Tesla reportedly offers free Model 3 deliveries

Tesla CEO Elon Musk.AP

• Tesla offered free delivery to some Model 3 customers over the weekend, Electrek reports.
• According to the publication, Tesla will continue to offer delivery to some customers in and near Los Angeles throughout the week, though the publication did not say whether the delivery service will be offered elsewhere or whether it will be free.
• Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on which customers are eligible for deliveries, how long the delivery program will last, and how much deliveries cost.

Tesla offered free delivery to some Model 3 customers over the weekend, Electrek reports. According to the publication, Tesla will continue to offer delivery to some customers in and near Los Angeles throughout the week, though the publication did not say whether the delivery service will be offered elsewhere or whether it will be free.

The automaker offers delivery to customers who don’t live within 160 miles of a Tesla service center, but Electrek’s report, which cites emails sent to customers in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, suggests Tesla has at least temporarily expanded its delivery service. In July, Tesla CEO Elon Musk delivered a Model 3 from the company’s Fremont, California, factory directly to a customer’s home and indicated the company would continue to deliver vehicles in that way.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on which customers are eligible for deliveries, how long the delivery program will last, and how much deliveries cost.

Free deliveries are notable because the company is approaching the end of its third quarter, which Musk said in September would be the “most amazing quarter” in the company’s history. Musk also said that Tesla would build and deliver twice as many they did in the second quarter. 

The delivery program, which is reportedly called “Tesla Direct,” comes near the end of a quarter in which Musk has said the company will produce and deliver over double the number of vehicles it did in the second quarter, when it set a company record for quarterly production and deliveries (it made 53,339 vehicles and delivered 40,740). The company has said that it expects to become consistently profitable beginning in the third quarter, despite a recent pattern of widening losses and increasing cash burn.

Recent statements from Musk and a reported initiative from Tesla have suggested that the company is trying to increase deliveries before the end of the quarter at a pace beyond its normal capacity. 

Last week, Electrek reported that Tesla would offer free access to its charging network, an incentive Musk previously said the company would not offer again, through the end of the month. And earlier this month, Musk said an increase in delivery volume would slow the speed at which Tesla’s customer service employees would be able to respond to customers, though he did not indicate how long the delays would last. On Friday, Musk invited current Tesla owners via Twitter to assist employees in helping educate new customers about their vehicles for the rest of the quarter. 

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