Tesla opens Model 3 orders to non-owners with reservations

Tesla Model 3 reservation holders who have never been Tesla owners are starting to receive invitations to configure their vehicles for the first time.

Until this week, Tesla only opened its online configurator to current owners.

The priority extended that to current owners placing a reservation this month and being invited to order the Model 3 and take delivery within weeks.

As we reported last week, it was a good indicator that Tesla would soon open orders for non-owners and sure enough, this week we’ve received our first reports of non-owners receiving invitations to configure with delivery in weeks.

Unfortunately, those looking to turn their Model 3 reservations into orders are still limited to the ‘Long Range’ Model 3 with premium interior package.

Earlier this month, Tesla delayed the production of the standard Model 3 battery pack to “late 2018”. The standard battery pack and interior are necessary for Tesla to achieve its promise base price of $35,000 for the Model 3.

Electrek’s Take

Considering non-Tesla owners represent a much larger base of Model 3 reservation holders than current owners, it’s fair to say that the automaker opening up orders for them is a good indicator that it is increasing production or is about to.

During the release of the financial results earlier this month, Tesla reiterated that they still plan to achieve a production of ~2,500 units per week by the end of next month even though the company admitted that there are still some important bottlenecks in the production process.

It’s not clear how many non-owners are being invited at this time, but I would suggest looking at your Tesla account since not everyone has been receiving email invitation even though they already have access to the configurator.

We have even received a report of a non-owner taking delivery as soon as this week, though we weren’t able to confirm that yet.

It certainly looks like deliveries are increasing, but it will be interesting to get the full report after the end of the quarter (first week of April).