Delivery Event History: Nov. 30th is NOT a *retail customer* Delivery Event

[cvalue13]

Lots of lurkers or new members commenting across the forum something like "how could Tesla be delivering the Cybertruck if they haven't released pricing and specs yet?"

Seemed this needed a thread they can find or be pointed to.

The Nov. 30th "delivery event" is NOT for retail sales to normal customers. Instead, it is a handoff to insiders, employees, and VIPS of maybe a couple of dozen late-stage 'prototypes' ("manufacturing candidates").

So, Tesla can "deliver" absent public release of pricing and specs because these insiders have non-public information about *their* pricing, etc., (which may or may not be the same as pricing for public retail sales).

Historically, after this sort of insider delivery event, it is several weeks or months before Tesla begins the first small tranches of public retail deliveries.

It is no accident that this is confusing, because the point of these "delivery events" from a marketing perspective is to put a stake in the ground as early as possible that the vehicle is real, and coming, to retail customers - even if initial deliveries aren't to retail customers. No need to make that clear, from a marketing perspective. Forever, wikipedia will say "Cybertruck began deliveries in Nov. 2023," even if (subtly) those weren't "real" deliveries (in the way normal customers care about).

Seemed the right spot to collect and summarize that history - which approach changes over the last 10 years, but provides context for this Nov. 30th "delivery" event:

• Model S (2012): The world's first delivery took place on June 1, 2012 in California, to a Tesla board member and a few other key insiders. Not until June 22, 2012, did formal "retail deliveries begin, but even then those units where "special edition" units that went to key investors, and venture capitalists, including early funders of Tesla. Tesla allocated its first 1,000 units to these early "Signature" and "Signature Performance" limited edition configurations. Regular person, regular edition, Model S's weren't delivered for months after the publicized "delivery" event.

Nonetheless, Tesla's press releases about the June 22nd event and the delivery event itself (video below) did not make clear that these "deliveries" were different than regular, retail, customer deliveries.​

​

• Model X (2015): The first 6 "Founders Series" models were delivered at a market launch event in the Fremont factory on September 29, 2015. One unit went to Musk, the others to insiders. Initial retail deliveries to 'normal' customers wasn't until several months later, around December 2015. In Q4 they delivered 204 units.

Here again, public communications about the "delivery event" did not make clear that these deliveries were to insiders. (The delivery event doesn't appear to have a video available, but photos and live-blog like description of the event were reported.)​

• Model 3 (2017): The first 30 Tesla Model 3's where delivered first delivered on July 28, 2017, all to Tesla employees and VIPs. In that quarter, they produced only 220 Model 3's, which were all "special advanced deliveries" (including to a guy with terminal cancer). Deliveries to 'normal' customers weren't reported until December 23, 2017.

Again, press around the "delivery event" in July made no clear distinction regarding 'insider' vs normal retail deliveries. Video of handover event below.​

​

• Model Y (2020): For the Model Y, Tesla bucked it's historical trend and simply began delivering to retail customers March 13, 2020. Note that this was peak initial COVID - things were done differently (including no big press event) likely for a reason.

• Semi (2022): While a different category of vehicle (commercial), thought it worth mentioning that the Semi "delivery event" was in Dec. 2022, to Pepsi and Frito-Lay (PepsiCo’s snack foods subsidiary), in what was essentially an 'insider', co-development, effort. Normal retail customer of Semi's has still not occurred (and Tesla still lists status as "pilot production").

​

​

​

​

​

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="" title="Model S Customer Delivery Event" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="" title="Model 3 Handover Event - July 28, 2017 (HD)" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

​

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="" title="Tesla Semi Delivery Event" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Sponsored

 

[CyberC]

But I heard MC stands for master candidate...

In all seriousness, thanks for the context. Very helpful, especially for those who haven't been this excited about a Tesla launch before or forgot what it was like the last few times.

 

[Gurule92]

As long as none of the first owners put it in a garage or care about the exterior of the vehicle in any way I'll allow it...

The real truck counsel shall judge them harshly...

But for real, when do i find out if i won the raffle? That's what really needs answered lol

 

[Baldey]

lesson here, is there are no hard rules and process follows function. M3 took about four months, MY was delivered to actual customers instantly, and Semi still hasn't been.

Im still pretty sure the CT will be closest to the MY in terms of actual deliveries. Pricing will be announced in November, and i am confident they can get to at least the first actual delivery before the end of the year.
Thats how they've done it in Texas, and i see no reason for this to be different!

 

[cvalue13]

Im still pretty sure the CT will be closest to the MY in terms of actual deliveries. Pricing will be announced in November, and i am confident they can get to at least the first actual delivery before the end of the year.
Thats how they've done it in Texas, and i see no reason for this to be different!

I tend to agree. That version would look ~like: at the 'insider' delivery event, they announce the configurator is open (would possibly be open to an initial tranche of early res holders) and that "retail deliveries will occur before end of year." Result would be maybe 50-200 initial retail deliveries occur before December 30th.

After that, the real historical question will be whether and for how long they observe/honor the reservation order.

Because in the past, Tesla has blown up any reservation order concept, and simply started selling the vehicles to whomever pony's up their (real) deposit fastest.

Selfishly, given capacity expectations in 2024, I'm hoping they *do* blow up the reservation que after the first few months (like they've done in the past), so that I have any shot at ordering/receiving before ... year(s) from now

 

[Baldey]

Selfishly, given capacity expectations in 2024, I'm hoping they *do* blow up the reservation que after the first few months (like they've done in the past), so that I have any shot at ordering/receiving before ... year(s) from now

your version is what i envision as well...

Except i think they will honor the reservations this time, for a little while at least. Back with the M3, if i remember right the reservation process was.kind of awkward and not as well advertised. You had to actually go to a service center, i think. No one knew about it. But with the CT, being a reservation holder almost became a status symbol till it was cringe This reservation shows up in my tesla account, i think theyve got some of those logistics figured out..

I think once production ramps, there'll be two lanes. Reservation holders ill keep getting emails as production allows, and people who want to buy one now will have their own que of "available" direct sales.

 

[cvalue13]

Except i think they will honor the reservations this time, for a little while at least. Back with the M3, if i remember right the reservation process was.kind of awkward and not as well advertised. You had to actually go to a service center, i think. No one knew about it. But with the CT, being a reservation holder almost became a status symbol till it was cringe This reservation shows up in my tesla account, i think theyve got some of those logistics figured out..

HOWEVER, remember that the people who DID reserve an M3 (A) had to go physically wait in long lines, and (B) put down ACTUAL deposits ($5,000?)

So not only were there fewer M3 reservations, they were also harder to get and required putting down real money.

On that view, it could be argued that backing out of the M3 reservation order was a far bigger move, than with the CT where everyone with wifi and $100 "reserved" a mythical version.

 

[MonkeyDeLuffy]

Following the same rationale, Spec may not be released on that event either...

 

[bwhntr78]

I was a reservation holder for the 3. It was a long time ago, but I think it was $1000. The process was still very similar (online reservation). The big difference then was that at the reveal, they just said it would start at 35k. No different trim levels, etc. So they honored that price by adding options to that 35k starting price (while not offering a model that didn't have those options). LR battery, premium interior/glass roof, and awd were all options that added ~15k. Technically they started with the LR RWD, but that still had the upcharge for the bigger battery and premium interior. With the CT, those big ticket items (number of motors and pack size) were already baked into the initial pricing.

 

[RandyS]

I bought one of the early Model 3's in late December 2017. As far as delivery priority, I was a previous owner, lived in CA, made a reservation 13 minutes after the store opened and purchased the equivalent of FSD back in those early days...

Here is what the contract looked like...Vin #19xx

 

[Jhodgesatmb]

Lots of lurkers or new members commenting across the forum something like "how could Tesla be delivering the Cybertruck if they haven't released pricing and specs yet?"

Seemed this needed a thread they can find or be pointed to.

The Nov. 30th "delivery event" is NOT for retail sales to normal customers. Instead, it is a handoff to insiders, employees, and VIPS of maybe a couple of dozen late-stage 'prototypes' ("manufacturing candidates").

So, Tesla can "deliver" absent public release of pricing and specs because these insiders have non-public information about *their* pricing, etc., (which may or may not be the same as pricing for public retail sales).

Historically, after this sort of insider delivery event, it is several weeks or months before Tesla begins the first small tranches of public retail deliveries.

It is no accident that this is confusing, because the point of these "delivery events" from a marketing perspective is to put a stake in the ground as early as possible that the vehicle is real, and coming, to retail customers - even if initial deliveries aren't to retail customers. No need to make that clear, from a marketing perspective. Forever, wikipedia will say "Cybertruck began deliveries in Nov. 2023," even if (subtly) those weren't "real" deliveries (in the way normal customers care about).

Seemed the right spot to collect and summarize that history - which approach changes over the last 10 years, but provides context for this Nov. 30th "delivery" event:

• Model S (2012): The world's first delivery took place on June 1, 2012 in California, to a Tesla board member and a few other key insiders. Not until June 22, 2012, did formal "retail deliveries begin, but even then those units where "special edition" units that went to key investors, and venture capitalists, including early funders of Tesla. Tesla allocated its first 1,000 units to these early "Signature" and "Signature Performance" limited edition configurations. Regular person, regular edition, Model S's weren't delivered for months after the publicized "delivery" event.

Nonetheless, Tesla's press releases about the June 22nd event and the delivery event itself (video below) did not make clear that these "deliveries" were different than regular, retail, customer deliveries.​

​

• Model X (2015): The first 6 "Founders Series" models were delivered at a market launch event in the Fremont factory on September 29, 2015. One unit went to Musk, the others to insiders. Initial retail deliveries to 'normal' customers wasn't until several months later, around December 2015. In Q4 they delivered 204 units.

Here again, public communications about the "delivery event" did not make clear that these deliveries were to insiders. (The delivery event doesn't appear to have a video available, but photos and live-blog like description of the event were reported.)​

• Model 3 (2017): The first 30 Tesla Model 3's where delivered first delivered on July 28, 2017, all to Tesla employees and VIPs. In that quarter, they produced only 220 Model 3's, which were all "special advanced deliveries" (including to a guy with terminal cancer). Deliveries to 'normal' customers weren't reported until December 23, 2017.

Again, press around the "delivery event" in July made no clear distinction regarding 'insider' vs normal retail deliveries. Video of handover event below.​

​

• Model Y (2020): For the Model Y, Tesla bucked it's historical trend and simply began delivering to retail customers March 13, 2020. Note that this was peak initial COVID - things were done differently (including no big press event) likely for a reason.

• Semi (2022): While a different category of vehicle (commercial), thought it worth mentioning that the Semi "delivery event" was in Dec. 2022, to Pepsi and Frito-Lay (PepsiCo’s snack foods subsidiary), in what was essentially an 'insider', co-development, effort. Normal retail customer of Semi's has still not occurred (and Tesla still lists status as "pilot production").

​

​

​

​

​

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="" title="Model S Customer Delivery Event" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="" title="Model 3 Handover Event - July 28, 2017 (HD)" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

​

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="" title="Tesla Semi Delivery Event" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

All that makes sense, but will Elon/Tesla at least talk about the Cybertruck features and technology at the delivery event? They will have one on stage so it would seem like the right time to provide details.

 

[cvalue13]

All that makes sense, but will Elon/Tesla at least talk about the Cybertruck features and technology at the delivery event? They will have one on stage so it would seem like the right time to provide details.

I would expect so - see eg the prior release events

 

[VR Driving]

I would say the Model Y was an exception because Tesla knew it would be able to get that car out on time. It is basically identical to the Model 3, so development time was minimal on the Y. The rest of the lineup were all showcasing some pioneering tech. Model S was the first car. so they had to learn while making it, X had Falcon Wing doors which again is another difficult thing to manufacturer, the 3 was the test bed for scaling production, the Semi again is all new along with the Cybertruck.

 

[VR Driving]

I tend to agree. That version would look ~like: at the 'insider' delivery event, they announce the configurator is open (would possibly be open to an initial tranche of early res holders) and that "retail deliveries will occur before end of year." Result would be maybe 50-200 initial retail deliveries occur before December 30th.

After that, the real historical question will be whether and for how long they observe/honor the reservation order.

Because in the past, Tesla has blown up any reservation order concept, and simply started selling the vehicles to whomever pony's up their (real) deposit fastest.

Selfishly, given capacity expectations in 2024, I'm hoping they *do* blow up the reservation que after the first few months (like they've done in the past), so that I have any shot at ordering/receiving before ... year(s) from now

The initial production rate would be 10-20 daily at most, I don't think they will ramp to triple digits within 2023. So you are right about 200 cars could be delivered by the end of 2023. According to information from Tesla staff, they are expecting customer deliveries only after Dec 30th.

 

[pricedm]

@cvalue13 thanks for the videos / trip down memory-good times lane.

Sponsored