Tesla truck: $10.5B in pre-orders with $0 in ad spend | Hacker News Reader

Tesla truck: $10.5B in pre-orders with $0 in ad spend

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37 pointsgukov27 comments

For reference, around 25% of model 3 pre-orders were cancelled, and its initial deposit amount was $1000 as opposed to $100.

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.

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.

Trying to be less cynical, couldn't there be several valid reasons other then hype?

1) People hate car dealerships

2) The cars/trucks are really innovative

3) People hate car dealerships

I don't own a Tesla (nor do I plan to buy one soon), but I have seriously considered it in no small part due to my disgust with dealerships and how they obviously are against the consumers interest.

All true points. However, I feel it is a stretch to call it a truck. It’s more of a cross between a truck and a suv meant to look like a less cool Delorean.

It can carry stuff and tow stuff and is damager resistant. What is a truck?

Pack animals, RVs, humans, tug boats, and much more check off everything you just described.

>What is a truck?

Generally, it's been something with a large bed structure behind the cabin.

When design edges the cabin perimeter further encroached into the 'bed' space, the ratio of 'car or truck' gets pushed further to the car side.

The Chevrolet Avalanche or Honda Ridgeline would be other examples of vehicles that have played with that boundary before.

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.

Cybertruck isn't even competitive, let alone impressive, in its market segment. Doug DeMuro did a great rundown of this here: https://youtu.be/Q-0DdRHA-ZQ

What does that 15minute lecture say?

It basically says that cheap work trucks make better work trucks. Like many of Doug’s opinions, he’s not wrong, he’s just missing the point. Nobody is going to buy a Tesla truck based solely on towing capacity.

He seems to be making the argument that people bought the Model 3 because it’s a “good value” and won’t do the same for the cyber truck.

No Doug, people buy a Toyota Camry because it’s a good value. They buy a Model 3 because it’s freakin cool and it’s not $80,000. The cyber truck’s value proposition is not “utilitarian vehicle” either.

>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.

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

Put any other name on this other than Tesla and it would have been laughed off stage (try the thought experiment). The Tesla name on it makes all the difference as you do look at it through different eyes, the eyes that says fuck the current norm and the horse it rode in on.

I will never buy one, but its no uglier than any other big old truck, anyone who can see beauty in a truck, any truck, has too much testosterone for their own good IMHO.

Maybe TopGear can re-do the destruction test they went through with the Toyota HiLux to see how it really holds up to the competition. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnWKz7Cthkk)

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.

Is there any other car in history that can claim anything like that?

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.

Comment above

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.

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.

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.

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

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

That's not advertising.

'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.

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?

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