If you were still doubting the influence of Elon Musk, here’s one for you.
In June this year, it came to light that the billionaire, who on any day is usually the richest, second richest or third richest man on the planet, has been living in a tiny house.
He mentioned it by passing on a Tweet reply, but his 50+ million followers, and the every-preying eyes of the media did not let it pass.
It was soon revealed that the tiny house was a Boxabl Casita Tiny Home. It was delivered to SpaceX ‘Starbase’ factory/launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. Technically, the house is SpaceX property with Musk only renting it from them.
My primary home is literally a ~$50k house in Boca Chica / Starbase that I rent from SpaceX. It’s kinda awesome though.
Only house I own is the events house in the Bay Area. If I sold it, the house would see less use, unless bought by a big family, which might happen some day.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 9, 2021
In 2020, Boxabl had somewhat insinuated that Musk was their client. They admitted to delivering one of their houses to Boca Chica, only saying it was meant for a ‘high-profile client’.
That coincided with the time the billionaire stated publicly that he would be selling all his mansions.
Since this connection between the company and Musk, sales have skyrocketed, almost tripling to 100,000 pre-orders. Never mind that the 4 year old company has only built 3 units.
Musk’s unit is one of those, and boy was it a brilliant business decision to have him jump the queue. According to founder Galiano Tiramani, those pre-orders amount to over $1 billion. However, that’s the end of the rosy part.
The company has no manufacturing capacity to fulfill that many orders. In fact, from what they have laid bare, it would take them 28 years for all the current orders to roll-out of the assembly line. The worse part is that Boxabl has a priority government contract worth $10 million for military housing, and the waitlist will therefore have to take a step back.
They have recently moved into a new factory, but even at full capacity, it can only produce 3,600 units a year.
Perhaps they can take some tips from the king of pre-orders, Elon Musk, on how to build a gigafactory.
Have a look at how they are making the houses.
