Thanks to everyone who has responded.
The salesman did mention they were holding too much stock of electric vehicles that they haven’t sold, which was costing them xx thousand pounds per month, and didn’t want to be left with more if people ordered and cancelled.
Understandable I guess. The £2,000 up front payment was required for any order other than stock cars, so applied to any factory orders or even the cars available at Tilbury docks, with a 2-3 week turnaround for collection.
To confirm, we didn’t order the car, and have arranged a visit to another dealer later this week.