Reddit user ry8 posted the email he received from Tesla informing him his vehicle will be delivered next week.
Is Tesla ready to cross a major threshold? Reports suggest that the Palo Alto, Calfornia-based EV maker is going to deliver the first Model 3 sedans to non-employees.
The initial allotment of vehicles went to employees, family members and Tesla “insiders.” However, according to Autoblog, a Reddit user, ry8, revealed on the Tesla subreddit that his Model 3 was being delivered on Monday.
To further prove his claim, he posted a copy of his confirmation email from the company, complete with a photo of a white Model 3, the vehicle’s VIN and a request for final payment. Apparently, ry8 is a San Francisco-area resident and was one of the day one reservation holders.
His white Model 3 started at $35,000, but he ordered the 310-mile long-range battery — a $9,000 upgrade, plus $5,000 in “premium upgrades.” Once you subtract the $1,000 reservation fee, the car “stickers” at $48,000.
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Tesla's received reservations from Sysco for 50 trucks and Anheuser-Busch for 40 trucks.
The post, notes Autoblog, supports a Model 3 Owners Club YouTube video from Nov. 21, claiming Tesla started sending configuration emails to reservation holders, promising delivery in four weeks. The site also notes Model 3s have been spotted in holding lots in locations around the state.
The deliveries are starting as Tesla engineers have been battling build issues, especially quality, with CEO Elon Musk describing the situation as “production hell.” However, he’s marshalled all of his resources to tackle the bottlenecks and if the delivery news is true, it appears he’s broken through.
The deliveries come as the company just received another high-profile reservation for its new semi truck. Anheuser-Busch just placed an order for 40 of the Tesla’s new truck introduced last month.
The 40 semi-trucks, which represent one of Tesla’s largest reported pre-orders, will be fully electric-powered and equipped with autonomous driving capabilities, as part of the company’s commitment to improving road safety and reducing carbon emissions.
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Integrating the Tesla semi-trucks into the brewer’s distribution network will help Anheuser-Busch achieve its commitment to reduce its operational carbon footprint by 30% by 2025 – the equivalent of removing nearly 500,000 cars from the road globally each year.
“At Anheuser-Busch, we are constantly seeking new ways to make our supply chain more sustainable, efficient, and innovative,” said James Sembrot, senior director of Logistics Strategy. “This investment in Tesla semi-trucks helps us achieve these goals while improving road safety and lowering our environmental impact.”
A-B isn’t just working with Tesla. It has partnerships with Nikola, to develop and implement hydrogen-powered engines within our network, Otto and Uber Freight, to test autonomous driving technology, and Convoy to access on-demand trucking capacity.
The beer order wasn’t even the largest order of the day as Sysco, the food distribution behemoth, ordered 50 trucks. Prior to that, Walmart ordered 15 trucks and other companies such as Michigan-based grocery superstore Meijer and J.B. Hunt have also placed reservations for the new truck, which isn’t expected to be in full production until 2019.
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Each truck requires a $5,000 reservation fee and with the final prices coming in between $150,000 and $200,000 depending upon how the truck is optioned out.