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Elon Musk tweeted this a little while ago (one of the very few people I follow):

Model 3 orders at 180,000 in 24 hours. Selling price w avg option mix prob $42k, so ~$7.5B in a day. Future of electric cars looking bright!

2 Hours later:

Thought it would slow way down today, but Model 3 order count is now at 198k. Recommend ordering soon, as the wait time is growing rapidly.

Definitely going to need to rethink production planning...

be interesting to see if they actually make it in quantity. They are used to doing custom work

I would seriously consider buying one in a couple of years when the new house is finished and I have an actual garage to store it in (the Florida sun KILLS car finishes and interiors).

By then I would expect them to have the bugs worked out both in the car itself and the manufacturing process.

My 2007 Camry will be getting a little long in the tooth by then.

I don't have a problem with the 215 mile range. It's fine for what I drive on a day-today basis (I have never driven over 70 miles in a day - I keep a log book for taxes so I know), and for long road trips we take the Yukon.

We have a bunch of tesla charging stations around here including the Ocala Mall, and there's a dealer in Orlando.

Yeah, I think I'll replace my wifes S60 in a couple years and probably go for one of these. keep the Odyssey for road trips/hauling shit.

I have to wonder if they'll be able to keep up with demand. Then there's charging stations. I can see very long wait times at those someday unless they can really ramp things up.

Most people charge at home, and they HAVE built a LOT more charging stations than are necessary right now. There's charging stations at some highway rest stops that are never in use when I pass by them, and we have 8 chargers at the Ocala Mall that I never see in use.

Most people don't need to charge on the road unless they take a long road trip. Average person drives less than 50 miles a day. Most people would also likely use a 2nd vehicle or rent a vehicle for a long road trip.

I think Musk has been very smart to build up the charging infrastructure early. He could write it off as a loss in the first few years, but now it's there. You can now drive from New York to Miami no problem (I used their online trip planner to check once), and I bet you can do the same New York to LA.

I would need to be able to go 160 miles per day on a full charge and the 212 range of the Tesla 3 should be more than enough. Hopefully, when more of these get on the road, well get charging stations my way. I'd like to see an installed home station included when you purchase the car. I'm very excited by the Tesla 3 and the 180K preorders should be worrying other car manufacturers.

Where I work in San Jose, there are a lot of companies that supply drivers with electric cars charging stations right at work, so they don't even have to play for electricity.

232K pre-orders now

And keep in mind these pre-orders aren't just a whim. You need to put down $1K for a pre-order.

According to one Carnegie Mellon professor, the Model 3 may have sold more units in one day than the entire U.S. plug-in auto industry in 2015

Why Tesla's Model 3 is blowing away expectations
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/01/why-tesl ... tions.html

One factor that may have convinced some people in the U.S. to place a Model 3 reservation is the federal tax credit of $7,500 for buying an electric vehicle.

That incentive is currently scheduled to be phased out after an automaker sells 200,000 electric vehicles.

I really think we need to keep the incentive in place. It could be funded by diverting the tax breaks we give to hydrocarbon based fuels.

I wonder if auto companies will now start investing in power companies? We're going to need a more robust grid once we get a million electric cars on the road.

One thing that impressed me but wasn't mention in the CNBC article was the 0-60 acceleration in less than 6 seconds in standard mode. I'm sure they will offer performance modes so this car is going to be a blast to drive.

Given that most people will charge at night when demand is low the grid should be just fine.

I have a friend in Boston that ordered one just before the reveal.