new Tesla Model 3 looks like Focus Electric!

michael said:

With a quarter million people seeming to be lining up for the car, no way Tesla will sell anything but "fully loaded" cars til the clamor dies down.

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Each car will be customized to order (color, options), IF and WHEN they might appear.

michael said:

My guess is that a huge number of people who got on the waiting list did so with the intention of reselling their place in line for a profit.

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Those reservations are not transferable to a new name on the ticket. (Prevents scalpers.) If you bought the Model 3, took delivery, and then turned around and sold it immediately, you would owe all the sales tax too, so you'd better sell it for more than you gave Tesla at least.

pjam3 said:

I wonder how fast they will actually be able to deliver. Obviously the Model X is a different car and there are some issues, but Tesla also has never mass produced a car. While I think the __ Bolt looks 'cheap', it probably is far easier for them to mass produce 300K cars and actually know how to do that vs Tesla who can't even get 1000+ Model X cars out in a few years(they are way behind on the announced data as it is).

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I don't see how Tesla is suddenly going to become a mass-manufacturer of cars in those numbers, like shooting for +400,000 Model 3's. They could steal away a lot of factory engineers for know-how, yet it takes time they don't have.

Bolt has boxy small car looks. Not a status symbol like the Tesla. Its fast and fun to drive though.

electrons said:

Each car will be customized to order (color, options), IF and WHEN they might appear.
Those reservations are not transferable to a new name on the ticket. (Prevents scalpers.) If you bought the Model 3, took delivery, and then turned around and sold it immediately, you would owe all the sales tax too, so you'd better sell it for more than you gave Tesla at least.

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I realize that each car is customized, however I'm confident that Tesla will only offer the highly optioned versions in the beginning, just as they offered a special, high-priced model X. For example, they may offer only a 250 mile, AWD model, and at a high price. They'd be foolish to not cherry pick.

I hope and guessed that Tesla will block scalping, but I'm still sure many, many of the people bought with the hope and expectation of doing exactly that. I've even heard co-workers speaking of "re-selling my reservation". There seemed to be no downside to plunking down the money.

Hopefully Tesla will shut that down.

My reading of the rebate rules says the $7500 starts to phase out "beginning with the second calendar quarter after the quarter in which at least 200000... have been sold..."
So if Tesla hits 200k in Jan 2018, everyone taking delivery before July 2018 still gets a chance at $7500 tax credit, no matter how many over 200k they can sell in that time. Then everyone who buys before Jan 2019 gets up to $3750, then everyone who buys until July 2019 gets up to $1875. As long as Tesla doesnt hit the magic number before Model 3 is coming out of the factory, and if they can produce even half of the output they are targeting, then a whole lot of people currently holding a reservation will get the full amt from uncle sam, and the rest will get half.
https://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Plug-In-Electric-Vehicle-Credit-IRC-30-and-IRC-30D

And there's always the chance that the credit will be extended by our hardworking federal government representatives

The 200K applies only to US cars and Tesla has stated they will try to maximize the number of people who can get the full rebate. My guess is they will delay hitting 200K US cars to the beginning of a quarter, likely Q2 2018 maybe Q3.