Tesla Model 3 reservations down to 373,000

[kevm14]

http://www.motortrend.com/news/1978188/

Which is still a lot, of course.

But these are reservations. For a car that may be produced in a few years. On the one hand, that someone even plunked down $1,000 for a car that may arrive in their driveway in a few years is an achievement. On the other, I think this trend is going to continue. So the conversation, I guess, would be, what number of actual first year Model 3 sales would be significant? That number might be 100k. So they have a long way to go down and still be a significant achievement.

[kevm14]

http://autoweek.com/article/green-cars/ ... g-problems

I still think Tesla has a long way to go to prove it can do mass manufacturing at affordable prices as well as the established automakers. They have the buzz part down. They just need to produce results. Which it turns out is the hard part.

[Bob]

The doors on the Model X, while they look cool, are the type of thing that usually gets axed from a concept car for good reason. I think this is a case where doing something that legacy automakers just wouldn't do will come back to bite them. I think Tesla will figure out the manufacturing thing, but there will be some painful lessons along the way. Fortunately for Telsa, there is an abundance of people who can help them in this country, and I'm sure many of these people wouldn't mind escaping the Midwest.

[kevm14]

From a business standpoint, the Model 3 could be a massive success or a fairly sizable failure, in part due to them not coming through this issue in time.

[Bob]

Agreed. The Model 3 is going to be the make or break car for Tesla. If it flops, their changes for survival are slim.