Model 3 Gives Musk an iPhone Moment and Big Test for Factories

www.bizpodia.com/2016/04/model-3-gives-musk-iphone-moment-and.html
Dana Hull
Tesla Motors Inc.’s Model 3 unveiling was its iPhone moment: Almost 200,000 people have placed orders for the car, unseen by most of them, including thousands who stood in long lines or camped out overnight at stores. For Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, who has aspirations of his electric-car company becoming as big as Apple Inc., it was a ringing endorsement.


But when people camp out at an Apple store, they walk away with a new phone. The lines of people snaking around Tesla outlets were merely placing $1,000 reservations for a Model 3 -- a car Tesla won’t even start shipping until late next year. Though perhaps that timing will change: Musk cryptically tweeted Friday that Tesla will “need to rethink production planning” based on the blockbuster demand.

Customers take selfies at a Tesla store in Santa Monica ahead of a Model 3 announcement on March 31.

Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

For now, the orders give Tesla an infusion of cash as it races to ramp up manufacturing, as well as a show of enthusiasm for the company’s less-expensive car, intended to spread adoption of electric vehicles and lift the youngest publicly traded U.S. automaker to profitability.
Tesla shares rose Friday while other automakers fell in the wake of disappointing U.S. new-vehicle sales in March.

The $35,000 Model 3 will have a minimum 215 miles (346 kilometers) range, and Musk said he’s “fairly confident” deliveries will begin in 2017. Tesla received more than 115,000 reservations in 24 hours, Musk said on stage at the company’s Hawthorne, California, design studio. On Friday, Musk said in a tweet that orders had reached 180,000 after 24 hours, with an estimated value of about $7.5 billion. Then about an hour later, he posted that the tally had risen to 198,000.
‘Really Good Car’

“We have an amazing product. I think you’ll be blown away,” Musk, 44, said Thursday. “You will not be able to buy a better car for $35,000, or even close. It’s a really good car, even with no options.”

Model 3

Source: Tesla

The Model 3 is the linchpin of Tesla’s plan to reach beyond the most affluent buyers and make electric vehicles a significant part of the auto market. Much of the car’s platform is new, including the battery architecture and motor technology. Many of the executives who worked on the Model 3, including Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel and chief designer Franz von Holzhausen, have been part of the company’s leadership team for years.
Shares in the company rose 3.6 percent to $238.09 at 2:56 p.m. New York time after jumping as high as $247.90, the highest intraday price in almost half a year.
“Tesla has changed the game again,” Andrea James, an analyst with Dougherty & Co., said in a note Friday in which she raised her price target to $500. “In one day, Tesla generated at least 150,000+ reservations, representing an order book of $6 billion in revenue, and generating $150 million in zero-cost capital from the $1,000 customer deposits.”
Apple Potential
Last year, Musk suggested that if Tesla continued to grow by 50 percent a year for 10 years, generating a 10 percent profit margin and garnering a price-to-earnings ratio of 20, it would be valued at about the same $700 billion Apple was worth then. It’s since slid to more like $600 billion.

The number of Model 3 reservations exceeded analysts’ estimates and is more than the roughly 107,000 vehicles Tesla has sold to date. At $1,000 each, the deposits would infuse the company’s coffers with about $200 million. While the reservations are refundable, the outpouring suggests there will be plenty of demand for the company to work through once production gets under way.

Model 3

Source: Tesla

“Model 3 orders at 180,000 in 24 hours,” said Musk in a tweet Friday. “Selling price with avg option mix prob $42K, so ~7.5B in a day. Future of electric cars looking bright!”
The challenge ahead of Tesla is going to be making all of these cars quickly enough and well enough. The company aims to make 500,000 vehicles a year by 2020 and is counting on its battery factory under construction near Reno, Nevada, to further drive down battery costs. Tesla’s Fremont, California, factory can accommodate assembly of 500,000 autos, said the company, which has yet to master manufacturing in high volumes.

Tesla’s “master plan,” laid out by Musk in August 2006, was to enter the auto industry at higher-end prices, then drive down market as fast as possible with increasingly higher volumes. The Model 3 is the Palo Alto, California-based company’s fourth car, after the Roadster, the Model S sedan and the Model X sport utility vehicle. The Model X was unveiled in February 2012, with delays pushing back the initial deliveries to customers until September 2015.
Self-Driving Skills

Hardware for Tesla’s Autopilot features will be standard and the four-door sedan will seat five adults. Design features include one large, continuous piece of glass for the rear roof area to enhance visibility.

Tesla said it plans to double the number of its Supercharger stations and its store count by the end of 2017. Customers in new markets including Brazil, India and Musk’s native South Africa were among consumers able to place orders online Thursday.

U.S. Tesla customers are eager to get their cars before the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles is phased out. While the Model 3’s base price still makes it a luxury model, it is not nearly the financial stretch for consumers as the $75,000-and-up Model S.

“I’ve been waiting to buy an electric car for 10 years,” Mark Dilsizian, a doctoral student at New Jersey’s Rutgers University who also runs a software startup, said on Thursday. “It’s safer, it’s greener, it’s better performing, it’s better designed.”

Model 3 Gives Musk an iPhone Moment and Big Test for Factories

Reviewed by Bizpodia

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