No joke. The cars are still being essentially hand-made but somehow they’re going to produce 50,000 this year. Bottom line: if you put money down on this car expecting to get one and you’re not Bill Gates, you are DUMB.
There have only been a few hundred Tesla 3s delivered, and they are all in the $60k range. The $40k ones promised will not begin delivery until 2019 at the soonest.
Every Tesla is a nice car, but in its price range is not outstanding by any means, and now or will soon face equally competent EV competitors from major brands.