autoevolution
 

Tesla Cancels 12,200 Orders for the Model 3, to Sell $2 Billion in Stock

At the end of April, Tesla Motors chief executive officer Elon Musk told that his company took almost 400,000 pre-orders for the Model 3. Now we find out that 373,000 reservations are still standing.
Tesla Model 3 11 photos
Photo: Tesla Motors
Tesla Model 3 design sketchTesla Model 3 trunkTesla Model 3 frunk (front trunk)Tesla Model 3Tesla Model 3Tesla Model 3Tesla Model 3Tesla Model 3Tesla Model 3Tesla Model 3
According to Automotive News, approximately 12,200 reservations were canceled: 8,000 by the customers and 4,200 duplicates by Tesla Motors. As a brief refresher, Musk made it clear that bogus mass orders will be canceled, with every customer entitled to preorder a maximum of two units of the Tesla Model 3. Then again, 373,000 reservations represent a good start for the smallest sedan in the automaker’s stable, more so if you consider that Tesla Motors plans to manufacture 500,000 vehicles in 2018.

As you may have figured by now, Tesla doesn’t have the means to make so many cars per year. Because of this, the Palo Alto-based outfit will sell $2 billion in stock to update its production capacity and speed up the Model 3 program. All engineering aspects of the Model 3 are said to be finalized by June 30, 2016, while production is set to start on July 1, 2017.

As per Automotive News, the American EV manufacturer will try to keep its promise by offering $1.4 billion of shares on the stock market. $0.6 billion worth of shares are “to be sold by Musk to cover taxes connected with his exercise of more than 5.5 million stock options.” To sum things up nicely, the future of Tesla depends on how fast the company can build the Model 3. Output is the name of the game here.

On a tangent, Tesla Motors snatched a handful of seriously talented people to oversee the Model 3 program: the interior designer of the Porsche Mission E and the Audi executive who oversaw the production of the A4, A5, and Q5. To go down the rabbit hole a little bit more, the Tesla Model 3 is expected to use low-rolling resistance tires manufactured by Hankook.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories