Tesla just released fourth quarter vehicle production and deliveries report for 2023. Here are the key numbers:
Total deliveries Q4 2023: 484,507
Total production Q4 2023: 494,989
Total annual deliveries 2023: 1,808,581
Total annual production 2023: 1,845,985
In 2022, the Elon Musk-led automaker reported annual deliveries of 1.31 million and production of 1.37 million electric vehicles. The new numbers represent a 38% year-over-year delivery increase and a 35% year-over-year production increase. In 2022, the company reported a 40% year-over-year increase in deliveries from 2021.
In its last earnings call in October 2023, Tesla executives offered guidance that the company would post at least 1.8 million deliveries for the full year, a number they had revised down from their earlier target of 2 million.
Analysts had expected Tesla to report 477,000 deliveries for the year ended quarter, according to a consensus of estimates compiled by StreetAccount on Dec. 28. The deliveries are the closest approximation of the sales reported by Tesla, but are not precisely defined in the company’s shareholder deliveries.
During a third-quarter earnings call in October, Tesla CEO Musk said the company’s entry-level Model Y SUV is likely to “be the best-selling car on Earth, not just in revenue, but in unit volume”, for the year. Tesla does not break down delivery and production numbers by individual model, but reported combined numbers:
Tesla produced 476,777 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles during the quarter and reported 461,538 deliveries for those models. He did not break down Model S or X production or delivery numbers, but grouped them under “Other models.” It produced 18,212 other models and delivered 22,969 during the quarter.
In the final quarter of 2023, Tesla sold the facelifted, or Highland, version of the entry-level Model 3 sedan in some markets. In December, the company began deliveries of a small number of its newest EV, the angular and controversial Cybertruck, in the U.S.
Tesla did not release numbers for the Cybertruck and numbers for the Semi, the heavy-duty commercial truck it has built in small numbers so far at its battery plant outside Reno.
Tesla also cut prices throughout the last quarter of 2023 in markets around the world, a strategy to deal with what Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja had called, “a period of economic uncertainty, higher interest rates and a shift in consumer sentiment” in the company’s October earnings. call.
Tesla’s biggest competitor on the world stage, the Chinese automaker BYDsold 3.02 million new energy vehicles in 2023, of which 1.6 million were battery passenger cars and 1.4 million were hybrid electric models.
Some former and prospective Tesla customers have indicated plans to avoid buying from the company in response to Musk and his frequent, inflammatory remarks on X, formerly Twitter, the social media platform he now owns, and at other public events. In November, for example, the White House condemned Musk for promoting “anti-Semitic and racist hatred” in a series of posts on X that Musk later expressed regret for.
However, Tesla began advertising campaigns in the second half of 2023, which it previously eschewed in favor of non-traditional marketing efforts such as events, giveaways and engagements with social media influencers.
Tesla now operates two vehicle assembly plants in the U.S. and two overseas in Shanghai and Brandenburg, Germany, in addition to a battery plant in Sparks, Nevada, and other facilities where it makes parts, charging equipment and large batteries for the home or shared – scale energy storage. The company also plans to build another car plant in Nuevo León, Mexico, it announced in March.
When asked about the outlook for 2024 deliveries on the company’s latest earnings call, Musk said: “At the risk of stating the obvious, it’s not possible to have a compound growth rate of 50% forever or you’re going to exceed the mass of But I think we’re going to grow very quickly, much faster than any other car company on Earth by far.”
Taneja said at the time that Tesla was focused on “growing our volume in a very efficient way” and would provide guidance for 2024 on its next earnings call.
Tesla plans to discuss fourth quarter results on January 24, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. ET.
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