Major Automakers Watch in Horror as Tesla Model 3 Pre-Orders Skyrocket

Large automakers unveiled their March sales today, but it was not the monthly numbers auto investors were worried about... it was the disruptor in California - Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).

Tesla unveiled its mass-market $35,000 Model 3 yesterday and started taking pre-orders. In a matter of 24-hours, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company has racked-up 198,000 pre-orders - or more than double what even the most bullish analysts had expected for the entire 3-day weekend.

Thought it would slow way down today, but Model 3 order count is now at 198k. Recommend ordering soon, as the wait time is growing rapidly.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2016

To put the numbers in perspective, GM (NYSE: GM) said it delivered a total of 193,524 vehicles to U.S. retail customer in the entire month of March. Meanwhile, Ford (NYSE: F) said it sold 254,711 vehicles in March in the U.S.. 2015 U.S. seasonally adjusted annual selling rate (SAAR) for the industry was 17.5 million units, with March SAAR suggesting 17.1 million units.

So, in one day Tesla has nearly surpassed what the big-two U.S. automakers sell in an entire month and over 1% of the entire industry sales.

Model 3 deliveries are scheduled to begin in late 2017. Whether Tesla can deliver is the big question. Also, the company has to complete its gigafactory and will likely need much more cash. In fact, Musk himself just admitted that they will have to rethink the Model 3 production planning.

Definitely going to need to rethink production planning...

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2016

Shares of Ford are down 2.6% today, GM is down 2.5% and Tesla is up 3.9%.

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