Tesla Motors: Now the Undisputed King of the Crowd Funders©

[AudubonB]

Am creating this thread just to make it absolutely clear:

There is no second place for who has incontrovertibly shown themselves to be the finest-ever in obtaining funds.

Over the past short amount of time, Tesla has been able to raise in 24 hours -

* $1K * 115K orders = $115 million in real cash in their treasury
* this translates into somewhere between $5billion (at $35K per car) and perhaps $8 billion (at a more likely, early mean selling price) in their order book

All of this prior to anyone seeing for what it is the $1,000 deposit would go.

AND

* an additional 85K of orders over the subsequent 12-15 hours, bringing the day-and-a-half total to 200,000 deposits, thus

* $200 million real additional cash on hand, and

* a minumum of $7bn and a likely $10 billion in future sales.

The idea of enhancing one's balance sheet by $200 million without resorting to the capital or debt markets: Inconceivable!

Tesla is, indeed, the Undisputed King of the Crowd Funders©

 

[xmetal]

Shows how fundamentally different Tesla is from any other car maker. Imagine Chevy trying something like that for their latest truck. Lol.

 

[AudubonB]

True enough, except that you are narrow-minded in referring only to other car makers. This activity in unprecedented in any sector, any where, any time.

Latest (15h old now...) data at 232,000, and using Mr Musk's probably conservative $42,000 average selling price ===> $9.75 billion.

One not necessarily desirable outcome is that we can envision the case where at every conceivable presentation - quarterly production reveals, quarter financial releases, public statements any time - Tesla will be urged to release these order #s....with all the tealeaf-readings that implies over 1st- and 2nd-order fluctuations in flows. Ugh. But a great problem to have!

 

[colettimj]

Draw a box around TMC members and others that are equally informed about Tesla. Now look at how many people are outside of that box. Even with the 3 deposits there is a huge untapped market.

 

[Ryan MF]

As a crowd funding record I imagine this will stand for some time.

Tesla took a page from Apple's marketing book with the store pre-orders, but with a twist and used it to not only advertise, but also to raise funds. It was executed brilliantly but only possible because of the goodwill and interest the company has generated over the last few years. It's good to see Tesla trying to innovate in engineering along with their business model.

It will be interesting to watch this play out over the next few years. Other companies will surely try to follow in their footsteps.

 

[AudubonB]

...look at how many people are outside of that box...there is a huge untapped market.

Great point...but how, without advertising, is Tesla going to keep hitting and hitting and hitting that market?

First answer: to a great extent, they don't need to, as the organic growth once vehicles are delivered will by itself be self-sustaining as incognoscenti become cognoscenti by simple market osmosis - vehicle presence, trade journal reviews, media coverage.

Second answer: In the intervening 20 or so months prior to first deliveries, media cover will decline - even this story will stale. Do expect to have delta-D (where are symbols when you need 'em?) to taper significantly - the decay rate should be fairly steep, in fact.

But this latter is unimportant. TM now has a staggering amount of grist for its mill, of powder in reserve, of....oh, make up your own metaphors!

 

[AudubonB]

And now, as you've surely read elsewhere, 253,000 ===> $10.6bn given $42K average sales price.

Forget about other industrials - let's talk financial institutions. What do you think even giants like Goldman Sachs....MetLife....BankAmerica would react if they received this quarter-billion dollar windfall over the course of a weekend?

 

[GBleck]

Depends on how you define crowd funding. In a kickstart campaign if you hit your goal you are generally putting up money for a product. You generally get a better deal then the eventual full price but you put down all the money upfront. The model 3 is a reservation you then convert to a sale. It's definitely the biggest interest free loan up front I can think of. Curious why Glowforge isn't on the list. Maybe because Dan Shapiro decided to run the crowdfunding campaign in house. They ran a true order system but it is refundable if you pull out. I'm going to use mine to make custom plate holders for my ICE vehicles. The crowdfunding model really changes all markets doesn't it. Still need angels for some things but it gives a lot of flexibility in the middle stages of ramp up.

 

[EVie'sDad]

Tesla is the new Red Bull: Every brand wants to be it but can't pull it off - Digiday

 

[EVie'sDad]

Up to almost 400,000 reservations for Model 3 in a little more than two weeks, wow!

That is $4,000,000.00 direct to the company, and potentially up to $16.5 BILLION !!!

Now comes the hard work, meeting the demands of an ever growing populace.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Up to almost 400,000 reservations for Model 3 in a little more than two weeks, wow!

That is $4,000,000.00 direct to the company, and potentially up to $16.5 BILLION !!!

I think you mean $400,000,000.

 

[EVie'sDad]

You are correct, thanks!