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People Plan on Camping Outside Tesla Stores Ahead of the Model 3 Release

Forget the new iPhone, the new Sony PlayStation or the discounted bride's dresses: the people of this world have been given another reason to camp outside a store. And who would have thought it was ever going to be a car?
Men camping in 1907 1 photo
Photo: Frank William Mickelthwaite via wikipedia.org
But it's not really a car these people are buying, is it? No, just like the iPhone, the PlayStation or... no, not the bride's dress, the Tesla is a piece of technology. It's a gadget. It's something people want to have so that they feel at the forefront of technical advancement. Do they care about the planet? I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Tesla owners have also got a few gas-guzzlers in their garage, so I'd be tempted to say no, most of them don't. But who cares, right? As long as they keep buying and using electric cars.

Anyway, whatever their reasons, hundreds of people are expected to form lines in front of Tesla stores all over North America on the morning of March 31. While some say they will show up a few hours early (the stores should open at 10:00 am local time), others are a lot more committed to the cause, planning to camp out for as long as two days. What makes this even more noteworthy is that the person who made this statement is from Montreal, where the temperatures are expected to drop below the freezing point overnight.

How do we know all this? Well, the good people crazy about the Tesla Model 3 have created an online spreadsheet where they're getting organized for the event. Besides their ETA and the Model 3 configuration they're most likely to get, there are also plans for coffee and donuts being made. Carpooling is also considered.

Besides the obvious enthusiasm and the tightly-knit nature of the community, there's another interesting trend that emerges from this spreadsheet. Reading the "Projected Version You'll Purchase" column indicates that most people are willing to go way over the rumored $35,000 base price, which shows that most of them weren't after a cheap Tesla, but simply a more affordable one. It's true that a lot of the folks there are already Tesla owners, which means that money was never an issue.

Consider this a public service announcement: if you have any business around Tesla stores next Friday, it's better to take into account the fact that you might be passing through something that looks very much like a refugee camp. With the sole difference that these will be the happiest refugees you'll ever see.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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