A more cynical person might suggest the tone of this article was related to recent events elsewhere in the NYT. The real meat of the article is buried halfway down:
"(Update: The Tesla spokeswoman Shanna Hendriks later said the company had 1,500 cancellations in the fourth quarter). Many customers were in line but pulled out when it became time to make a substantial down payment in cash."
I'd imagine this is fairly standard for reservations of any product that don't require purchase, it only remains to ask whether this is more than one might expect, and if so, whether it's related to the "cold weather" debacle. That certainly seems to be the implication here.
"(Update: The Tesla spokeswoman Shanna Hendriks later said the company had 1,500 cancellations in the fourth quarter). Many customers were in line but pulled out when it became time to make a substantial down payment in cash."
I'd imagine this is fairly standard for reservations of any product that don't require purchase, it only remains to ask whether this is more than one might expect, and if so, whether it's related to the "cold weather" debacle. That certainly seems to be the implication here.