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.

Comments

What this means

[RubberDogBone]

A typical modern sedan auto factory making your average Camry or Sonata or Accord turns out about 30,000 cars a month. Sometimes more, sometimes less. And usually there are 1-2 months of downtime and maintenance. Figure roughly 300,000 cars a year.

Tesla is saying they've pre-sold roughly four months of production, before people see the announcement and decide to order one and add more numbers to the list. They sold something like 25,000 MORE pre-orders during the reveal event. This is pretty spectacular by any standard, and more so considering Tesla's annual production rate for the Model S was only 50,000 in 2015. The S is seasoned design which they no doubt assemble fairly efficiently.

This really mean they have sold the equivalent of two plus years of new cars, probably more like three because they won't be at peak output anywhere near the beginning of production. It may take a year to fully ramp up.

To summarise: Damn fine sales, Tesla. Congratulations!