Tesla has received a huge number of orders for its upcoming entry-level electric sedan, and for this reason, all the new orders it is receiving now will be fulfilled in 2018. On Tuesday, the company’s website had a greeting message for its visitors indicating that the orders placed from now on will be filled in mid-2018 or later.
No delay for initial production
A Tesla spokesperson told USA Today that the change made on the website doesn’t reflect any delay in initial Model 3 production, and even now, it is slated for mid- to late-2017.
Tesla started accepting orders for the Model 3 in March, taking $1,000 for reservations. It took a little time for the EV firm to amass 400,000 reservations from prospective buyers. Since Tesla makes all its current cars in smaller volumes, to meet such high demand for the Model 3, it will need to build out its production capacity.
The reason for the lag time is because Tesla will be able to start shipping cars only after growing its production capacity, and this was pretty much expected by everyone. The reservation list started to grow earlier this year, and for this reason, new reservation holders might have to wait three to four years for their cars, noted Fortune.
Pushing the date further out might lead to missing the federal tax credit for new buyers as it will expire after the company sold 200,000 cars.
Model 3 very important for Tesla
Last year Tesla delivered 50,000 cars, and this year, it plans to deliver about 80,000 cars. Tesla intends to grow its manufacturing capabilities to manufacture 500,000 cars per year by 2018. Most of those cars will be Tesla’s Model 3. The automaker has high hopes for the Model 3. It expects that the car will vault it from being a niche builder of around 50,000 high-end luxury cars a year to being a relatively mass-market automaker.
Tesla is currently valued at $29 billion and is taking on more financial challenges as it tries to acquire rooftop solar provider SolarCity. Also it is building a massive plant in the desert outside of Reno, Nevada called the Gigafactory to manufacture battery cells and cars. For this reason, the success of the Model 3 is very important.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk will make a new product announcement on Wednesday. Some analysts believe it will involve a vastly upgraded computer vision platform that will edge cars closer to self-driving status. Some believe that the announcement could be a Model 3 interior, as it hasn’t been displayed as yet, notes USA Today.
