Tesla claims to be receiving 1,800 orders for the Model 3 every day but as it turns out, orders haven’t been rising uninterrupted since the prototype’s debut in early 2016.
Speaking on the automaker’s quarterly earnings call, chief executive Elon Musk revealed that about 63,000 Model 3 orders have been cancelled over the past year or so, bringing the total number of orders down from 518,000 to 455,000.
“Those cancellations occurred over the course of more than a year. I think [these numbers] are inconsequential. With a small amount of effort we can easily drive the Model 3 reservation number to something much higher but there’s no point. It’s like if you’re a restaurant and you’re serving hamburgers and there’s like an hour and a half wait for hamburgers, do you really want to encourage more people to order more hamburgers?” he said.
During the call, Musk said those ordering a Model 3 today are unlikely to receive it until the end of 2018 and that the automaker’s lofty production goals remain intact.
According to Recode, Tesla plans to be manufacturing 5,000 Model 3 vehicles a week by the end of 2017 and that sometime in 2018, approximately 10,000 Model 3s will be produced on a weekly basis.
“When I said ‘manufacturing hell,’ I meant it. We know this, we signed up for it. Not blaming hell because we bought the ticket. This is maybe the best I’ve ever felt about Tesla, to be frank,” he said.