If it wants to be a mainstream automaker, the company has a fairly daunting volume issue to overcome.
DETROIT, MI - Tesla Motors has not had a problem with volume in terms of how loud the buzz is around its new cars.
But if it wants to be a mainstream automaker, the company has a fairly daunting volume issue to overcome in terms of the actual number of vehicles it produces and sells.
Tesla's $35,000 car for the masses, the Model 3, was revealed to great fanfare Thursday night, and more than a year ahead of actually heading to production. Lines of people were snaking around city blocks from California to Australia to put down $1,000 reservations on the car.
"This has to be a first for the automotive industry," Edmunds.com director of industry analysis Jessica Caldwell said of the hype. "This is the type of buzz that you see with Star Wars movies or new iPhones or even cronuts."
Caldwell added that the Model 3 represents the moment Tesla is ready leap toward mainstream car buyers in the U.S.
It is the product that could finally transform Tesla to a full-fledged automaker from a start-up that has been bleeding money in a capital-intensive industry with tight margins.
Or, Tesla Motors could go the way of DeLorean Motor Company.
The Model 3 is important to figuring this out because it represents one of the main goals company founder Elon Musk set out at least 10 years ago to achieve: build an all-electric car for the masses.
Related: How Elon Musk's 'secret' plan 10 years ago led to tonight's Tesla Model 3 reveal
The Model 3 will start at $35,000, and that price tag can be reduced to $27,500 in the U.S. after federal tax credits, and even further sliced with relevant state tax credits. Those federal tax credits are finite, though. Once credits are used for 200,000 units, they are scaled down by half each six months until they are phased out.
And Jack Nerad, executive editorial director and market analyst for Kelley Blue Book, noted that the Model 3's $35,000 price tag does not include other versions of the car.
"Tesla has a history of introducing a vehicle with a reasonably low price and then selling versions that are much more expensive," Nerad said. "There was no mention of EV's major Achilles' heel -- recharge time. 215 mile range and low recharge times make EVs impractical for many buyers."
There has been speculation that Tesla is using the $1,000 reservations to drum up some cash to maintain operations and help fund a ramp-up in production.
If that's the case, Tesla just got a carload of cash. Musk said Thursday there had been at least 115,000 reservations for the Model 3. Simple math says the company could have just pulled in about $115,000,000.
What's certain is that Tesla has not been profitable by traditional measures since it launched. However, in reporting the company's financial results in February, Musk told investors he expects Tesla to turn a profit in the fourth quarter of this year.
Tesla said in February that 107,000 of its cars are now on roads in 42 countries.
Its record production of vehicles, so far, came in the fourth quarter of 2015, when it made 14,037 new Tesla vehicles.
For comparison, General Motors sold 227,825 units in the U.S., Ford sold 216,045 units and FCA US sold 182,879 cars and trucks - in February alone.
But Tesla continues to ramp up production, and had planned on increasing the rate of its long-awaited Model X SUV rolling off assembly lines to 1,000 units per week by the second quarter of this year.
The company's 5.3 million-square-foot factory in Fremont, Calif. is supposed to have the capacity for 500,000 units, so Tesla has plenty of room to grow. It will soon source much of its batteries from a plant within the same region; a Gigafactory that broke ground outside Sparks, Nev. in 2014 is already operational, and eventually will produce more lithium-ion batteries than all other factories of its kind combined, Musk said.
Whether or not things are coming together for Tesla, obviously only time will tell.
The eager buyers lined up this week to get behind the wheel of a Model 3 hope that it doesn't take too long to find out.
In the meantime, it appears they've already given Tesla a $115 million boost.
David Muller is the automotive and business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com, follow him on Twitter or find him on Facebook.