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Tesla Model 3 Reached 250k Registrations in the First Two Days Alone

With only a couple of days left until the official presentation, somebody half-heartedly made the forecast of Tesla Model 3 receiving 100,000 registrations during the first 24 hours.
Tesla Model 3 1 photo
Photo: Tesla Motors
That sounded like a very nice headline, but not everybody was ready to bank on it. Tesla avoided stating the numbers it expected, but after the registrations had begun, Elon Musk kept us posted each time a new milestone was reached. And let's just say his Twitter account was pretty active these days.

A few hours before the stores opened on March 31 at 10:00 am, there were already tens or hundreds of people waiting in front of all Tesla locations around the world. Some people camped overnight while others had just shown up, but the fact of the matter was that the store employees had a busy day on Thursday.

The launch event started at 8:30 pm Pacific Time, which meant that all stores had already closed by that time. During the presentation, Elon Musk announced that over 115,000 reservations were made up to that point (180,000 in the first 24 h), which was more than anyone could have expected (but probably not more than Elon Musk had hoped). Now, two and a half days after it all began, the number has reached 250,000.

That isn't particularly bad for any type of vehicle. What are we talking about? It's absolutely crazy: 250k people are willing to wait at least 18 months until they'll be able to drive the car. It's true that the small deposit sum (and the fact that it's refundable) meant that the risk taken was virtually zero, but the effort put in by those who waited in line wasn't. We doubt those men and women will give up on their chance of owning a Model 3 when the time comes to pay the rest of the sum.

Speaking of which, Elon Musk said that the total value of the Model 3s "sold" is over $7.5 billion. Which is impressive, but it is also wrong: assuming the average value of the Model 3s booked was $40,000, multiplying that by 250,000 results in (and you don't need a calculator for this) $10 billion. Mr. Musk is all smiles these days, no doubt about it.

The scary thing is that calculated at the current output, these reservations account for three years of production, so unless Tesla expands its assembly lines it could find itself in the position where the supply will never be able to keep up with demand. But that's the kind of problem everybody would like to have, right? And, besides, there's talk of Tesla opening up more factories around the globe, so just because you failed to get up early last Thursday doesn't mean you'll have to wait three years (plus the 18 months until production starts) to get your Model 3.
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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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