Yes, I agree, VERY good news (with a capital VERY), assuming the quality and efficiency Elon talked about at the CC kept up in similar fashion, otherwise it's just good news, haha.
Do we know if they are getting sales fast enough to produce 500 cars? I guess my question is: Is Tesla getting 600 or something reservations a week? I wonder if producing too fast would be bad if suddenly they have no orders. EDIT: This is awesome news by the way. Not discrediting that.
Well, sure. But that could also mean you got 5000 orders and you are producing 500 a week and will simply stop when you hit 5000. I guess that is my concern. Will they have enough demand to produce 500 cars a week next year. But I guess no one really knows that.. heh
You can't prove a negative, but based on the number of sales that occur because folks have seen/driven/ridden in some owner's Model S. I don't think there is going to be a problem. If the Superchargers get built out so you can really go just about anywhere, then sales should really start to take off.
I recently visited our Austin store last week. The associate there said that not a whole lot of people have heard about Tesla just yet. Which in my eyes is a good thing. If they are getting this many reservations without having their name out there just yet, and people are just learning about them. I can't imagine when Tesla is a household name so to speak. Exciting stuff! I am hoping by Gen-3 they will be known internationally and they will have a lot of reservations for that as well. I see a lot of times on Facebook and other areas that there is a LARGE following for waiting on the Gen-3. Pretty exciting.
I think that once Tesla gets to the point at which all orders are filled, they will start to produce some extra cars. These cars would be the most popular configurations that they could just have ready to ship out right away. They already have an inventory link on their website where these could be listed. It would then be possible to just pick out one of the pre-configured models and get it shipped to you immediately. This model could be extended further so that these pre-configured cars end up at the delivery points around the US for immediate delivery and test drive, just like traditional dealers do it. However, Tesla has a long way to go before they get to that point, at least a couple years I would think.
Right now, no, the new reservation rate is relative low, more like 9k-10k per year (last I knew) But there are issues likely depressing the rate. One of the issues is that there is an unpredictably long wait. Being able to produce comfortably at a rate of 500/week will help reduce the waiting list and allow them to deal with the backlog as the different regions start getting deliveries. It also means more cash coming in, which at the moment is still an issue. I'm not sure the 500/week is ideal, but I do take it as a positive sign of improving productivity.
What? You must be talking strictly about US reservations, and even then you must have used some real low average numbers? As far as I know they`ve been at +/- 50 cars a day globally since mid January. Just below 20,000 a year. Never seen reservation rate as low as 9-10" a year??
In Europe it seems to be 7.5 per day right now, with a backlog of 3000+ cars. So until the end of the year, I think they are quite busy. Bu if this rate continues and the back order disappears....?
I have no idea what the rate will be one year from now Last time I was able to calculate global reservation rate (about a month ago) it was about 50-53 a day. And car sales are generally lower in Q1 every year.