Tesla delivered 499,550 vehicles in 2020, a 36% increase from the previous year and just a few dozen less than hitting a historic and long-awaited milestone that CEO Elon Musk has been aiming for for more than five years.
Tesla Saturday reported that it produced 509,737 electric vehicles in 2020.
Tesla was able to meet the 500,000-vehicle goal by increasing production and sales in the fourth quarter, a final push that mirrored several other end-of-quarter efforts from the company. Tesla delivered 180,570 in the fourth quarter, setting a new quarterly record and 30% more than the previous quarter.
The company's production and sales figures were also driven by the launch of the Model Y, its midsize SUV, and a new factory coming to China.
Fourth quarter and annual data show rising demand for its cheapest and newest models and declining interest in the Model S sedan and flagship Model X SUV. The company delivered 18,920 Model S and Model X vehicles in the fourth quarter and 57,039 for the year. Sales of the Model 3 and Model Y reached nearly 162,000 in the fourth quarter and 442,511 in the year. Tesla does not expose sales figures for each model, but combines its older vehicles in one bucket and its newer Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in another. The company also does not provide regional sales data.
Manufacturing and selling over 500,000 vehicles a year seemed unattainable for Tesla just a handful of years ago. But Musk has a bullish view of the company, noting in 2015 that he remained confident Tesla would produce half a million cars in 2020.
"It's been five years from now," Musk said at the time. "If you spent five years at Tesla, we were producing 600 cars a year, now we can produce 600 cars in three days. So I think going from here to 500,000 cars a year is a much smaller step."
Musk periodically reiterated that goal, including in January last year, when he noted that deliveries should confidently exceed 500,000 units. Tesla didn't change that prediction even as the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the economy and forced the company, along with all other automakers, to temporarily suspend production for several weeks last spring.
