Tesla released its production and delivery figures for the fourth quarter of 2020 and the full year of 2020. They managed to deliver a record number of more than 180,000 vehicles, but they narrowly missed the goal of 500,000 vehicles delivered over the entire year.
Tesla Q4 Delivery and Production
In the past few weeks, we’ve reported on Tesla’s attempt to achieve what CEO Elon Musk called a “milestone of 500,000 cars built and delivered” in 2020.
It is a goal that the CEO set 5 years ago.
To achieve this, Tesla needed to produce about 170,000 vehicles and deliver about 181,000 vehicles during the fourth quarter.
With the increase in production at the Shanghai Gigafactory, it looked like Tesla would achieve the necessary production, but we reported that Tesla was a thousand deliveries from its North American target with just one day to the end of the quarter.
Today, Tesla released its production and delivery numbers for the fourth quarter of 2020 and confirmed 179,757 vehicles produced and 180,570 vehicles delivered:
| Production | Delivery | Subject to operating lease accounting | |
| Model S / X | 16,097 | 18,920 | 11% |
| Model 3 / Y | 163,660 | 161,650 | 7% |
| Total | 179,757 | 180,570 | 8% |
This is a new record for the automaker – beating its previous record on about 40,000 vehicles.
Tesla production and deliveries for 2020
Tesla announced that it achieved “production and delivery of half a million vehicles” in 2020:
“In 2020, we produce and deliver half a million vehicles, in line with our most recent guidance. In addition, production of the Model Y in Shanghai has started, with deliveries scheduled to begin soon. “
Technically, they fell short of the delivery target for 450 vehicles, but it’s hard to blame them for declaring victory:
| Production | Delivery | |
| Model S / X | 54,805 | 57,039 |
| Model 3 / Y | 454,932 | 442,511 |
| Total | 509,737 | 499,550 |
Electrek’s opinion: still a victory for Tesla
As we noted earlier this week, when Tesla was approaching the milestone, it is a victory, no matter what happens here.
On the production side, Tesla saw an increase of 24% over the previous quarter and 71% over the previous year.
On the delivery side, Tesla saw an increase of 30% over the previous quarter and 61% over the previous year.
It is simply incredible growth, especially for products as complex as an electric vehicle.
For the general year of 2020 versus 2019, Tesla increased deliveries by 36%, despite the global pandemic.
How many other automakers do you think can say that about their performance in 2020?
Now that this milestone is out of the way, I think it would be great for Tesla to focus on more stable vehicle flow and delivery in order to avoid those crazy end-of-quarter races, which should also help with quality.
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