Tesla received pre-orders for more than 400,000 units of the Model 3 merely days after unveiling its first mass-market electric car. The company is expected to start delivering the first Model 3 units by next year though it’s yet to confirm precisely when that’s going to happen. Those who weren’t able to get a pre-order in will now have to wait even longer to get their electric car because Tesla has now said that the Model 3 has effectively been sold out until mid-2018.
Model 3 is Tesla’s first mass-market electric car which will cost customers below $30,000 when federal incentives for buying an electric car are factored in. It goes without saying that a lot more people are going to buy this car than the Model X or Model X, both of which cost more than $60,000.
Tesla has updated its website which now says that Model 3 deliveries are going to begin “late 2017” with production beginning by mid 2017. It has also updated the wording to reflect that the delivery estimate for “new reservations is mid-2018 or later.”
The mid-2018 timeframe is the best case scenario for customers who place an order for the Tesla Model 3 now, the company has confirmed that the new date is only for new orders. Tesla is now working to make sure that it sticks with the production timeframe for the Model 3.