Elon Musk Tweets Picture of at Least 31 People Waiting in Line for Tesla Model 3
The pre-order floodgates have opened in Australia.
The Tesla Model 3’s big reveal is Thursday, and people are stoked. On Tuesday, a single, solitary Tesla fan showed up in a camp chair outside of a dealership in Australia, and another (significantly less dad-core looking) fan did the same in Vancouver. Today, they got some company. Thanks to the international dateline, pre-orders for the Model 3 are now underway in the land down under.
By our count, there are at least 31 people all with the original plaid-shirt guy (still in front!) who are ready to put their $1000 deposit down on a shiny new Tesla Model 3. Yesterday, Musk said the company might step things up to accommodate demand for the car.
In the States, the big car-debutant event kicks off at 8:30 p.m. Pacific, 11:30 Eastern on Thursday. Musk has said there will be a prototype of the Model 3 at the event, but that Thursday’s event is just phase one of the Model 3’s debut. Phase two will happen closer to production, which is supposed to start in 2017. Tesla is hoping that the Model 3 will break open the market for stylish, yet affordable electric cars that can reach a wider appeal than Tesla’s previous luxury models. Its starting price is just $35,000, which could drop to $25,000 depending on government subsidies. Tesla’s stock has taken a hit in 2016, and even though Musk insists the company is fine, he’s still probably banking a lot on the Model 3 really making the company profitable. For now though, people seem excited enough to wait in line for multiple days, which is always a good sign.
