Tesla Motors Inc. is gearing up for a busy production season ahead as preorders for its Model 3 electric sedan are swelling by the minute!
Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk revealed in a Twitter AMA that the Model 3 preorders stood at almost 300,000.
In just 36 hours since the preorders for the Model 3 opened on March 31, Tesla had successfully amassed 276,000 preorders for the electric car by April 2.
276k Model 3 orders by end of Sat
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2016
Musk gave constant updates on Twitter, keeping ardent fans of the company in the loop:
"Model 3 orders at 180,000 in 24 hours. Selling price w avg option mix prob $42k, so ~$7.5B in a day. Future of electric cars looking bright!" tweeted Musk on April 1.
"Thought it would slow way down today, but Model 3 order count is now at 198k. Recommend ordering soon, as the wait time is growing rapidly," he said a little later in the day.
The growing interest for the Model 3 kept prompted Musk to note "Definitely going to need to rethink production planning..."
Interestingly, on March 29, two days prior to the preorders for the vehicle opening, Musk foresaw what lay ahead. He took to Twitter to share that interest for the preorders for the Model 3 electric car looked promising and as a result the company may be required to bump up production.
Looks like we may need to increase production plans for the Model 3 pic.twitter.com/fmCPFC9FEm — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 29, 2016
By April 1, the numbers preordered had increased to 232,000 and on April 2, at 7 a.m. the figure stood at 253,000.
253k as of 7am this morning — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2016
The number of preorders well surpassed Tesla's expectations and Musk expressed his gratitude to future and current Tesla car owners for reposing faith in the company.
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. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2016
Responding to a query if the preorder numbers were at par with his expectations, Musk also revealed that Tesla had anticipated a quarter to a half of the preorders they had garnered.
@34thrain Maybe 1/4 to 1/2 of what happened. No one at Tesla thought it would be this high before part 2 of the unveil. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 2, 2016
The Model 3 is scheduled to go into production in late 2016 and the base price is $35,000, making it the cheapest Tesla EV to date. The reservation cost for the vehicle is $1,000. Musk signed-off the Twitter AMA saying that the Model 3 will have more "cowbells" and that the EV will be RWD.
Model 3 will be RWD, with dual motor AWD optional. Even RWD will have great traction on ice due to fast torque response of Tesla drivetrain. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2016
