Tesla certainly managed to generate its share of attention and then some in 2019. But beyond the noise and the adventures and foibles of company founder Elon Musk, the company made enormous progress this past year in terms of actually producing vehicles.
The year-end numbers show that the California-based EV maker delivers 367,500 vehicles in 2019, a remarkable 50% increase in comparison with 2018. That’s short of the objective the company gave itself at the beginning of 2019, but given that it produced a record 112,000 units in the last quarter of the year, it seems very plausible that it will break through that barrier this year.
What’s more, the new Tesla plant in Shanghai, China is now operational, and in fact it has already built a first 1,000 units there in its first week of operation. Add to that the fact that the Model Y is scheduled to debut in the coming months, and it seem a safe bet that the company will set new records before 2020 is out.
As for the Model 3, it continues on its merry way, with 92,550 units sold in Q4 2019 (out of the 112,000 total).
It’s hard to imagine at this point what could slow down Tesla’s progress. However, many will be watching the company’s results closely over the next year, if only because the established automakers will finally start introducing to the market EVs that can compete directly with those carrying the Tesla badge. That will represent an important test for the maverick automaker.
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