Tesla Stock Lifts As Model 3 Lines Stretch: How Many Orders Per Hour?
Would-be buyers lined up at Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) stores around the world Thursday to grab the first reservations, a $1,000 proposition, for the electric Model 3 that will be unveiled Thursday night. And Tesla stock rose 1.3% on the stock market today , to 229.77, after rising as much as 4.6%. Dozens of people lined up, and some camped out, at stores in Australia, where some of the first reservations were taken, according to reports. Tesla posted to Twitter clips of others waiting in Los Angeles and Bellevue, Wash. “While difficult to extrapolate too much from only a modest number of store visits, it is stunning to see customers line-up to place a deposit on a car,” Stifel analyst James Albertine said in a Thursday afternoon research note. “We estimate stores began the day at a pace of 30-40 orders per hour at the two locations we visited with lines stretching in the low hundreds.” At $1,000, Model 3 reservations set a far lower bar than the $5,000 reservations that were required for the Model S sedan and Model X crossover. Are Tesla Model 3 deposits refundable? Tesla says yes. Analysts predict that reservations will amount to billions of dollars in short order, but they’re divided on just how quickly reservations could reach 100,000. Wooooow! RT @BharathNA Not a small line in Bellevue. And it's only 7.30am #tesla #Model3 pic.twitter.com/2UiuwRRzQb — Tesla Motors (@TeslaMotors) March 31, 2016 The Model 3 is a crucial car for Tesla, which is expected to try to boost its annual sales pace by about 10 times to 500,000 vehicles by 2020. At $35,000 — half the price of the Model S and the Model X — the Model 3 is seen competing with the BMW 3 Series and other gas-powered, entry-level luxury cars from the Volkswagen ( VLKAY ) Audi brand and the Mercedes-Benz brand from Daimler ( DDAIF ). It will also be competing against next-generation electric cars and hybrid cars from conventional automakers such as General Motors ( GM ) with its Chevrolet Bolt EV, and maybe eventually with a rumored Apple ( AAPL ) car, though the exact nature of Apple’s auto-related Project Titan hasn’t been specified. Tesla Model 3 Reservations: Analyst Forecasts How many Model 3 reservations will Tesla get? Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry is a bull, predicting in a research note Wednesday that the “Tesla Model 3 will break all the records in Consumer Tech in dollar terms for pre-order bookings.” He says it is widely believed that bookings could reach 100,000 by the end of the weekend, amounting to “$3.5 billion worth of pre-orders.” Stifel analyst Albertine has predicted a slower ramp-up. “Though this is just a guess, we anticipate reservation figures in the days following the launch (if disclosed) would be in the range of 15,000-20,000,” he said in a research note in early March. He had been expecting 50,000 to 100,000 worldwide Model 3 reservations in six to eight months after Thursday’s launch. In a Thursday afternoon interview, Albertine indicated that the pace of pre-orders gives room for optimism that early reservations numbers could be stronger than expected. He notes that at just $1,000 each, “some attrition is expected” after people make reservations. Can Tesla Shift From Luxury Electric Niche To Mass-Market Model 3? https://t.co/lOUKNj6gDt pic.twitter.com/pTF7vjQMGx — Investors.com (@IBDinvestors) March 29, 2016 Tesla is not highly rated by IBD at moment, with a Composite Rating of just 28 out of a possible 99, factoring in earnings growth, stock performance and a variety of other measures. Tesla stock has risen 63% from February’s 27-month low but is down 4% for 2016. RELATED: Tesla Motors’ $30 Billion Question: Can Model 3 Outdo Big Car Brands? .