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So they had people willing to pay for the product, but not enough runway to launch? Why not get people to pay in full ala Tesla and use that money to launch?
by ikeboy 9y ago
So they had people willing to pay for the product, but not enough runway to launch?
Why not get people to pay in full ala Tesla and use that money to launch?
- greglindahl 9y agoThis is not what Tesla has ever done. Only a small fraction of people pay a large deposit for super-premium cars that come out first, and the rest pay a limited deposit. On the other hand, just about every Kickstarter ever has a ton of people who've paid in full. Yet these Kickstarters frequently fail, because it takes a lot more money than entrepreneurs expect to ship a quality product.
- mikeash 9y agoTesla took in $250 million of full-price preorders for their next-gen Roadster, which is years away from production. The comment you replied to didn’t imply that Tesla does this with every car.
- greglindahl 9y agoThe next-gen Roadster has 2 preorder levels, one that's full price for an early car, and another for 1/5 the amount that's farther back in the queue. Tesla has done the same system with every car they've launched. My purpose was to explain what Tesla actually does. I was not implying that the previous poster was wrong.
- mikeash 9y agoI’m not aware of any previous model where Tesla has offered a full price preorder. Certainly they haven’t done so for the X, 3, or semi. I don’t understand how “This is not what Tesla has ever done” could mean anything other than that they were wrong.