American electric vehicle company Tesla said on Sunday it delivered 308, 600 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2021, marking a single quarter record-breaker that CEO Elon Musk attributed to the hard work of the company’s employees worldwide.
The Q4 delivery, which took Tesla’s total for the full year to 936,172 delivered vehicles, an 87% increase compared with 2020 when it reported its first annual profit on deliveries of 499,647.
The leading EV automaker produced 305,840 fully electric vehicles total in the fourth quarter of 2021, defying production hindrances presented by global chip shortage. Tesla Shares jumped more than 7% in premarket trading Monday.
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Compared with the previous quarters in 2021, the overall production and output for Tesla beat expectations, setting new records. Tesla reached its previous best quarter of 241,300 vehicles in the third quarter of 2021.
According to a consensus compiled by FactSet, quoted by CNBC, Wall Street analysts had expected Tesla to deliver 267,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter and 897,000 vehicles for all of 2021.
CNBC analyzed below the impact of sales of Tesla models on the overall annual growth.
Tesla combines delivery numbers for its higher-priced Model S and X vehicles, and lower-priced Model 3 and Y vehicles. The company does not break out sales or production numbers by region.
Deliveries of its flagship Model S sedan and Model X falcon wing SUV represented just under 3% of Tesla’s total deliveries in 2021. Model 3 and Model Y deliveries amounted to 296,850 in the final quarter of 2021, and 911,208 for the full year.
Tesla makes Model 3 and Model Y vehicles at its factory in Shanghai and in Fremont, California, but only produces the Model X and S in Fremont.
Tesla’s magic wand
Like every other automaker, Tesla was greatly impacted by the global chip shortage that forced many of them to shut down production. Musk had at Tesla’s 2021 annual shareholder meeting, expressed concern about pandemic-induced supply chain challenges that made it difficult to obtain enough microchips.
However, unlike other companies forced to curtail production or shut down at some point, Tesla devised a means to beat the challenge.
“Throughout the second year of a global coronavirus pandemic, Tesla was able to increase vehicle deliveries by ramping up production at its first overseas factory in Shanghai, and by making technical changes to the cars that it produces in Fremont, California, so that it could ditch some parts altogether,” CNBC said.
A notable example of Tesla’s prodigious maneuver was in the removing of radar sensors from Model 3 and Model Y vehicles built for customers in North America. The decision was announced in May. According to CNBC, those cars now rely on a camera-based system to enable Tesla’s driver assistance features such as traffic-adjusted cruise control or automatic lane-keeping.
While the pandemic remains a big challenge to production and global supply chain, Tesla’s unprecedented growth in 2021 sets it on the path of uninterrupted growth.
Musk said he hopes to increase Tesla’s production to 20 million vehicles annually over the next nine years. His push to achieve that aim is seen in the expansion of Tesla’s factory to Texas, where the company is planning to start the production of the Model Y this year. There is also the Berlin-Germany giga-factory, which the EV leader hopes will serve as a base for its competition with European rivals.
Tesla’s global EV leadership is expected to be greatly challenged this year as more automakers join the net-zero emission cause. Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen and others are all gearing up for production. By 2030, about 24% of new vehicles sold worldwide are likely to be fully electric, according to forecasts from Alix Partners.
Governments in Europe and the US are enacting pro-green legislations, encouraging more companies to make a switch to electric vehicles. But it will take more than a few years for other companies to catch up with Tesla. Deutsche Bank says that Tesla’s strong fourth-quarter deliveries may signal a big year ahead.