Tesla delivers nearly 500,000 vehicles in 2020

The company’s production and sales figures were also driven by the launch of the Model Y, its mid-sized SUV, and a new factory coming online in China.

The fourth quarter and annual figures show the rise in demand for its more affordable and newer models and waning interest in its flagship Model S sedan and Model X SUV.

The company delivered 18,920 Model S and Model X vehicles in the fourth quarter and 57,039 for the year. Sales of the Model 3 and Model Y, the new mid-sized SUV, hit nearly 162,000 in the fourth quarter and 442,511 for the year.

Producing and selling more than 500,000 vehicles a year seemed unreachable for Tesla just a handful of years ago. But Musk has taken a bullish view of the company, noting in 2015 that he remained confident that Tesla would be producing half a million cars in 2020.

“That’s five years from now,” Musk said at the time. “If you go five years in the past for Tesla, we were producing 600 cars per year—now we can produce 600 cars in three days. So I think going from here to 500,000 cars a year is a much smaller leap.”

Musk has reiterated that target periodically, including in January of last year when he noted that deliveries should comfortably exceed 500,000 units. Tesla didn’t adjust that forecast even as the COVID-19 pandemic upended the economy and forced the company, along with every other automaker, to temporarily pause production for several weeks last spring.

Image Credits: Screenshot/Tesla