Two interesting events took place this month. Tesla announced its Model 3, a relatively affordable electric car, and it attracted around 180K preorders on the same day. That was before the company actually revealed the car. There were more than 250K preorders in the first 36 hours. Oh, and the run rate is about 1,500 per hour of pre-orders for this car right now. Ford opened preorders for its new Ford GT, and only 500 people actually will get to buy this $400K car — and as of right now, you still can order one of those 500.
Presently Ford has received over 5,000 applications for the GT. The GT is a race car and is not intended to make a profit, unlike the 3. It is being offered for sale to comply with the rules for the racing category (and hopefully to help pay back some of the investment). Also, the majority of people who plunked down $1,000 for a 3 will be waiting 2-3 years before they will see their car, unless large numbers of people ahead of them decide not to follow through with their purchase. All GT buyers will see their car by the end of next year.
The key for Tesla is whether 1) they can they scale up production and 2) become profitable, because make no mistake, Tesla is not profitable now and won't be until they have earned enough margin to "pay back" the billions invested to date.
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What the Traditional Car Companies Don’t Seem to Get
Posted by: Rob Enderle April 18, 2016 09:58 AMTwo interesting events took place this month. Tesla announced its Model 3, a relatively affordable electric car, and it attracted around 180K preorders on the same day. That was before the company actually revealed the car. There were more than 250K preorders in the first 36 hours. Oh, and the run rate is about 1,500 per hour of pre-orders for this car right now. Ford opened preorders for its new Ford GT, and only 500 people actually will get to buy this $400K car — and as of right now, you still can order one of those 500.
The key for Tesla is whether 1) they can they scale up production and 2) become profitable, because make no mistake, Tesla is not profitable now and won't be until they have earned enough margin to "pay back" the billions invested to date.