Photo: Tesla
Elon Musk is a very outspoken guy, but when it comes to the number of customers that have placed an order for the Model 3, he is extremely tight-lipped.
Perhaps this is his way of doing business, or perhaps he is still trying to hide the reality of how far behind the production of the world’s most sought-after electric car really is. But despite his secrecy, there is one company that says it can shed a bit of light on the matter.
The company in question is called Second Measure and describes itself as “an analytics platform that lets you see inside companies.” By peeping through billions of anonymized credit card transactions, Second Measure claims to have found what investors were unable to find when talking to Musk himself.
To buy a Tesla, customer must at first pay a deposit. That deposit is fully refundable provided customers do not go to the next step, which is configuring the car and paying an additional $2,500. In Tesla’s world, that pretty much equates to a customer really wanting the car, production wheels are set in motion, and the money is lost should the customer change his mind.
The group claims that, even though the number of depositors going to the second step has increased, there is also a huge number of them wanting their money back.
To get down to the numbers, Second says that as of April, 23 percent of the depositors have received a refund. The remaining ones “are in limbo, either still holding a spot in the Model 3 queue or waiting for a requested refund to be processed.”
It’s hard to say whether the claims made by Second Measure are true or not. Being “anonymized,” their data and findings are hard to check.
Elon Musk is pulling lots of Trump-like tweets in recent weeks. Should this Second Measure story snowball into something not to his liking, we’ll probably see a tweet or two from him contradicting the figures.
In the meanwhile, the entire analysis, charts and all, can be found at the following link.
The company in question is called Second Measure and describes itself as “an analytics platform that lets you see inside companies.” By peeping through billions of anonymized credit card transactions, Second Measure claims to have found what investors were unable to find when talking to Musk himself.
To buy a Tesla, customer must at first pay a deposit. That deposit is fully refundable provided customers do not go to the next step, which is configuring the car and paying an additional $2,500. In Tesla’s world, that pretty much equates to a customer really wanting the car, production wheels are set in motion, and the money is lost should the customer change his mind.
The group claims that, even though the number of depositors going to the second step has increased, there is also a huge number of them wanting their money back.
To get down to the numbers, Second says that as of April, 23 percent of the depositors have received a refund. The remaining ones “are in limbo, either still holding a spot in the Model 3 queue or waiting for a requested refund to be processed.”
It’s hard to say whether the claims made by Second Measure are true or not. Being “anonymized,” their data and findings are hard to check.
Elon Musk is pulling lots of Trump-like tweets in recent weeks. Should this Second Measure story snowball into something not to his liking, we’ll probably see a tweet or two from him contradicting the figures.
In the meanwhile, the entire analysis, charts and all, can be found at the following link.
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