
Tesla truck: $10.5B in pre-orders with $0 in ad spend - gukov
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/105-billion-pre-orders-0-ad-spend-tesla-disrupting-more-mahesh-murthy/
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benji_is_me
For reference, around 25% of model 3 pre-orders were cancelled, and its
initial deposit amount was $1000 as opposed to $100.

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sunstone
Sure but the huge response nevertheless caused Tesla to reconsider its whole
approach to how much demand there would be and consequently how much extra
capital they would need to meet the demand. And now it looks like Tesla will
be producing Model 3's in three factories world wide.

You can be sure that GM and Ford are taking these numbers very seriously if
only because the Tesla truck is offering compelling utility and a very
reasonable price aside from the controversial design.

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walrus01
Counterpoint, it is a very rare and unicorn-like class of company that has
assiduously and methodically cultivated a grassroots cult of fanboys, that can
do a presentation like this with zero advertising spend.

The closest I can think of might be Apple.

I am not saying spacex or tesla are vapor or hype, but that their fans are
very, very enthusiastic about sharing every new thing and wild theory with all
of their friends, unpaid.

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taurath
People are hype because.... end of the day, they ship products that basically
do what they say, and what they say is a big leap from what you have now. The
stats on the tesla truck are incredible, just clearly better than other trucks
announced at the moment. The hype is - wow we're getting something new, and we
can trust these people to deliver it.

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serf
>People are hype because.... end of the day, they ship products that basically
do what they say, and what they say is a big leap from what you have now.

The hype train existed before Tesla was a company with a proven track record.

Elon Musk is an incredibly good hype-man.

I'm not saying that it's undeserved, but if cultivating the enthusiasm of
others is a skill, folks like Musk have it.

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dayaz36
You're right. Creating incredible products that people love is a good skill
that creates enthusiasm

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billhathaway
I would only call it $10.5B in pre-orders if people paid the full price when
they put a deposit. it is more like ~ $25M in deposits.

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walrus01
One follow up question to that would be what percentage of people who made a
Model 3 reservation (the $14bn mentioned in the article) ended up not
purchasing their vehicle, when their reservation rose to the top of the queue.
I'm sure Tesla has good internal numbers tracking this, but whether it's the
level of granular data that will make it into public reports for shareholders,
that's another question.

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vastoi
Comment above

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21644374](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21644374)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21644374](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21644374)

Says 25% of Model 3 pre-orders were cancelled and the reservation fee for
those was $1000.

No source provided in the comment.

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propogandist
A linkedin article that is estimating theoretical pre-orders, written purely
to "cash-in" on the current buzz.

The $100 refundable deposit makes it easy for anyone to "buy in" to the idea
of owning a Tesla. It's clearly a great marketing technique, especially when
there's a cult like following of the brand and 'outsiders' want to get in on
it.

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mean_gene_1976
I think this is sort of a situation where all the R&D spend just makes
advertising value irrelevant. I mean no advertising, but all that investment
into R&D. I wonder how long before a return.

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needToCrust
This is very surprising. The aesthetic design ain’t got no alibi.

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draw_down
No, the announcement was the ad. Guessing that cost more than $0.

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Justin_K
That's not advertising.

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serf
'Announcements' became advertisement once they became 2-3 hour long
demonstrations of a product (accompanied by band music and multimedia
demonstration) rather than a paragraph-long press release.

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huebnerob
It's amazing to see the Olympian gymnastics routines the tech world is going
through right now to try to make the Cybertruck anything but a hilarious
testament to Tesla's hubris.

Not only is it the ugliest thing that's ever existed on four wheels, it's
poorly thought out for its market segment. Range under load was not even
mentioned, why do you think that is? Good luck towing anything with the base
model without a supercharger visit every hour or two. Luckily my door panels
and windows* are bulletproof though, because suburban California is basically
a war zone right?

