Tesla might stop taking custom vehicle orders once delivery times get too long.
In an interview with Financial Times (FT), the host asked Elon Musk if his actions with Twitter could potentially lead to a “commercial impact” on Tesla. Musk highlighted that Tesla’s demand remains strong, and the company is focusing on production to meet demand.
“I’m confident that we can sell all the cars we can make,” Musk said. “I mean, currently, the lead time for ordering a Tesla is ridiculously long. So, our issue is not demand. It is production.”
The FT host suggested that supply chain challenges were the reason for Tesla’s long delivery estimates and less about electric vehicle demand in general. Musk clarified that Tesla’s demand exceeded production long before the current supply chain challenges.
“Now, demand is exceeding production to a ridiculous degree. We’re actually probably gonna—just stop taking orders for anything beyond some period of time because some of the timing is like a year away,” Musk said.
As of this writing, a few of Tesla’s vehicles have delivery estimates in 2023, including the Model Y Long Range variant.
- Model 3 RWD – August to November 2022
- Model 3 Long Range – July to October 2022
- Model 3 Performance – June to August 2022
- Model Y Long Range – November 2022 to February 2023
- Model Y Performance – July to September 2022
Tesla’s top-tier vehicles, the Model X and Model S, also have delivery estimates that stretch into 2023, hinting at the strong demand for the company’s vehicles.
- Model X Plaid – August to October 2022
- Model X (dual motor) – January 2023 to April 2023
- Model S Plaid – June to August 2022
- Model S (dual motor) – October 2022 to January 2023.
Tesla has been increasing the price of its vehicles as the costs of raw materials, logistics, and other factors go up.
“And so, to Elon’s point, what we’re trying to do here because it is quite an unprecedented situation of raw material movement and all of these various lags and all this uncertainty around renegotiating contracts is we’re trying to anticipate where things will go and make sure that the pricing that we have in place at the time that the raw material costs increases hit us, that they align, and that the company can remain financially healthy in various scenarios as we look out over the next four quarters,” explained Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn during the last earnings call.
Watch Elon Musk interview with the Financial Times below!
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