Photo: Tesla Inc.
As you can probably remember considering it was a hot topic at the time, Elon Musk decided to skip the pre-production testing period for the Model 3 and substitute it with delivering the first few cars to company employees in a beta test of sorts.
The move would cut time and production costs as well but was amply criticized at the time for the risks it presented. Should some problems go unnoticed and reach the final production units, Tesla would have to make costly changes to the assembly line, not to mention suffer an image blow.
Well, despite the absence of an official release, it looks like that period is coming to an end as the first few regular reservation holders are starting to receive invitations to configure their Model 3s. As announced during the official event in March 2016, the first of the over 400,000 reservation holders to get their new EVs will be located in California, and only after they had been served the roll-out will start shifting East.
One of the first ones to get it was You You Xue, who could hardly contain his excitement as he posted the news on the Tesla Owners Worldwide Facebook group. He lives in San Francisco, made his reservation on March 31 - the first day available - and is a Model S owner, which means he ticked all the boxes for getting his new electric sedan among the first non-employees.
Tesla's problems with the Model 3 production are notorious, but either the sun is beginning to shine on the Palo Alto company, or Elon Musk is using another one of his smoke screens to make things seem less dire than they really are. Whatever the case, after configuring his vehicle, You You Xue received a delivery estimate of four weeks, meaning he should be able to drive his new car by the end of this year.
There is still no clear estimate on when reservation holders that placed their orders on day one but don't live on the West Coast or don't already own a Tesla will get their turn, but things are at least moving forward. They might even be crawling at the moment, but there's hope for better.
Well, despite the absence of an official release, it looks like that period is coming to an end as the first few regular reservation holders are starting to receive invitations to configure their Model 3s. As announced during the official event in March 2016, the first of the over 400,000 reservation holders to get their new EVs will be located in California, and only after they had been served the roll-out will start shifting East.
One of the first ones to get it was You You Xue, who could hardly contain his excitement as he posted the news on the Tesla Owners Worldwide Facebook group. He lives in San Francisco, made his reservation on March 31 - the first day available - and is a Model S owner, which means he ticked all the boxes for getting his new electric sedan among the first non-employees.
Tesla's problems with the Model 3 production are notorious, but either the sun is beginning to shine on the Palo Alto company, or Elon Musk is using another one of his smoke screens to make things seem less dire than they really are. Whatever the case, after configuring his vehicle, You You Xue received a delivery estimate of four weeks, meaning he should be able to drive his new car by the end of this year.
There is still no clear estimate on when reservation holders that placed their orders on day one but don't live on the West Coast or don't already own a Tesla will get their turn, but things are at least moving forward. They might even be crawling at the moment, but there's hope for better.
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