cars news 10: Reservations for Tesla Model 3 Drop to 373,000

According to a new report from Automotive News, Tesla has announced that reservations for its upcoming Model 3 electric car have dropped by 12,200 units. This was due to 4,200 duplicate reservations cancelled by the company and 8,000 customer cancellations, which was reported as part of a filing that the automaker made to raise $1.4 billion in a share offering so it can pay for the Model 3’s accelerated launch. Originally, reservations for the Model 3 stood at around 400,000 and were done so without any promotional campaigns since the car’s unveiling on March 31.

“If we wanted to, we believe that we could further increase the number of Model 3 reservations with minimal effort but believe it is better to guide customers to purchase products currently in production,” commented Tesla in the filing. The $1.4 billion sale of shares is apparently within expectations after CEO Elon Musk revealed that Tesla would need to make sure it “has a good buffer of cash” by raising a mix of equity and debt.

Tesla plans to make around 500,000 units of the Model 3 by 2018, but given the company’s track record of essentially blowing by deadlines without concern, that seems more like a goal than a hard commitment. At its unveiling, Tesla announced that the Model 3 will be priced from $35,000.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription required)