Despite supply-chain issues affecting the entire auto industry, Tesla claims robust 2021 deliveries came close the million-vehicle mark.
Tesla delivered a record 936,172 vehicles in 2021, according to a company financial report, up from 499,550 vehicles in 2020 and 367,500 in 2019, when Tesla's manufacturing footprint only effectively included its California plant (a Shanghai, China, factory has ramped up production since then).
The automaker delivered 308,600 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2021 alone, up from 241,300 deliveries in the third quarter. The Model S and Model X represented 11,750 of those deliveries, while the Model 3 and Model Y totaled 296,850 deliveries.
The Model 3 and Model Y also made up the vast majority of deliveries for the entire year at 911,208 units, compared to 24,964 Model S and Model X deliveries.
Tesla Model Y
This growth came in the context of chip shortages that caused many automakers to slow down deliveries. Tesla said at one point that it had rewritten software to minimize the impact of the shortage.
With production at the factories in Texas and Germany not yet started at the end of 2021, the brand looks poised for great gains in 2022.
Located in Grueneide, near Berlin, the German factory is expected to build cars for the European market, although Tesla may have scrapped plans to make batteries onsite as well, according to a 2021 report.
Tesla confirmed in July 2020 that it had selected a site near Austin, Texas, for its second United States assembly plant. At the time, CEO Elon Musk said the Texas plant would assemble the Model 3 and Model Y for the eastern half of North America, as well as the planned Cybertruck and Semi. In 2021, Tesla also moved its headquarters from California to Texas, as Musk declared in 2020.
