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"Sold out"?

Since when is 600 cars sold out?

I thought I remember reading that the goal was 800 cars. Or even 1000 cars for a model year.

My understanding was that, in theory at least, they could produce upwards of 2,000 per year after production is ramped up. However, I believe that would require at least adding a shift at the Lotus assembly plant. About 1,000 per year is a more likely limit.

However. . . It's going to be slow going at first. The first cars will be slowly and carefully assembled, with a learning curve, and then the rate of production will gradually increase. The plan was to produce 800 cars in the first year. Now with the delay that was recently announced, it seems that 600 cars is more likely.

Since they have about 600 pre-orders at this time, that means the 2008 year model is more-or-less sold out. If they get production increased more quickly, it's possible they might be able to allocate more cars to 2008 production. It's just too early to say.

600 is great and it's been said that Tesla is (or at least was) on average selling a car every 2 days. Have they really called the 2007-2008 year sold out?

Is the person ordering car number 601 now officially ordering car one for the 2009 model year?

There will be no 2007 year model. The 2008 model isn't "officially" sold out, but they aren't taking any more pre-orders just now because they don't really know whether they would be able to fill them or not.

Incidentally. . . I got an email from Zak with an update on where I am in line. I have reservation number 315, with an expected build month of September 2008. Hmm. . . Did he really mean build month? That's about when I was hoping for delivery. :frown:
 
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Tony wrote:

"I have reservation number 315, with an expected build month of September 2008."

If number 315 is built in September then when is number 400 built? and 500 built? and number 600 built?

Sounds finishing 600 cars in 2008 is getting close as it is.
 
Build date Nov. 2008

I'm in the high 500's and build date is Nov, 2008. If everything stays on that schedule, I'm thinking that building 650 in 2008 may be doable, but delivering them all by Dec. 31st, 2008, might be a stretch.

Wasn't it somewhere on this site that I saw the rule is if that if the model crosses Jan 1st then the model year is that year? So as long as they get them all built before Jan 1st, 2009, then they are 2008 models. How long does it take to ship across the pond, 3 or 4 weeks?

I'm glad they aren't charging any more also, and also glad I got in before the price jump. (Patient buyer, that's why my number is so high) I just wanted to point out that, despite all the complaints I've seen about the price, it really is a good value for the money, when you consider cars of similar performance.

Most people who complain about the high price are really looking for a Camry type car. And there is nothing wrong with that, the world needs lots of regular family sedans, and all the better if they are electric. I'm confident we will get there, it will just take time.

There were not a lot of people willing to buy VCRs when they were $1500, but a few did. A few more bought when they dropped below $1000. When they got below $300, everybody got one.
 
From the December Business Week issue Best / Worst of 2006 .

"The Tesla Roadster - $100,000

Burn rubber, help the environment. This electric-powered two-seater does 0 to 60 in four seconds, can hit 130 mph, and has better torque than cars with gas-guzzling combustion engines. The motor is eerily quiet and goes 250 miles between charges. Tesla promises 100,000 miles of battery life. Order '08 models over the Web or at one of five Tesla outlets. Move fast -- just 1,000 are planned."
 
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From Micheal Marks' letter (PDF), dated September 25, 2007:
While we expect to produce a limited number of production cars in the fourth quarter, I have set a production goal of shipping fifty cars in the first quarter of 2008, with an additional 600 cars in the 2008 model year. We may increase that production level if and when we are confident in our production ramp.

So that means 650 cars in 2008, with the last 600 in the last nine months or so. (Another thread gets into what a "model year" is; I wasn't able to follow it.) Assuming, also, that they're not going from one car every three days to two cars a day overnight, I think it's reasonable to think car #300 is going to be shipped in September with the remaining cars shipped by the end of the year.