Tesla announced during the 2023 Investor Day on March 1, 2023 that its cumulative production reached four million electric vehicles.
The jubilee vehicle happens to be a Tesla Model Y, produced at the Giga Texas factory, where the event was held.
The company released also a short video with employees celebrating the new milestone:
According to Tesla, it took 12 years to produce the first million electric vehicles. We reported about the millionth Tesla EV in Spring 2020. Let’s recall that the first generation Tesla Roadster entered production and sales in 2008.
Since then, Tesla increased production and sales every year. As of the end of 2022, the company produced more than 3.7 million units cumulatively.
The latest million (from 3 to 4 million units) took seven months, indicating an average production rate of more than 1.7 million units annually. That’s a lot more than nearly 1.3 million produced in 2022. This year, Tesla might be able to produce 1.8 million units and some expect that even 2 million units are possible.
Well, the official report is that the installed annual vehicle capacity at four plants (California, China, Germany and Texas) is more than 1.9 million units.
In the long term, Tesla intends to significantly expand manufacturing capacity at existing plants and build multiple new gigafactories around the world (the latest project is in Mexico). In effect, the production rate is expected to increase to 20 million units per year, which would roughly double the volume achieved by the largest automotive groups.
An interesting thing is that while the volume is expected to increase significantly, Tesla does not intend to flood the market with a high number of model types. One of the graphics hints at some new EVs under cover – probably a large SUV/van and a high-volume next-generation model (aside from the second-generation Roadster), but that’s all, it seems.
As far as we understand, Tesla would like to focus on several projects (not too many options/versions) and produce each in the highest possible number for simplicity, manufacturing efficiency and cost-saving purposes.
