News on Tesla’s 2020 targets has come sooner than expected. The EV company’s CEO, Elon Musk shared Tesla’s Q4 2020 Vehicle Production and Deliveries report via Twitter and praised his team for their efforts in delivering 180,570 electric vehicles in the last quarter.
"So proud of the Tesla team for achieving this major milestone! At the start of Tesla, I thought we had (optimistically) a 10% chance of surviving at all."
This brings the total number of Tesla vehicles delivered during 2020 to 499,550, which is 450 EVs shy of its initial target of 500,000. The recently published Q4 results is a new record for Tesla beating its previous numbers in Q3 where deliveries hit 139,300.
A survey ran by FactSet indicated that analysts on Wall Street were expecting total Tesla deliveries for 2020 to be around the 493,000 mark but Tesla exceeded these numbers to close off the year on a positive note.
Tesla’s report shows their last quarterly deliveries for Model 3 and X reached 161,650 while producing 163,660 of the same models. The Tesla S and X deliveries came in at 18,920 with production being at 16,097.
As a yearly total, Tesla delivered 442,511 of its Model 3 and Y vehicles and produced 454,932. For the Model S and X, it delivered 57,039 cars and produced 54,805.
When Tesla publishes its per quarter reports, it does not provide a breakdown of production and delivery by region, but more detail is usually provided in the Light Vehicle Production reports published by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
By law, car manufacturers have to report their vehicle production numbers for the US market every quarter. While the most recent Q4 report has not yet been published by the NHTSA (at the time of writing this article), previous reports show that Tesla produced 66,175 2020 Model 3 sedans and 46,773 2020 Model Y SUVs for the US within the first nine months of this year.
In Q3, production of the 2020 Model Y SUVs was surpassing that of the 2020 Model 3s for the US market. During 2020, the EV manufacturer increased its Model Y production in the US and production of the “Made in China” Model Y has also started at its Shanghai Giga Factory.
Musk never thinks in small measures and said that he wants Tesla to grow its vehicle sales from 500,000 to 20 million vehicles annually within the next decade. He hopes to achieve this through producing a mass market affordable vehicle as well as with the release of the new Cybertruck, Semi and Roadster that should be coming to market sometime in the near future.
In 2016, the Model S pre-order numbers were a lot higher than expected, which motivated the Tesla CEO to set an annual target of reaching vehicle production at 500,000 at its Fremont factory before 2019. Unfortunately, the company did not reach that target at that time, but it’s now set to accelerate production and push beyond the boundaries of these numbers.
Now with analysts and investors looking ahead in 2021, Tesla is in a good position with constructing its Giga Factories in Texas and Germany, and improving its battery technology that will help in its efforts to grow sales and production across the globe. Even when the new factories come online, it will take some months for the facilities to reach full capacity in manufacturing to churn out large numbers of vehicles. In addition to US and European market penetration, Tesla will be ramping up its manufacturing in Asia and potentially new sales in India. The future looks unstoppable for Tesla.
