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.

Comments

Lots of reasons to put deposit down

[misnohmer]

There are a lot of reasons to put the deposit down:
1. Low risk - fully refundable until actually placing configured order. The only risk is Tesla going under.
2. Early Model 3 car still qualify for up to $7,500 US government tax credit. After Tesla has produced 200K cars for US market (including all Model S and X) the rebate drops off fast.
3. With this strong demand, those who put the deposit down will get their cars up to 2 years earlier. First releases of a new model car tend to hold higher residuals as there are no older alternatives.
4. Some may hope to speculate, buy an early car and sell it for profit to those who will pay an extra couple of thousand for not waiting 2 years for the new, trendy car. Once the $7.5K rebate drops off, that's an extra $7.5K value for the person who did get it and is reselling the car to those who can no longer get it.

So, rather that collect 0.25% in a savings account, place a $1000 deposit, with low risk, but lots of potential upside. Why do people think that's crazy?

Re:Apple sold 13 million iPhone 6s/6s+ in 3 days

[ranton]

Refundable until the car goes into production.

By the time the car goes into production it will not be sight unseen. There will have been opportunities for test drives just like with the last two Tesla vehicles. I put down my deposit because in the worst case scenario I have $1000 in a non-interest bearing account for a couple years, and in a best case scenario I will likely be part of the last Tesla buyers who get Federal tax credits.