A Year Of Victories: Tesla Reaches The 1 Million Mark

Although it comes a year later than planned, Tesla can finally say that it has passed the “million-car made and delivered” milestone. The figures for the last quarter of 2022 were simply spectacular.

Throughout the year we have been able to see how the sales figures steadily approached the million units record. In the absence of a few thousand at the end of last quarter, the usual push at the end of the year raised the final figures, for a 2022 that will go down in history for being the year in which Tesla reached, for the first time, a seven-digit volume of deliveries . Annual growth has reached an amazing 47%, and all this in a year marked by highly unstable markets, among many other problems.

2022 was literally a roller coaster for the Austin company. They started the year in a very positive way: more than 310,000 deliveries in the first quarter showed that this was going to be the year of the million cars. Although there have been no major innovations in the fleet, the company has grown considerably in other fields, such as production. Last March, and just a couple of weeks apart, Tesla inaugurated the Gigafactory Berlin, the first on European soil, and the Giga-Texas in Austin, which ended up becoming its official headquarters.

With more productive muscle, Tesla boasts some of the busiest assembly factories in the world. Led by the Shanghai Gigafactory, a small pause due to China's zero COVID policies put the annual target in jeopardy; however today the Chinese Gigafactory is the most powerful of the entire productive network of the company and one of the largest in the world. Giga Shanghai alone has been in charge of feeding to a large extent the annual balance of 1,369,611 cars produced, the vast majority corresponding to the Model 3 and Model Y.

More specifically, the family access models accounted for 1,298,434 units in all of 2022, which represents 94.8% of the total number of cars produced. The most expensive models, the Tesla Model S and Model X, accounted for 71,177 units. Looking at the sales column, we can see how Tesla actually sold less than it manufactured, something completely normal in the car industry. Dealers closed the year with a total of 1,313,851 registered vehicles. Once again the Model 3 and Model Y monopolized almost all sales with 1,247,146 units, making up a 94.92% overall.

In just a couple of weeks, Tesla will take a deeper look at what the year 2022 meant for the company. Although no one can deny the positive effect of sales, great results are actually not expected at a financial level: in the past 12 months the company lost 65% of its value on the stock market. At the beginning of January, Tesla shares were trading at a $400 limit, while as of today the title barely reaches $123. A substantial deterioration that has been caused, to a large extent, by the wayward attitude of its CEO, according to experts in the filed. The tycoon has allegedly had too many open fronts, and although the year was not bad, the markets do not see so much distraction with good eyes.

The 2023 financial year is apparently expected to be very similar to 2022. The company´s EV gamut will not change much, although very important innovations are expected, such as the commercial launch of the Tesla Cybertruck: the electric pick-up will be presented at some point in the first semester. Production will start within that time frame and although a very high volume is not expected at first, the very high number of reservations encourages analysts in general to be positive. It remains to be seen if Tesla comes up with some hidden secret, like some affordable compact (the Model C or Model 2, whatever the final name will be) that has been rumored for several years now.

For now, we can only say that the million cars produced and delivered will remain for a long time in the annals of the history of Tesla. It will undoubtedly be remembered as the golden year in which the company was able to reach a seven-digit figure in terms of manufactured and sold vehicles, something extraordinary considering the very first vehicles only began to be manufactured and sold in 2008.

All images courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.