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Tesla Receives 115,000 Model 3 Preorders Worth $115 Million In 24 Hours (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Over 115,000 reservations at $1,000 each were placed for the Model 3 in the first 24 hours. This gives Tesla a little extra operating cash.
If each tech-savvy enthusiast who preordered the Model 3 in the first 24 hours follows through with their $35,000 purchase, Tesla would make $4 billion in sales. Right now, they're sitting pretty with $115 million from the down payment required for preordering. It looks like Tesla may have a big hit on their hands.
Indeed - far more valuable than the money from the reservations is the amount of investment money they'll be able to attract given such a demonstrated customer interest level.
If I ever become wealthy and mad, I'll leave Companion Cubes on desert islands for shipwreck survivors.
Very small portion of the day? Charging is typically done at night, when the demand for electricity is the lowest. It's actually a win-win for electric utilities, since they get paid for what amounts to unused capacity sitting idle and costing them money.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
I have a Volt. It charges at night, and you can set the charge time to be whenever you want. If utilities simply charged for time of use (which makes the most sense as it'd be the closest to the true cost), then owners would simply choose to charge whenever the price was lowest. With a Volt, I have a relatively small battery, so while I can choose when to charge at night, I can't easily shift charging to other days. With a 215 mile battery, you can now choose when you want to charge, just like you can choose when you want to fill up, particularly if workplace chargers are installed. This has the effect of actually leveling out the peaks and troughs in supply and demand BETTER than no EVs at all, not concentrating it in a "very small portion of the day."
Also, batteries are "energy accumulating tech." Tesla is building a Gigafactory (the initial portions of which are already operational) that will surpass the current global total Li-Ion production capacity. The Powerwall, and the utility-scale Powerpack (which is actually a big deal), beat basically all other grid-tied battery tech options available today. So if you want to "invest in energy accumulating techs," I suggest you buy Tesla stock.