Tesla Model 3 Reservations Top 325,000 Orders and $14 Billion in Potential Sales
The Tesla Model 3 could end up being the most successful electric vehicle in history, if sales projections hold true. Image: Tesla
Not long ago we reported that the upcoming Tesla Model 3 had generated more than $9 Billion in potential vehicle sales, based on 253,000 reservations at $1000 each. On April 7th, Tesla CEO and Founder Elon Musk Tweeted (see embedded Tweet below) that Tesla had passed the 325,000 reservation mark, which would translate — if each reservation turns into a vehicle sale — into more than $14 billion in sales revenue.
Over 325k cars or ~$14B in preorders in first week. Only 5% ordered max of two, suggesting low levels of speculation.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 7, 2016
That’s a whopping and impressive figure, but also presents a challenge for Tesla in terms of how effectively it can scale to meet consumer demand, given that the company has sold only 125,000 electric cars since the first Tesla electric vehicle shipped in 2008, at least according to Wikipedia.
Yet Elon Musk’s other ventures have overcome adversity and risen to surmount difficult challenges before, most recently the landing of the SpaceX CRS-8 rocket stage on a mobile platform at sea just a few days ago. (Video embedded below.) Overcoming adversity and learning from failure seems to be a hallmark of Elon Musk’s business endeavors, so executives at Ford, General Motors, and other large automakers should take Tesla’s ambitions seriously.
