Tesla will never have to worry about selling cars - Business Insider
▻http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-will-never-have-to-worry-about-selling-cars-2016-12?IR=T
The key question is always the same: Is demand for Teslas really out there?
This is an easy question to answer. There’s probably more demand for Tesla vehicles than would be satisfied even if Musk’s goal of half a million cars was met.
The bottom line is that Tesla will never have trouble selling its cars, at least not until it cranks up production to the same levels of other major global automakers. For the time being, Tesla’s biggest challenge remains managing the demand it can almost effortlessly create.
Musk has addressed this challenge often. When the Model 3 mass-market vehicle — scheduled to arrive in late 2017, priced at around $30,000 after tax credits — was unveiled earlier this year, Tesla swiftly racked up almost 400,0oo advance reservations at $1,000 a pop.
Musk later reminded analysts that all the company did was post a few tweets and live-stream the unveiling event in Los Angeles.
Let’s be perfectly clear: This is one of the largest and most important happenings in the history of the automobile industry. In over a century, no carmaker has even come close to witnessing so much demand for an unavailable vehicle. A General Motors or Toyota would kill to have such a stunning amount of enthusiasm, backed up by cash money, for a new car or truck. But it can’t kill, so it spends billions on marketing and advertising.
Tesla, for all practical purposes, spends zero on marketing and advertising — although Musk, in a spirit of charity, says that someday it will, because the media requires advertising spending to stay alive. The company sends emails, holds customer events, has a small but intrepid communications team, and lets Musk do his thing on Twitter. That’s it.
