Tesla delivered nearly 1 million vehicles in 2021, almost twice as many as the previous year, the United States electric carmaker said Sunday, far exceeding estimates and riding out global chip shortages as it ramped up China production.
Led by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, Tesla delivered a record 936,000 cars of all models in 2021, up 87% from its 2020 delivery count, the company said in a statement.
The company, which recently moved its headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas, sold 911,208 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles as well as 24,964 vehicles of its luxury S and X models (at a price of $90,000 and $100,000, respectively).
The Austin, Texas-based electric vehicle company on Sunday reported record quarterly deliveries that far exceeded Wall Street estimates.
It was the sixth consecutive quarter that the world’s most valuable automaker posted record deliveries.
Tesla delivered 308,600 vehicles in the fourth quarter, far higher than analysts’ forecasts of 263,026 vehicles.
Its October-December deliveries were up about 70% from a year earlier and nearly 30% higher from record deliveries the preceding quarter.
‘Jaw-dropping’
"Great work by Tesla team worldwide!" Musk wrote on Twitter.
His electric car company ramped up production in China even though competition rose and regulatory pressure mounted following consumer complaints about product safety.
Tesla ships China-made models to Europe and some Asian countries.
Musk said in October last year that Tesla will be able to maintain an annual growth rate of more than 50% for "quite a while."
Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said the numbers are "jaw-dropping" given the ongoing global chip shortage affecting the automotive industry.
Ives noted that the production increase was likely boosted by growing demand from car buyers in China, as well as broader enthusiasm for electric vehicles.
New factories
"They have beaten all the odds," Gene Munster, managing partner at venture capital firm Loup Ventures, said on Sunday.
"The first is the demand for their products is through the roof. And the second is they're doing a great job of meeting that demand," he said.
Munster said he expected Tesla’s deliveries to grow to 1.3 million vehicles this year despite headwinds in production at its new factories and supply chain problems.
Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn said in October that it was difficult to predict how quickly the company will be able to boost production at new factories in Texas and Berlin, which will use new vehicle technologies and new teams.
Tesla said in October that it aimed to build its first production cars at both facilities by the end of 2021, but it is not known whether it met that target. Its Berlin factory had initially been scheduled to begin production last summer.
Deutsche Bank said in a report on Friday that it expected Tesla to make nearly 1.5 million vehicle deliveries this year, although chip shortages remain a risk to production.
‘Super crazy’ shortages
In 2020, automakers cut chip orders as the pandemic and lockdown measures hit demand. But Tesla never reduced its production forecast with suppliers to support its rapid growth plan, which helped it weather the chip shortage, Musk has said.
Tesla, which designs some chips in-house unlike most automakers, also reprogrammed software to use less scarce chips, according to Musk.
Musk, who previously said, "2021 has been the year of super crazy supply chain shortages," said in October that he was optimistic that those issues would pass in 2022.
The strong sales came even after Tesla hiked U.S. vehicle prices sharply this year to offset higher supply chain costs.
Tesla hit over $1 trillion in market capitalization in October after rental car company Hertz said it ordered 100,000 of its vehicles. The company’s shares lost some ground after Musk wrote on Twitter in November that he was considering selling 10% of his stake in Tesla. Overall, Tesla shares gained 50% last year.
Tesla, however, finds itself under scrutiny from the auto regulator National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is probing its autopilot system over safety concerns.
The automaker has also agreed to update its software to prevent drivers from playing video games on the car’s system while the vehicle is in motion, following a government safety investigation.