Pre-orders for Tesla’s Model 3 Electric sedan has risen above 325,000 a week after it was announced by the American automotive and energy firm.
In a blog post, Tesla announced that more than 325,000 people have put down the $1,000 reservation to get in line to buy the Model 3 Electric Sedan at some point in the future.
This means over 325,000 people have laid down their money in expectation to buy the car, which is yet to be fully revealed.
If everything goes according to plan, Tesla won’t start making the car until the latter part of year 2017. It’s however expected that more details of the Model 3 Electric Sedan would be revealed before then.
According to the blog post, the preoders corresponds to about $14 billion in implied future sales, making this the single biggest one-week launch of any product ever.
“This interest has spread completely organically. Unlike other major product launches, we haven’t advertised or paid for any endorsements. Instead, this has been a true grassroots effort driven by the passion of the Tesla team that’s worked so hard to get to this point and our current and future customers who believe so strongly in what we are trying to achieve. Most importantly, we are all taking a huge step towards a better future by accelerating the transition to sustainable transportation,” the post added.
Tesla CEO, Elon Musk however said the car wasn’t talked about as much as one would believe.
“Over 325k cars or ~$14B in preorders in first week. Only 5% ordered max of two, suggesting low levels of speculation,” he said on social media.
Nevertheless, the number is massive. The news leaves the company simultaneously celebrating and facing the daunting task of building not only far more cars than it’s ever built, but also the expanded network of superchargers that will be needed to support this new fleet of electric cars.
Tesla’s Model 3 has been a long time coming. As the company’s fourth production car, it is aimed squarely at the mass market in an overt attempt to drive mainstream adoption of electric vehicles.