We received more information about the critical North American market for Tesla (TSLA) as the automaker approaches its historic delivery target, with only one day to go for the quarter.
Tesla’s fourth quarter 2020 delivery target
The truth is that we don’t really know what Tesla’s target for the quarter is.
We assume that there are about 181,000 deliveries to reach 500,000 deliveries in 2020, which has been a long-term goal for Tesla.
CEO Elon Musk recently mentioned the goal as achievable in an employee email obtained by Electrek last weekend, but the goal could be higher internally.
Tesla has recently restricted its internal information when it comes to delivery targets and is extremely fragmented by market to keep secrets from general figures.
However, we are getting a better idea of where Tesla is in relation to his goal.
Tesla is 1,000 deliveries of its goal in North America
Sources familiar with the matter said today that Tesla is at about 1,000 units of its North American target for the quarter.
The target is presumably North America’s contribution to the target of 181,000 electric cars worldwide, but this is unconfirmed.
With just over a day to go for the quarter, the goal is achievable, but it is getting close.
Other markets are also obviously contributing to the goal, but North America is always critical at the end of the quarter, as transit times are shorter for vehicles leaving the Fremont plant.
Tesla is still delivering vehicles in Europe and Asia, but the focus is on getting the cars out of the Fremont factory to local markets.
Electrek Rating: It’s a win, no matter what
Let’s say the target is in fact 180,000 vehicles and Tesla misses by 1,000 vehicles. This is still the company’s new record for quarterly delivery of 40,000 units.
This is amazing.
But the goal of 500,000 vehicles delivered in 2020 has some significance, as it has been a long-standing goal for Tesla.
In a results conference call five years ago, Elon predicted that this could happen, and many people did not believe him:
“I remain confident in about half a million cars in 2020, and perhaps being able to overcome that. This is five years from now. If you look at Tesla five years ago, we were making 600 cars a year – now we can make 600 cars in three days. So, I think moving from here to 500,000 cars a year is a much smaller leap. “
I think he might rethink his “much smaller jump” comment after the “production hell” that Tesla went through with Model 3, but the forecast is still impressive.
We often joke about Elon’s predictive ability, especially when it comes to Tesla handing over autonomous driving, but we have to give credit to those who deserve it.
Speaking of where the credit is due, congratulations to Tesla employees who worked tirelessly to reach the goal this quarter while most people were on vacation.
To Tesla shareholders out there, like me, we owe a big thanks to these employees for the wild ride that TSLA has been making in 2020.
I hope for them that 2021 will be a little more relaxed.
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