Tesla Racked Up Almost 300k Model 3 Orders Just A Few Days After Reveal

We were all expecting the Model 3 to be rather popular, but it’s been such a massive success already that it’s actually caught Tesla by surprise. CEO Elon Musk revealed yesterday that by the end of Saturday - just two days after the car’s reveal - the company had received an incredible 276,000 deposits. To give you a little context, BMW sold 476,792 of its 3-series in all of 2015, with the Mercedes C-Class selling 443,909 in the same period.

In fact, 115,000 of those deposits were put before the car was even revealed. The deposits are $1000 in the USA and £1000 in the UK, but it is worth noting that they are refundable, so a few of those potential buyers may well drop out.

When reacting to the massive surge in orders, Musk stated on Twitter that the expectation within the company was for about a half or even a quarter of the actual figure.

What we don’t know is how long it’ll take to get through such a large number of orders. Tesla has said that it wants to build 500,000 batteries a year at its new gigafactory to cope with the new car’s demand.

It won’t be a first-come-first-served deal either: Musk has stated that those closest to the factory in Fremont, California are likely to receive theirs first to enable “rapid turnaround on early issues”.

First deliveries are expected to occur in early 2017. A UK price hasn’t yet been revealed, but it’ll cost $35,000 in the USA before any government incentives, which vary from state to state.