Tesla opens up Model 3 orders to all of North America
People who want the $35,000 Tesla base model will have to keep waiting
If you live in the US or Canada, you no longer need a reservation to order your own Tesla Model 3 sedan. Just go to the company’s website, and you can begin the process. That’s assuming you want a Model 3 with the long-range battery, which starts at $49,000. The long-promised $35,000 base model will be “available in 6 to 9 months,” according to Tesla’s site.
It used to be you had to drop $1,000 just to reach Tesla’s online design studio. For two years, that deposit was required to hold a spot as you considered pricing and options. Though the company hasn’t disclosed exactly how many would-be car owners paid that fee, as of July 2, there were 420,000 reserved Model 3s, according to a Tesla SEC filing. The company has already delivered 28,386 Model 3s, it said in that statement.
Early reservations helped Tesla determine how many people wanted cars before the cars were built; the deposits also functioned as “something of an interest-free loan,” according to CNBC. That reservation fee went toward the cost of the car — but new would-be owners still need to plunk down $2,500 for Tesla to start production on their vehicles. It’s the same fee the company charged people to buy their Model S and Model X vehicles.
Reservation holders are still first in line for new Model 3s, though, Electrek reports. Other things matter for how quickly the car is delivered: when the order took place, how the car is set up, and where it needs to be delivered, CNBC says.
This looks like the company’s latest move to boost the Model 3 sales after months of lagging behind its own goals for production and deliveries. But now that the Model 3 is more accessible than ever, it’s likely that the wait to get your hands on a vehicle — which for some, was already roughly a year — is bound to get even longer.
