Initial buyers to Tesla’s most anticipated model yet, the $30,000 Model 3 that’s supposed to bring Tesla to the masses, may be getting cold feet. One eBay seller has chosen to sell their reservation to the highest taker.
The deposit is currently bidding at $625 more than the refundable $1,000 cost to reserve it directly. The company’s most recent tally in April 2016 said it had 373,000 Model 3 reservations, but Elon Musk’s been mum ever since.
From the listing:
This is your chance to take delivery of a brand new Tesla Model 3 without having to wait years in line behind 400,000 other reservation holders. I am a current Tesla Model S owner (I bought my Model S after I had put in my reservation for my Model 3), and I booked my reservation the second online reservations started during the live reveal. The only people in front of my reservation would be current Tesla owners who put their deposits down in person, and there are not many of those.
After owning my Model S for a year, I love it as much and more than I expected I would so I don’t think I want to trade my Model S for a Model 3 just yet. So I figured I would offer my reservation to someone so they could jump the huge line of other reservations. I am willing to let you as the buyer specify this car out to your own desires in real time in collaboration with me. I can NOT transfer my reservation to a new buyer. As I understand it, I will have to take delivery and then provide the car to you as the new buyer.
What a deal! Maybe.
Elon Musk said he’s been “anti-selling” the car, explaining that since the Model 3 isn’t as good as the $38,000 more expensive Model S, you’d be better off buying the Model S:
If you come into our stores and you want to buy a Model 3, we try to get you to buy a Model S or X instead. We anti-sell the Model 3. But I mean, that’s — reservations continue to climb week after week. No advertising, anti-selling, nothing to test drive, still grows every week.
Tesla also is only allowing buyers to pick the color of the car and size of the wheels, at least for the time being.
Many think the Model 3 will dictate whether company will sink or swim. Investors have high expectations for the California-based automaker, as it currently has a stock price of $380. For reference, Tesla made 84,000 cars in 2016; Ford sold 2 million cars in the U.S. in the same time span, and it’s only selling at $11.
No pressure.