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Tesla Motors ( TSLA ) CEO Elon Musk unveiled the long-awaited Model 3 Thursday night, announcing huge pre-order demand already. Tesla rolled out Model 3 sedans to cheers from the crowd of Tesla owners. Musk said the mass-market vehicle received more than 115,000 reservations in the first 24 hours — before anyone had gotten a peek. At $1,000 each, that’s $1.15 billion in (refundable) deposits to help fund the Model 3’s production. The Model 3 will have a minimum 215-mile battery range, will go from 0-to-60 in less than six seconds and come with autopilot safety features standard. Musk said it will carry five passengers “comfortably.” It will also have front and rear trunks. As expected, it will start at $35,000 before incentives. Musk said he was “fairly confident” that Model 3 deliveries will begin before the end of 2017. Musk said he wanted to show the world “the electric car can be the best car.” He announced plans for a major expansion of Supercharger stations and said supercharging will be standard on Model 3 vehicles. Revenue from the Model S and X was “what’s needed to develop the Model 3,” he said, thanking the crowd of owners for helping to finance that. Earlier in the day, would-be Model 3 owners showed excitement — and commitment — for the latest Tesla offering, with long lines reminiscent of Apple ( AAPL ) iPhone launches — if Apple didn’t actually deliver your phone for another two years. “There’s no lineup for vehicles in this day and age. Audi and BMW and Mercedes have to be awestruck — they just have to be,” Stifel auto analyst James Albertine told IBD in an afternoon phone interview. His team saw lines for Model 3 reservations stretching to the hundreds at some Tesla stores around Washington, D.C., and New York. He estimated about 30 to 40 reservations an hour in the spot checks. Now taking online reservations! Order your Model 3 at https://t.co/8uVlhvzpu5 #Model3 pic.twitter.com/Rj1kn1CPol — Tesla Motors (@TeslaMotors) April 1, 2016 “Model 3 Unveil: Watch live tonight at 8:30pm Pacific,” Tesla says on its website. “Reserve online during the event.” At a starting sticker price of $35,000 before incentives, the Model 3 will sell for half the cost of the Model S and the Model X. Albertine had expected pre-orders to come in “very strong” and that the stock “is going to be OK,” despite lofty expectations already built in. Tesla stock closed up 1.3% Thursday at 229.77, though it traded up to 233.50 in late trading ahead of the reveal. (IBD doesn’t rank the company highly at the moment, giving it a Composite Rating of just 28 out of a possible 99. It’s trading around where it was at the beginning of the year, after surging 63% from a February low.) Albertine sees the Model 3 impressing. After Tesla excelled in higher price bands with its current lineup, he expects the company to have “a really easy time taking over share” from internal combustion engine car brands in this new lower-price category. “The (Tesla) S is outselling the S Class,” Albertine said as a case in point, referring to Daimler ’s ( DDAIF ) Mercedes-Benz flagship sedan, with seven decades of development behind it. In 2015, Tesla’s Model S also outsold individual models from Volkswagen ( VLKAY ) units Audi and Porsche, as well as BMW, Tata Motors ’ ( TTM ) Jaguar and Toyota Motors ’ ( TM ) luxury brand Lexus in the U.S. large luxury vehicle category. And Albertine says that electric cars planned by other makers are unlikely to “merit any concern,” as Tesla’s cars are “that much better.” How many reservations will Tesla tally from its first day? “It’s not certain that we’ll know,” Albertine said, noting that Musk “tends to give numbers when the numbers are really good” and that if he doesn’t cite a number, its absence would “probably be viewed negatively.” How many Model 3 reservations will Tesla get this week? Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry is a bull on that. He predicted in a research note Wednesday, “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.” But, Albertine notes, “(it’s) important to keep in mind what’s real is the Model S and X, and the Model 3 is many, many quarters away from being production-ready.” Scalper1 News
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