Tesla Model 3 Reservations, Are they real?

[G. David Felt]

Based on various web sites and even Tesla themselves, one is expected to believe that they have 400,000 plus reservations for the Tesla 3 car. Yet with an email received last night:

It seems anyone can order a Tesla 3 and NO RESERVATION FEE is required. On top of this it states that you will get your car in 2-4 months. Yet others that paid their $1,000 dollar fee to save a place in line is being told they still have to wait in some cases till 2019.

The autoweek story points out that at 5,000 cars built a week, Tesla can only produce 115,000 cars this year. So how is it that they have this many reservations? Could it be that the bulk of these are for the promised and still undelivered $35,000 RWD car?

I have talked with a number of co-workers as there is a Tesla fan club at my place of employment and many of them have been waiting for being able to order their AWD Long range battery car. Many say they have been told they could place their order but it would be still towards the end of the year or as I have more commonly been told 2019 according to their system.

So with the news talking about years till you get one and actual people saying they still have a long time to wait, how is Tesla offering what they are saying unless both the reservations and my co-workers are talk and no real action. One has to wonder how you go from years of back orders to being able to order and take delivery in months.

Clearly we can tell this is for the high priced top of the line models they are going after since it is their long range performance AWD model that you can order. Is it fair to all the others that have been waiting and gave an interest free loan to Tesla for a place inline?

What are your thoughts?

Autoweek story