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Tesla Says Model 3 Had 'Biggest One-Week Launch of Any Product Ever' (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Tesla announced Thursday that it has received 325,000 preorders for its recently unveiled Model 3. If it sells every car that's been reserved, the company says it will earn enough revenue to make this the "biggest one-week launch of any product ever." A few days ago, the electric car company was saying it had received twice the number of preorders it originally expected to get. Now it's quickly approaching three times that number, which raises questions about the company's ability to meet its increasingly complex production goals. If it can, it stands to make a boatload of money. Tesla says the number of preorders it has received so far corresponds to $14 billion in implied future sales.
They may have trouble keeping up. They hope to be able to satisfy 500,000 orders a year by 2020. They will need to fast track that considerably, but even at that rate Bloomberg says that EVs will displace over 2,000,000 barrels of oil a day by 2023. That would be enough to cause a crash in the oil market: https://youtu.be/NOPHHgJgJ2s
So much for the $35,000 price tag. $14B / 325,000 = $43,000. Even if we assume that half the sales will be for the basic configuration at the bottom price, then the other half would have to sell for $51,000 to make the average price they are projecting. Sounds to me like the $35K version will be completely bare-bones, and you'll have to pay a *lot* for things that come standard in other cars (the Porsche way). Personally, I was excited to get a nicely equipped electric car for $35K. $51K? Not so much.
"...If it sells every car that's been reserved..."
I'm going to call it here, that less than 100,000 - maybe even less than 50k - actually turn into real orders.
-Styopa
No, worst case is you lose the $1000.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
The market returns around 7% on average. At best you will get 0% on this investment, and you'll overpay just for the honor of getting the first buggy models off of the assembly line. Good luck.
No, at best you get to buy a $35k car for $27,500 instead of $35k like everyone who did not put $1000 down. That is a pretty good deal. Even if your car isn't delivered until 6 quarters after the 200,001st Tesla is delivered, the tax incentive is still $1875. That is still quite the return on investment.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke