[somethoughts]

>> Let people put up a small deposit as well for getting a place in the queue

Pre-ordering with a deposit is definitely a very creative/smart accounting hack that Tesla (and Amazon) has used pretty effectively. It creates a negative cash conversion cycle (get the money upfront from your customer before you have to pay your suppliers) - which is highly profitable - especially when there is known demand.

[chii]

and psychologically, a person who have put up a deposit would more likely imagine they'd like the product (a form of loss aversion).