Tesla not appearing in a hurry to get Model 3s to showroom. . .why not?

[Sully's8]

Drove past my local SC this week and it dawned on me that there still aren't Model 3s available to see except in Fremont or in the wild. . . If I was looking to pad the Model 3 reservation volume (i.e. Sell them!), I would be prioritizing getting Model 3s to the SCs as soon as possible. . . So why aren't they?

I searched and couldn't find a thread on this, apologies if there is.

Poll speculates what I assume are the two most likely scenarios. Pick one or cop out with both. . .

M

 

[kengchang]

Why entice customer to buy extra hamburger when the line is already two hours long?

 

[Herolad]

They have enough reservations that they don't expect people to get their cars until end of 2018 if they made a reservation now, and that's if you're in the US. Why would they need to pad their reservations even more that will not help with their revenue or sales now. Why not just sell them and use word of mouth, or convince them to buy an X or an S when they come into the store looking for a 3. There's a reason why you don't see any cars being reviewed by any major publication, and employees having to sign agreements on not re-selling their cars. They don't need more hype or enticing people to get into a model 3 this demand for a car has probably never been seen before. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if the initial customers that get their car resell it for 10 or 20k above the MSRP.

 

[McRat]

Perhaps the same reason I heard this from a car dealer:

"Oh really? I haven't heard of that model yet. I doubt we will see them this year. Come look at this other car." - I test drove that car at their dealership about 90 days later. They ordered at least 4 of them.

"I've driven one of those. You wouldn't like it. It's small and slow. We drove them at a district meeting and we decided not to stock them." - They had that model on their lot 30 days after that conversation with the Sales Manager.

You can't sell what you don't have. You can sell what you do have.

 

[dsvick]

They can already sell every car that they can build now and for the foreseeable future so there isn't any need to spend the time and money on building and shipping them to the showrooms.

 

[Petra]

I certainly wouldn't mind Tesla putting a few together for early reservation holders with October-December delivery windows to take a look at prior to forking over $50k+...

 

[T34ME]

Drove past my local SC this week and it dawned on me that there still aren't Model 3s available to see except in Fremont or in the wild. . . If I was looking to pad the Model 3 reservation volume (i.e. Sell them!), I would be prioritizing getting Model 3s to the SCs as soon as possible. . . So why aren't they?
M

EM has already said why, He has ~500K orders to fill and TESLA is going through "production hell" right now. He said the last thing he needs right now is more orders! In my opinion, the TM3 is a lot better than we are being told by TESLA. They are keeping the cat in the bag until they get out of production hell.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Hopefully they will be announcing a "Meet the Model 3" event similar to the "Meet the Model X" event a couple of years ago. This would allow only those with reservations to see the car in person and take a quick test drive before confirming their order.

 

[Cyclone]

Word on the street is that the Charlotte store will have a showroom Model 3 in late October (no idea whether it will be available for a test drive though). That said, I'm sure people will be gawking at the employee cars too once they start arriving soon. I've already suggested to them to get car covers and park out back otherwise people will constantly nag to look at the privately-owned vehicles.

 

[KarenRei]

Still hopeful that the Indianapolis store will have one around Christmas so that I can check one out in person when I'm there visiting family. Maybe it'll help me decide "to PUP or not to PUP"

 

[MarioOrtegon]

There are multiple reasons but the most important is that the public can't buy a model 3 in the near future,
yes employees and insiders are driving model 3's right now but it's still a version of the car that will likely have some changes, so it would defeat the purpose of showing a version of the car car to the public that isn't going to be produced.
as an analogy imagine Tesla only showing founders edition vehicles on display but selling regular model S/X vehicles.

having said that I would expect on October to start seeing the cars at certain Tesla stores or at least before the end of the year.

 

[Quick2Judge]

Model 3 in a show room = Model 3 not sold to customer

Maybe once they get to deliver a few thousand a month stocking the show rooms will make more sense.

 

[Trips]

I expect to see a ton of them at stores in late November/December depending on the 200k sales. If they hit 199,000 sales I would expect every vehicle after that to be in transit. I see Q4 as a 3 year low for domestic deliveries with an time high of in transit and loaner/demo vehicles produced.

 

[TQCLove]

I recall at one point hearing/reading that they would have a small fleet touring the U.S. and arrange test drives/time for those that have pre-orders. If that still is really a thing, I'd expect they'd do that before having any sit anywhere on display. I'm hopeful they do this, I should say. I want to at least sit in one before I hit "submit!"

 

[Foxhound199]

It's not entirely true that they have no reason to entice Model 3 reservation holders when the line is already as long as it is. Let's face it: Those of us who wanted to or had the means to get a Model S would have done so by now. Tesla doesn't stand to gain much by continuing to try to push people in that direction. Where they do stand to make money is by convincing people that they want a 3 ASAP, and that they're willing to buy the upgrades to do it. Too little news also allows people to take their money elsewhere. I think they should probably start getting people behind the wheel for test drives sooner than later if they can.

 

[bonnie]

They did exactly the same thing with the Model S and the Model X. Customers with reservations got their cars first. Some of us were sharing our cars with reservations holders, because no one had seen a production version.

Once they started making a little headway, showroom models started shipping. And no one had to finalize a reservation until they had a chance to test drive locally.

I wouldn't read anything more into it, since it's exactly how they've rolled out the previous models.

 

[run-the-joules]

Those of us who wanted to or had the means to get a Model S would have done so by now

I would say those who want AND had the means. Minor pedantry…

 

[boaterva]

There are a large subset of reservation holders that still need to 'touch' (see, sit in, etc.) the car before closing/configuring their order. Perhaps they need one for 'us' to see and test drive once production ramps up a bit, but not for the general public.

I wonder if that 1,800 new res/day figure is still ongoing!

 

[Sully's8]

Still hopeful that the Indianapolis store will have one around Christmas so that I can check one out in person when I'm there visiting family. Maybe it'll help me decide "to PUP or not to PUP"

For what's it's worth. . . I'd PUP again. . .but I guess the ventilated seats are gone, not sure what's left. I am so glad I "topped out" my car. I have no shoulda coulda wouldas whatsoever. 5K miles in and I have no regrets- even with upgraded sound and 21" wheels. . .a couple of the hotly debated upgrades

 

[WillK]

My understanding is Model 3 will show up in Tesla show rooms around Oct and test drives will first be scheduled for reservation holders. Once that queue gets lower then other folks will be able to schedule test rides.