Tesla: The first automaker to crowdfund development, accidentally…
Last Thursday night at 8:33 PST, Tesla Motors announced their first mass market vehicle: Model 3. 35 hours later, over 250,000 vehicles had been reserved (and counting).
Each reservation was a $1,000 deposit, representing $250 Million in deposits, and an order backlog worth close to $10 Billion, within one and a half days…
This was something no one: Wall Street, news outlets, Tesla itself, was expecting (except me 😉). Something some people might not realize is, even though the deposits are refundable, Tesla has no restrictions on the use of the funds.
We witnessed the largest and fastest crowdfunding in history, nothing even remotely close has happened. Tesla has amassed an incredible amount of deposits that will allow them to accelerate development and refine their product.
So what caused this to happen?
- This has been anticipated for close to a decade (see: Elon’s Blog post in 2006)
- Incredible previous product reviews: The Model S and X have been proclaimed some of the best cars on the road, period.
- Tesla brought the first long range electric vehicle to market (now to the mass market, we will see if Chevy can follow through😁)
- Cult like following of Elon Musk: nuff said
- Innovative purchase process. Would you preorder a vehicle at your typical franchised dealer? (Salesman: why don’t you just check out the vehicles we have in stock?)
As we get closer to production who knows how many preorders there will be! (1 Mil+?)
One of the biggest concerns for Tesla going forward: How are we going to be able to build these cars fast enough?
Well, I can assure you, a cool $250 Million sure doesn’t hurt to help figure that out. (New factory?)
