Photo: Mercedes-Benz
When Tesla first introduced the Model 3 back in March 2016, several hundred thousands of people world wide rushed to make their $1,000 reservation to make sure they would be among the first in their region to get the new EV.
To be more exact, the bookings opened before the actual event, so a lot of the people who made the deposit did so in the blind. A month or so later and Tesla settled on 370,000 reservation holders, which would have been a record had other companies employed the same method before.
The only vehicles built by traditional manufacturers that get sold before they even exist are the very rare ones: special, limited editions that you can't even buy unless the factory offers to sell you one. But we're talking tens, hundreds of cars tops here, so it's an entirely different scale.
With the established brands now committing to the EV market, it looks like they are borrowing Tesla's reservation system as well as a way to gauge the demand of the market. But instead of going global, as Tesla did, they are assessing this method in Europe's most prolific EV market: Norway.
The first one to do it was Audi who opened the registry at the start of this year. The company is now reporting 2,500 reservations worth approximately $2,500 each. For a country the size of Norway, that's a considerable number.
Norwegian website Dagens Naeringsliv now says that Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz are following Audi's example for their upcoming electric crossovers as well, the I-PACE and EQC respectively. The British company is asking half the sum as a down payment (about the equivalent of $1,250) and can brag with 850 customers already for its 90 kWh sleek crossover.
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz said it received 1,000 reservations within the first half-hour for its EQC SUV, which is the production model previewed by the Generation EQ Concept at last year's Paris Motor Show. That sounds impressive, but just for the sake of it, it would be interesting to know how many Norwegians hold a Tesla Model 3 reservation.
We wouldn't be surprised if more markets were soon to follow Norway as the start of the production for these models draws nearer (the I-PACE is reportedly already being assembled), which could bring the total number of reservations a lot higher. All that's left now is for the carmakers to keep their promise and deliver the vehicles with the advertised specs.
The only vehicles built by traditional manufacturers that get sold before they even exist are the very rare ones: special, limited editions that you can't even buy unless the factory offers to sell you one. But we're talking tens, hundreds of cars tops here, so it's an entirely different scale.
With the established brands now committing to the EV market, it looks like they are borrowing Tesla's reservation system as well as a way to gauge the demand of the market. But instead of going global, as Tesla did, they are assessing this method in Europe's most prolific EV market: Norway.
The first one to do it was Audi who opened the registry at the start of this year. The company is now reporting 2,500 reservations worth approximately $2,500 each. For a country the size of Norway, that's a considerable number.
Norwegian website Dagens Naeringsliv now says that Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz are following Audi's example for their upcoming electric crossovers as well, the I-PACE and EQC respectively. The British company is asking half the sum as a down payment (about the equivalent of $1,250) and can brag with 850 customers already for its 90 kWh sleek crossover.
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz said it received 1,000 reservations within the first half-hour for its EQC SUV, which is the production model previewed by the Generation EQ Concept at last year's Paris Motor Show. That sounds impressive, but just for the sake of it, it would be interesting to know how many Norwegians hold a Tesla Model 3 reservation.
We wouldn't be surprised if more markets were soon to follow Norway as the start of the production for these models draws nearer (the I-PACE is reportedly already being assembled), which could bring the total number of reservations a lot higher. All that's left now is for the carmakers to keep their promise and deliver the vehicles with the advertised specs.
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