Tesla’s Model 3 has been a huge success from the moment the company started preorders in early April. In the weeks that followed, Tesla execs kept saying the reservations number is approaching 400,000 units, without revealing an exact figure. More information has been made available since, and it looks like Tesla has some 373,000 Model 3 reservations, well below that 400,000 mark.
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According to Electrek, the number comes from Tesla’s recent SEC filing for its new capital raise that’s needed to finance the Model 3 production program.
Tesla said that as of May 15th, there are 373,000 Model 3 reservations after 8,000 reservations were canceled and Tesla removed 4,200, suspected to be duplicates from speculators.
Interestingly, the company says it could increase the number of reservations if it wanted to. “We have obtained this level of reservations without any advertising or paid endorsements, with only a few social media posts leading up to the March 31st unveiling, without anybody but those who were in attendance on March 31st having had an opportunity to test drive the car, without yet publicly disclosing numerous features about the car, and with almost no attempt to drive customers to make Model 3 reservations since the week following the March 31st unveiling,” the company said.
“If we wanted to, we believe that we could further increase the number of Model 3 reservations with minimal effort, but believe it is better to guide customers to purchase products currently in production.”
It’s worth remembering that Tesla is taking $1,000 reservations for the Model 3, which are refundable in case a buyer changes his or her mind. It’ll be interesting to see how many of the 373,000 people who preordered it will actually buy it in the following years.
Tesla wants to deliver up to 200,000 Model 3 by late 2017 and produce some 500,000 vehicles in the following year, including Model 3, Model S, and Model X.
