While Tesla is ALWAYS late in
While Tesla is ALWAYS late in delivering on their promises they almost always do deliver. The Model S and the Model X were also delayed and had their issues at the beginning. This is all in Musk's management style make unrealistic pie in the sky timelines to push everyone as hard as possible and when they fail to meet those deadlines just move to do as well as they can.
The Model X was a perfect example it was late to arrive and had tons of issues when it first released but I can tell you as an owner (bough it last summer). Today the Model X is a fantastic car. Yeah the Model 3 production ramp up will be 6-12 months late but if he used normal processes and schedules it would be 18 months from now.
Also, Tesla tried to sell low range Model S and nobody wanted to buy them. I have a feeling you will see few "low range" Model 3's. I think that's more a success than a failure because I've never seen anyone try to push their stripped down cars.