How many?
Last Sunday CEO Elon Musk tweeted an update on the number of Model 3 orders his company has received:
So, 276,000 orders (and counting) for the Model 3, Tesla’s mass-market electric car that was unveiled March 31, over three days. The car’s official price is $35,000, although Musk tweeted last week that he expected options to bump the average price up to $42,000. Total potential revenue: Nearly $11.6 billion. That was Sunday. How many have been added since then?
The higher-than-expected demand has boosted the shares of the Palo Alto company. They’re trading at a six-month high, up about 5 percent today to $250.22. That lift, plus the $1,ooo-a-pop reservation fee, should help address some of the concerns about Tesla’s cash flow and its ability to produce all these cars; some analysts expect the company to need to raise more cash.
Musk, who has 3.68 million Twitter followers, has helped the Model 3 hype along on Twitter, where he did what he called “an impromptu AMA (ask me anything) over the weekend as he responded to questions on the Twittersphere.
From those tweets, we learned a little more about Tesla and its latest electric car, which the company says will be delivered starting in late 2017:
- The Model 3’s steering controls will look different from what people saw — no dashboard behind the steering wheel — during last week’s unveiling, Musk said. Musk, who knows a thing or two about spacecraft because he’s also SpaceX’s CEO, said the Model 3’s steering system would “feel like a spaceship.”
- How will Tesla keep up with all the demand? Answering a question about whether there would be a delay in getting Model 3s in Britain, Musk said no but added that Tesla would need to “build a factory in Europe to serve long-term regional demand as Fremont reaches max capacity.”
- To give an idea of how the numbers have blown past projections, Musk tweeted, “token of appreciation for those who lined up coming via mail. Thought maybe 20-30 people per store would line up, not 800. Gifts on order.”
Back to the present day
We also saw a rave review of the shipping Model X published on the Drive.com website written by Alex Roy.
The review starts with:
I hate SUVs for the same reason I hate houseboats. Bad houses, bad boats. Luxury SUV’s make me sick. Is there anything more American than the idea that you can have it all, without compromise, for a price? You can’t, otherwise Escalades and Expeditions would be running in NASCAR.
Except now you can, because I just took a Tesla Model X P90D to Ojai, California, and for the first time in my life, I wanted an American car.
The Model X P90D represents everything I hate. It’s an awkwardly-proportioned, 5440 pound, electric, semi-autonomous, 7-seater SUV, packed full of technology that cannot possibly last, from a company critics claim cannot survive.
And I absolutely loved it.
Check it out here: TheDrive.com