Tesla Model 3 launch receives £7 billion Pre-Orders

Less than 24 hours after Tesla unveiled their latest all-electric vehicle, the Model 3 has gained over 250,000 pre-orders, breaking the $10 billion (£7 billion) mark.

The Model 3 is expected to start rolling out their first orders in late 2017, but the vehicle has attracted a lot of support, and from prospective buyers who were willing to put down $1,000 (£702) to secure one of the first models.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to proclaim his delight and surprise at how quickly pre-orders have skyrocketed, announcing over 276,000 pre-orders total by the end of Saturday 2nd April, 2016.

Definitely going to need to rethink production planning…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2016

The Model 3 will be Tesla’s most affordable all-electric vehicle to date, with the basic model starting at $35,000 (24,000). Powered by Tesla’s proprietary high-storage lithium ion battery power-train, the vehicle claims to be able to run for 215 miles on a single charge.

The Model 3 is able to go from 0-60mph in six seconds as standard, with the prospects of faster vehicles being available in the future.

Tesla’s all-electric vehicles are powered by its worldwide supercharger network, which currently stands at 613 stations with 3,628 individual  charging ports.

The Supercharger station can give road users up to 200km of battery life off a single 20 minute charge, and can fully charge a car battery from empty in an hour.

The company aims to double the number of superchargers by the Model 3’s launch in late 2017.

Other features made available in all versions of the Model 3 include autopilot software that activates the vehicle’s safety features without user input.

The push for autonomous vehicle technology has been a recent focus of debate, with some critics concerned about taking autonomy away from drivers and how that will impact overall vehicle safety.

But Alexis Georgeson, a spokesman for Tesla, assured:

“We are not getting rid of the pilot. This is about releasing the driver from tedious tasks so they can focus and provide better input.”

The Model 3 marks the beginning of the end-game of Tesla’s grand strategy to launch an affordable all-electric vehicle worldwide.

Starting with a premium vehicle, the roadster, which launched in 2008, Tesla quickly revised their designs with the Model S, which went on sale in 2012 and has sold over 75,000 units.

To faciliate the quick expansion of all-electric vehicles, in 2o14 Tesla dropped all patents for their electric battery technology. Musk made the point that Tesla’s goal was not market domination, but to aid the rapid adoption of all-electric vehicles.

The company pointed to the ‘global fleet’ of 2 billion cars, with 100 million being manufactured worldwide every year, Tesla simply can’t make cars fast enough.

In a blog post in 2014 Musk stated: “Our true competition is not the small trickle of non-Tesla electric cars being produced, but rather the enormous flood of gasoline cars pouring out of the world’s factories every day.”

The real challenge for Tesla now, is how they are going to meet the huge demand for the Model 3 when they roll out production in 2017.