Tesla Reports Over 1,000 Model S Orders

A little over a month after unveiling the Model S sedan, Tesla Motors has announced today that the company has received over 1,000 orders. That is no doubt an impressive figure! Consider this; the company has no factory yet to produce the model and the purchase price is at around $50,000, in luxury territory. 1,000 orders is a number to be excited about.

I can see why the car reached so many orders too. The car offers an incredible value proposition and Elon Musk has guaranteed to personally refund deposits should an "Armageddon scenario" happen to the company. This is the guy that founded PayPal and SpaceX; I think people have a lot of confidence that he will be able to deliver on the Model S's promises.

Like last time, there is no data or seperation on whether the orders are for the standard model, which has a $5,000 reservation fee, or the Signature Edition. The Signature Edition is a run of 2,000 Model S sedans, 1,000 slated for the U.S and 1,000 slated for Europe. To reserve the Signature Edition will set you back $40,000 for a non-refundable deposit.

Even at $5,000 per deposit, Tesla Motors has raised $5,000,000 towards the car's development. Another figure that helps keep the company operating until it reaches profitability on the Roadster in the summer. The company is adequately capitalized with $40 million in investment funds from the round late last year.

Hopefully the Department of Energy loan guarantees for Tesla will be announced and dispersed quickly. We probably will hear something about that in June. Once that is announced, Tesla probably will receive a flood of new orders for the Model S as confidence in the car's production is further increased.