Moderator comment - post copied from 2020 Shipping Movements
With many new Tesla Model 3 buyers waiting for their new cars I think it's timely just to explain why you are waiting...and waiting.
Tesla like many other companies are very conscious of their quarterly financial figures. They aim to sell every car they make in any quarter in the same quarter. So a car manufactured in January, February or March must be sold by the end of March, and so on. To be deemed as sold the car must not only be paid for in full but actually delivered to the customer. Ideally they will get paid for a car before they have to pay their suppliers.
It makes sense then that cars destined for Europe are manufactured at the beginning of the quarter and in the last month of the quarter no cars are exported to Europe. This means that ships will depart in the 1st two months of any quarter and none in the 3rd. This is why there is a feast or famine cycle of Model 3 availability. (Model S and X are slightly different) This cycle also explains the mad rush at the end of every quarter to deliver all the cars. We normally receive around 7 to 8 shipments each quarter in Europe with up to 5 ships enroute at any one time. For Model 3 there is no way of knowing exactly which ship your car is on bar being told by a friendly Tesla person. You can however have a pretty good guess based on when you expect delivery and when you get your VIN allocated. VINs seem to be allocated within a day or 2 of the ship departing from Pier 80. I won’t describe here how to find your VIN because there are many threads on this subject already on this forum and I recommend you have a read of them. Another thing about Tesla and specifically Model 3 is that your car is not built to order - Tesla build whatever they want and then match those built against orders. It can mean that some folk could have a long wait for their particular specification. It means that you may have ordered the same day as someone else however you may not get delivery on the same day if your specification is slightly different. Some get lucky, they order on Monday and take delivery on Friday whereas others wait, and wait, and then wait some more. This waiting can be incredibly frustrating and inconvenient, but trust me, it’s worth the wait!
With many new Tesla Model 3 buyers waiting for their new cars I think it's timely just to explain why you are waiting...and waiting.
Tesla like many other companies are very conscious of their quarterly financial figures. They aim to sell every car they make in any quarter in the same quarter. So a car manufactured in January, February or March must be sold by the end of March, and so on. To be deemed as sold the car must not only be paid for in full but actually delivered to the customer. Ideally they will get paid for a car before they have to pay their suppliers.
It makes sense then that cars destined for Europe are manufactured at the beginning of the quarter and in the last month of the quarter no cars are exported to Europe. This means that ships will depart in the 1st two months of any quarter and none in the 3rd. This is why there is a feast or famine cycle of Model 3 availability. (Model S and X are slightly different) This cycle also explains the mad rush at the end of every quarter to deliver all the cars. We normally receive around 7 to 8 shipments each quarter in Europe with up to 5 ships enroute at any one time. For Model 3 there is no way of knowing exactly which ship your car is on bar being told by a friendly Tesla person. You can however have a pretty good guess based on when you expect delivery and when you get your VIN allocated. VINs seem to be allocated within a day or 2 of the ship departing from Pier 80. I won’t describe here how to find your VIN because there are many threads on this subject already on this forum and I recommend you have a read of them. Another thing about Tesla and specifically Model 3 is that your car is not built to order - Tesla build whatever they want and then match those built against orders. It can mean that some folk could have a long wait for their particular specification. It means that you may have ordered the same day as someone else however you may not get delivery on the same day if your specification is slightly different. Some get lucky, they order on Monday and take delivery on Friday whereas others wait, and wait, and then wait some more. This waiting can be incredibly frustrating and inconvenient, but trust me, it’s worth the wait!
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