but that the car has both.
Mostly steel, though a good amount of aluminum too.
Chassis is a mix of steel and Aluminum, Re periscope test drive comment.
The front facia is not as awsome looking…
Another fake grill design on top of existing one will make it looking more sexy I think!!!
Would you prefer this car retained an ultra-low drag coefficient and low price tag, or not? My guess is that TSLA had to make decisions where to cut and preserve some kind of margin. It’s axed nonessential, costly, loved-only-as-legacy items in the automobile . . . not just the engine (no kidding!) and automatic transmission, but also most switches, the mechanical locks, the instrument cluster (since autonomous driving is prevalent in the future), and almost all the other clichés that makers like Jaguar claim they’ve shunned. Even leather, gradually. I think it’s pretty brilliant, letting the function and budget dictate the style, or if you pardon the logic, when a fiscally responsible government that understands sustainability is faced with pork, does it do its job and cut it?
I think the interior needs a lot of work still. I don’t like the protruding screen. And the steering wheel is a bit weird. And the front isn’t 100% a little too much flat area. Some lines are just a little bit too sharp.. These will be fixed I’m sure of it!
Didn’t really like the small lcd touch buttons in the X prototype and the protruding screen.. And they did remove em. Kudos to Tesla
But an overall great shape and I would still buy the model 3 as it is.
The interior rarely stays the same. i think they’ll change a lot on the inside before the release.
Find a photo of the Bolt… place it next to any of the photos above. Essentially the same price, similar range. Tesla folks working on the M3 project must have giggled like school girls every time an investment ‘professional’ or automotive ‘expert’ uttered the words ‘Tesla-killer’ in reference to ANY of the other EV’s produced or imagined by other car companies… Giggled like school girls with a big secret.
The 3 is a home run without even entering production. It was a very good day for EV advocates around the world.