Tesla announced yesterday (January 2) to have delivered nearly one million vehicles in 2021, which in practice means almost double the sales compared to 2020. This result turned out to be even better than expected, despite the global supply difficulties. Tesla has delivered more than 936.000 cars of all its models in the price list in 2021, with an increase 87.4% compared to the previous year. The US manufacturer is therefore doing much better than the target announced last January of increasing deliveries by an average of 50% per year for several years.
The group, which has chosen to move its headquarters from Palo Alto in California to Austin in Texas, it sold 911,208 units of its 3 and Y models and 24,964 vehicles of the “luxurious” S and X which have a cost starting from 50 thousand and 112 thousand euros respectively).
In the fourth quarter alone, 308,600 cars were delivered, an increase of 0.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Earlier this year, in the second quarter, Tesla had crossed the threshold of 200,000 cars delivered for the first time, reaching the figure of 201,250 vehicles. If these numbers are confirmed, but there is no compelling reason why they are not, Tesla will break through the milestone of 1 million vehicles delivered in early 2022.
Tesla’s extraordinary achievement is somehow certified by the research firm IHS Market which estimates that the automotive sector could produce only 3% more cars worldwide than the black crisis year of 2020, and even the 19% less than in 2019. Number which, according to what was announced yesterday, they don’t seem to touch Elon Musk’s house.
Tesla’s 2021 record sales were not affected by the chip shortage
Tesla has managed to evade the global logistics problems that have plagued the entire auto industry. Elon Musk had previously claimed that he was able to get around much of the semiconductor shortage by using new chip designs and rewriting the software accordingly. In October, Tesla received a mega order for 100,000 electric vehicles from Hertz rental company, which will be delivered by the end of 2022. This announcement has brought the automaker into the very exclusive club of companies that are worth more than $ 1 trillion on the stock market.
Tesla’s astronomical estimate has allowed not only the “believers” of the first hour, but also Elon Musk himself to collect part of their profits. The rise in the value of Tesla’s shares made Musk the richest person in the world with an estimated fortune of 270 billion dollars.
Normally, along with the annual results for 2021, an update of Tesla product launches follows, most notably the Cybertruck announced more than two years ago, but regularly postponed. The production of the more “classic” models, primarily the entry level Model 3, should receive a further boost in 2022 from the start-up of new plants in Germany – near Berlin – and in Texas.