Whether or not you're included in this first wave depends on a few factors. When you pre-ordered makes the biggest difference (you need to have put money down on day one), but you also stand a much better chance if you live in California and already own a Tesla car.

At this point, the real mystery is when Tesla will truly open the taps and fulfill regular orders en masse. The company recently pushed its 5,000-cars-per-week manufacturing goal back to the end of the first quarter of 2018, and there's no guarantee that production will scale as gracefully as you might like. It may be well into 2018 before many of the early buyers get their Model 3 rides, especially those who ordered a car at the vaunted $35,000 starting price.