Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA) Model 3 looked like a hit from the beginning. Lines with hundreds of customers were forming at Tesla stores around the world on the day of the vehicle's unveiling in March 2016 -- a prototype was shown for the first time later that evening. And about a month and a half after Tesla took the wraps off the vehicle, 373,000 people had made deposit-backed reservations for it.
While it was clear that initial demand was strong, doubts lingered about how sustainable this demand was and whether Tesla could actually build a vehicle in such high volumes. After all, Tesla was only delivering about 55,000 vehicles annually at the time of the Model 3's unveiling.
Fast-forward more than three years later and Tesla is now shipping hundreds of thousands of Model 3 units a year -- and demand continues to grow.