Blog TMC Members Report Delayed Delivery for Standard Model 3

Consumers who have been anxiously awaiting delivery of Tesla’s $35,000 Standard Model 3 are being asked to wait longer.

TMC members who placed orders for the Standard Model 3 when it became available last month are reporting that Tesla has informed them that it won’t make the 2 to 4 weeks delivery timelines originally promised.

Members reported receiving a text saying: “Our apologies, we will need to reschedule your delivery appointment to a later date.A Tesla representative will reach out when we have a better estimate of your delivery timing.”

Several members, however, have received delivery of the Standard Plus Model 3, which was made available for order at the same time. The Standard Range base model starts at $35,000, travels 220 miles on a single charge, has a top speed of 130 mph and will go from 0 to 60mph in 5.6 seconds. The Standard Range Plus is $37,500 with 240 miles of range, a top speed of 140mph, and a 0 to 60 mph time of 5.3 seconds. The Standard Range Plus also offers features like power seats and a better sound system.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Twitter earlier this month that the standard battery pack Model 3 won’t hit volume production until mid-year.

Musk explained that while the base Model 3 is being produced and delivered to early reservation holders, manufacturing of the cars won’t hit full stride for a few more months.

 

[reddy]

Although I had an early reservation, the Tesla web site was unstable the day of the Standard and Standard Plus availability announcement. My order for a Standard Plus was not matched to my March 2016 reservation.

Despite that, the car is waiting at the delivery center for me to pick up. I hope to get it on Saturday.

So having a reservation doesn't seem to have mattered, at all, for Standard Plus. And I suspect many orders were like mine, not actually matched to a reservation in the first place.

 

[Cloxxki]

Try and keep up, SR+ is $500 more now

 

[whitex]

Try and keep up, SR+ is $500 more now

Give it a week.

 

[lampcord]

If you can't get a Model 3 Standard by June 30th (which is looking increasingly likely) it would only be marginally more expensive to get a Standard + now with the $3750 rebate than a Standard 3 with the $1875 that kicks in on July 1st. Basically $625 more for the Standard +. Seems like a no brainer.

 

[whitex]

If you can't get a Model 3 Standard by June 30th (which is looking increasingly likely) it would only be marginally more expensive to get a Standard + now with the $3750 rebate than a Standard 3 with the $1875 that kicks in on July 1st. Basically $625 more for the Standard +. Seems like a no brainer.

I wonder if that was Elon's plan. Hold off on standard, have people follow the above logic and therefore sell more Standard+. Sounds like an excellent plan for Tesla to extract the value out of federal rebate - notice most of it ends up almost directly in Tesla's hands, customer doesn't get the $1,875, Tesla does (and immediately vs. next year, free loan from customer). In exchange, customer gets + upgrade for $625. GENIUS!

 

[Cloxxki]

I wonder if that was Elon's plan. Hold off on standard, have people follow the above logic and therefore sell more Standard+. Sounds like an excellent plan for Tesla to extract the value out of federal rebate - notice most of it ends up almost directly in Tesla's hands, customer doesn't get the $1,875, Tesla does (and immediately vs. next year, free loan from customer). In exchange, customer gets + upgrade for $625. GENIUS!

Except for it being lame to pretend the SR is available and promise delivery dates. Allowing for more hype followed by more well founded disappointment. Which part of that is genius?

 

[whitex]

Except for it being lame to pretend the SR is available and promise delivery dates. Allowing for more hype followed by more well founded disappointment. Which part of that is genius?

The genius part is how he manages to separate people from their money, not deliver and get away with it. Elon has taken the "car salesman" concept to a whole new level - what happens when a genius car salesman has control over the entire process, including manufacturing and global pricing. He even has people (like @jerry33 in this post) defending him how it's ok to charge thousands of dollars in for a specific feature, then deliver nothing - because it's a tech feature so everyone should know then paying for it that it may never be delivered and they will not get their money back. Now that is whole new level of car salesmanship, up there on the cult leader level.

 

[Cloxxki]

The genius part is how he manages to separate people from their money, not deliver and get away with it. Elon has taken the "car salesman" concept to a whole new level - what happens when a genius car salesman has control over the entire process, including manufacturing and global pricing. He even has people (like @jerry33 in this post) defending him how it's ok to charge thousands of dollars in for a specific feature, then deliver nothing - because it's a tech feature so everyone should know then paying for it that it may never be delivered and they will not get their money back. Now that is whole new level of car salesmanship, up there on the cult leader level.

Ah, that's what you mean.
Some things are all him I'm sure, especially the f-up parts. To suggest all the crazy and all the normal are him is too Elon-centric for my taste.
Does Space-X f-up the same ways, by the way, or does he run that as a respectable company because a complex government is the customer?

I am not inclined to think that the last-minute SR withholding was premeditated. That'd be crazy even for them. And asking for a whole new "hell" to deal with. Production hell, Logistics hell, Legal hell.
Tesla seems to have instant policy reversal initiatives on the weekly meeting agency and SR may have been caught in it. "Wait a minute, we can get a discount if we order triple the headliner and have it all delivered in one go 3 weeks late. Let's have the production people software upgrade all SR units to SR+. If no-one gets the VIN they were promised that's a bonus to flip it at Bloomberg". Or one of a thousand other scenarios.