Tesla’s Year-End Push Lifts 2020 Deliveries To Musk’s Long-Sought 500,000-Unit Goal

Tesla CEO Elton Musk arrives for the Axel Springer Awards on December 1 2020 in Berlin -
Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives for the Axel Springer Awards on Dec. 1, 2020, in Berlin. BRITTA PEDERSEN-POOL/GETTY IMAGES

Tesla TSLA +1.6% closed out 2020 with a final delivery and production push that helped Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company finally deliver about 500,000 cars and crossovers to global customers, a goal the billionaire entrepreneur has been trying to achieve for years.

The carmaker reported delivering 180,570 vehicles in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, 2020, up 61% from a year ago, raising full-year deliveries to a best-ever 499,550 units. Total production for the year was 509,737, the Silicon Valley-based company said in a statement. Musk has been targeting sales of a half-million electric vehicle sales ever since Tesla purchased its Fremont, California, assembly facility from Toyota in 2010.

finviz dynamic chart for  TSLA

“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,” Musk tweeted early Saturday.

The addition of the company’s Shanghai plant, which started building Model 3 sedans in January 2020, was critical to hitting the 500,000-unit goal after the COVID-19 pandemic slowed production at both the U.S. and Chinese factories in early 2020. The company doesn’t break out detailed production information so it’s unclear how many units were built in China last year.

Musk sought to goose U.S. sales in the days of 2020, by offering customers a free three-month trial of its so-called Full Self-Driving option. The company charges customers $10,000 for the feature when purchasing new Teslas, although it isn’t yet capable of SAE Level 4 autonomous driving.

For the rest of the story: Forbes

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Stuart Turley is President and CEO of Sandstone Group, a top energy data, and finance consultancy working with companies all throughout the energy value chain. Sandstone helps both small and large-cap energy companies to develop customized applications and manage data workflows/integration throughout the entire business. With experience implementing enterprise networks, supercomputers, and cellular tower solutions, Sandstone has become a trusted source and advisor.   He is also the Executive Publisher of www.energynewsbeat.com, the best source for 24/7 energy news coverage, and is the Co-Host of the energy news video and Podcast Energy News Beat. Energy should be used to elevate humanity out of poverty. Let's use all forms of energy with the least impact on the environment while being sustainable without printing money. Stu is also a co-host on the 3 Podcasters Walk into A Bar podcast with David Blackmon, and Rey Trevino. Stuart is guided by over 30 years of business management experience, having successfully built and help sell multiple small and medium businesses while consulting for numerous Fortune 500 companies. He holds a B.A in Business Administration from Oklahoma State and an MBA from Oklahoma City University.