Tesla will reportedly bypass the reservation system and let anyone in the U.S. or Canada order a Model 3 via the Online Design Studio.

In the past month, Tesla has revamped the process by which it's allowing people to order and configure the Model 3. First of all, the Design Studio was updated with new pricing for the dual-motor all-wheel-drive and Performance models. In addition, anyone in the U.S. or Canada who had a previous reservation - regardless of timing - was granted access to configure their vehicle. However, the $35,000 base model is not yet available for configuration.

This move by Tesla had many reservation holders upset since some waited in line the very first day in order to assure that they would be ahead of the pack. Also, some of these customers had hoped for the base Model 3, as well as the full $7,500 federal EV tax credit. Hopefully, they realized early on that Tesla would not be releasing the base model for some time and that the tax credit will be beginning the sunset process in the coming months.

Fast forward to today and not only can any North American reservation holder jump on the Tesla website and configure, but anyone in the U.S. and Canada can place a Model 3 order immediately. This means they don't even have to reserve first with a $1,000 deposit.

Keep in mind that Electrek reported that Tesla still plans to prioritize orders for reservation holders. However, we haven't heard any of this information from Tesla and we have no way of knowing "if" and "how" the automaker plans to handle the priority system, which seems to be changing on a regular basis. Tesla also made similar statements about priority in the past, which didn't seem to be carried out. The whole reservation process and timeline for the Model 3 have not been very transparent. All we can do now is wait and see how it pans out.

Source: Electrek