Tesla 2020 deliveries beat estimates, but fall short of target
- by Nick Cohen
- in Industry
- — Jan 3, 2021
The delivery number was above Wall Street's estimates but still came slightly short of its annual goal of delivering 500,000 vehicles.
The quarterly delivery figure is widely seen as a barometer of demand for both Tesla's vehicles and consumer interest in electric vehicles worldwide.
Tesla's share price has risen more than 700 percent over the previous year, the company has reported five consecutive quarterly profits, and it was included in the S&P 500 index in December.
In December, we also reported Tesla has significantly increased its delivery schedule and price of the Model S and Model X to Europe in March.
The company's shares rallied 743% past year.
Analysts also predicted Tesla would meet its sales goal for the year, which further buoyed the company's shares in the waning days of 2020. The push largely depended on increased output from its Chinese plant and higher output in the USA of the newest vehicle in its lineup: the Model Y. But later the company told workers at the Fremont, California, plant that the Model S and X production lines would be shut down from December 24 until January 11, meaning most of the demand was for the Model 3 small auto and Model Y small SUV. Those two carmakers and others are preparing to flood the nascent EV market with dozens of battery-powered models over the next five years. Both are expected to start production later this year, joining its existing vehicle-assembly facilities in Fremont, California, and Shanghai.
As you can see, the vehicle features several changes including a wider body, a new rear diffuser, a chrome deletion on most trims, new headlights, and maybe even some slightly updated wheels - although they look very similar to the Arachnid wheels found on Tesla.
To reach 500,000, Tesla would have had to shatter the record and deliver 181,650 vehicles from October to December.
Still, Musk took to his Twitter account on Saturday and cast the news as a big win for the company, writing, "So proud of the Tesla team for achieving this major milestone! At the start of Tesla, I thought we had (optimistically) a 10% chance of surviving at all", Musk said in a tweet.
