Tesla Model 3 Order Reservations Blew This Analyst's Prediction Out Of The Water

While more than 12,000 people had visited Tesla Motors Inc’s TSLA 95 North American locations to reserve Model 3 as of Thursday morning, there were also reports of significant lines in Northern Europe and China/Hong Kong overnight.

Credit Suisse's Dan Galves in a Thursday note mentioned that given the turnout, the earlier estimate of 100,000 reservations in the first few weeks of the launch of Model 3 now appeared low.

“Given that many stores were not even open yet, we think that 20k in-person reservations is a very reasonable estimate by the time the Model 3 unveiling event starts,” the analyst stated.

While an accurate extrapolation might not be possible, Galves believes that initial Model 3 reservations over the first few weeks could be significantly higher than 100,000; Tesla announced o Thursday night that preorders exceeded 130,000 during the event.

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“We believe this much interest, generated only through word of mouth and modest social media promotion from Tesla, in a car that no one has seen yet, is really astounding,” Galves stated.

Galves maintained an Outperform rating on the company, with a price target of $240.