[Deschodt]

In a perverse way, I think this might be Tesla's downfall... So many orders so fast? With a 2 or realistically 3-4 year delivery time minimum? Not only will this be hard to deliver upon, but I think it is going to "wake up" some sleeping giants that DO have the capacity to deliver this. Think Toyota, Honda, the VW group brands, BMW, GM, Ford...

"oh yeah? that many orders for a $35K electric-only car that is reasonably quick? Hold on a minute"... "By the end of the day on Saturday, the preorder count reached 276,000. Based on Musk's estimate of a $42,000 average transaction price with a few popular options, the number of reservations roughly equate to an $11.6 billion backlog." - they're gonna want a piece of that pie !

Not to belittle Tesla's efforts, they certainly proved the concept is viable, and they do interiors and the touch screen very well, but how hard is it for a "true" manufacturer with cash flow to crank out something like the model 3 BEFORE 2019? IMO, way easier than it is for Tesla to ramp up its pathetic manufacturing numbers to 276K new cars + Model S + Model X ! Methink that could be the way forward for VW after the diesel gate!

So far the big boys have only delivered hybrids and boring electric cars (i3, leaf anyone?).... But they have the chassis know how, the manufacturing capacity, and the electric drivetrain stuff is not exactly rocket science for their engineering staff (most of which are in F1 or WEC playing with ERS, MGUK and the like)... and bonus time, they might make cars less Fugly than the model 3 and way earlier IMO. Picture something like a less outlandish BMW i8 all electrical, for $50K.... Or less ugly than the I3 anyway... Watch Tesla's lines evaporate. I think they gave the game away !