Tesla had a massive year in 2021, with almost 1 million electric cars delivered, a record for the company.
The popular American EV company has reported its figures for the last quarter of 2021, and there couldn’t have been a better conclusion to the year. Tesla delivered 308,600 units, doing better than the previous quarter. That quarter saw Tesla delivering 241,300 EVs globally, making it the best quarter ever as of then.
With the figures for the last quarter, total delivery for the year stood at 936,172, representing an 87 increase over 2020, when it shipped 499,647.
This means Tesla beat its own goal of a fifty percent year-on-year increase in production. Tesla also handily beat Wall Street estimates that expected 267,000 deliveries in the third quarter and 897,000 for the whole year.
Most of the delivery was made up by the Model 3 and Model Y, with the two accounting for 296,850 units in the last quarter and 911,208 units for the whole year. The remaining 3 percent is made up of the more expensive Model S and Model X.
The year had been a memorable one for Tesla, with the company facing the same chip shortage that the rest of the industry faced. However, Tesla was able to navigate the crises better than its competitors. Tesla quickly rewrote its software to work on another kind of chip.
The factory in Shanghai also stepped up production, quickly becoming a hub for its global operations. The factory shipped cars to Europe, although that will no longer be necessary as Tesla’s new German plant becomes operational.
Although the CEO would later claim there was no such order, Tesla also secured an order for 100,000 units of Model 3 from the car-rental company Hertz. However, the news was enough to send the company’s stock soaring, helping Tesla to attain a $1 trillion valuation for the first time.
The company also made hardware changes to its cars by eliminating radar sensors. Instead, Tesla cars will rely on cameras for their driver-assist features.
Tesla is expected to start producing at least two new models this year. One of them is the Tesla Semi, a Class 8 truck rumored to begin delivering this month. The other model is the Cybertruck, an electric pickup truck, although full production might wait until 2023. Both models will use the new 4680 battery.