Apparently already 115K people pre-ordered on the first day, and that's before the official event tonight. With a deposit of $1K, that's $115m already for a product that won't be on the market for possible 2 years, given how Model X went over schedule. And even if the pre-order is really frontloaded and some people in the end will drop out, we should still be looking at a possible sale of over 200K units; with ASP of say $40K (should be higher given the base is at $35K), that's an easy $8b+ in the bank. Pretty remarkable.

Did u order one too? I went to a Tesla after work around 6p to reserve, but now that they finally revealed it, I regret not going early today in the long lines to have sooner access to the car. the car seems so worth it even if $7500 federal tax credit is likely completely gone by then.

I wouldn't drive a Tesla if it was free, so this is a huge achievement.

Yeah, I reserved late too.

I knew nothing of this but it's interesting. A flat 35k is what the article I read was saying that the price was of these cars. I hope it's successful and they start producing many more since the demand is there.

Because people don't buy $20 burgers because there are $5 burgers that are just as good?

As Apple has shown, once you establish that brand and once you establish that coolness, you can be immune from competition even if they produce phones with better specs and performance. Owning cars is also about taste, like handbags and watches, so what defines "the best" means different things to people, and brand is an important factor to many. The coolness factor of "I have a Tesla" won't go away for years, especially given their audience already skews young from the start. Having a lower-entry car just makes it more accessible to the masses, like BMW having the 3-, 5-, 7-series for different segments of the market.

Another potential analogy:
Antique cars = vinyl
ICE cars = cd's overall

Prius = Itunes
Other hybrids = other music stores selling music downloads

Nissan Leaf = Pandora Free
Other electric cars = other streaming radio sites

Tesla Model 3 = Spotify Free with Ads
Tesla Model X and Model 3 = Spotify Premium
Apple = Apple Music
Google = Google Play Music+ YouTube Red
Amazon = Amazon Prime Music

Hybrids are predominant but will be a thing of the past in the future. Pandora is free and used to be most popular streaming but with least features is becoming more and more irrelevant each year. Spotify is still the leader even after Google, Amazon and and Apple's offerings all require paid plan for features, while for free plans Spotify's offers the most features.

Here's an example of cool auto driving features that existing Tesla's already have (as a $3000 upgrade, hopefully same or lower price for Model 3). I think the mainstream don't really know these features are already available (i didn't know before I put down my deposit), and I'm surprised it wasn't demonstrated during the Model 3 unveil.



https://www.teslamotors.com/blog/summon ... your-phone

I used to say the same thing, but as I have come to understand the unusual torque curve of electric car motors, I am now looking forward to trying out a Tesla.



(The reviewer is Robert Llewellyn, who sci-fi fans may remember as Kryten in Red Dwarf.)

There are some Tesla's driving around Shenzhen. And also the other day in my apartment block I saw a McClaren. The Chinese are officially rich.