Tesla reported 325,000 Model 3 reservations within the first week of its unveiling.
The Model 3 was unveiled on March 31, 2016, as Tesla’s attempt to bring electric driving to a much broader market. Customers could reserve one with a refundable $1,000 deposit, and demand immediately exceeded the company’s expectations. Tesla said more than 115,000 reservations arrived in less than 24 hours, rising to over 232,000 after two days and more than 325,000 after one week.
The figure represented reservations, not completed sales or delivered vehicles. Tesla later reported more than 500,000 reservations around the Model 3’s 2017 launch, while Elon Musk clarified that cancellations and duplicate or speculative orders reduced the net total. That distinction explains why several large numbers appear in coverage of the car’s debut.
The response was remarkable for a relatively new automaker: Tesla said the first-week reservations represented roughly $14 billion in potential sales based on an estimated average price. The Model 3 eventually entered production in July 2017, but manufacturing delays made the path from reservations to deliveries much more difficult than the unveiling suggested.