Continued production setbacks lead to mass exodus.
We reckon it must be hard being an Elon Musk fanboy. They sit there day-in and day-out, flying in the face of logic and common sense, and espouse the virtues of Muskism and decry anyone who says otherwise. And while they may think Elon is infallible, it seems that the rest of the world disagree with them, as evidenced by the rather hilarious refunding of some 23% of reservations for Tesla’s entry-level Model 3, after the revered CEO said it would be facing more delays.
It’s reported by Recode that the refund of nearly a quarter of all reservations took place at the end of April, following an announcement by Elon Musk that the entry-level US$35k saloon would be delayed yet again as the company prioritised higher-margin cars that would bring some cash back into the firm. It’s worth noting that Tesla hasn’t actually turned a profit since its inception.
Production setbacks have been a serious issue to the Model 3, with just 8,180 cars delivered in the second-quarter of 2018, despite some 450,000 (remaining) reservations in the books. As a new car company, continued delivery delays could risk alienating customers from the company and erode any brand loyalty, the latter a critical component of any contender that’s new on the scene.
This writer has long harboured a suspicion that cancellation rates may be higher than Tesla is willing to admit, as it makes no sense for customers to be willing to wait two, three years for a mostly-ordinary compact luxury saloon. While the Model 3 might have been revolutionary at its announcement in 2016, the world has progressed massively since then, and we’re now preparing to welcome electric vehicles from all corners. Further, the cars that are giving the Model 3 a headache all come from established automotive players that would never be found making the same sorts of bumbling mistakes Tesla has made to get to this point. They’re not wet behind the ears, we’ll say that much.
With 23% of cancellations already recorded at the end of April, it’ll be interesting to see if that number climbs or descends as Tesla (finally) irons out the creases in the Model 3 production line. Don’t know about you, but we find this advert by BMW suddenly more on the nose than it was when it first made its rounds ever so long ago…
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