Tesla presented its production and delivery figures for the fourth quarter of 2022 and the whole of 2022. With 439,701 electric cars produced and 405,278 delivered, the fourth quarter constitutes a new record.
For the whole of 2022, Tesla reports 1,369,611 vehicles produced and 1,313,851 delivered: this is the first time that the million mark has been crossed. The Giga Factory in Berlin, where the Model Y is assembled, and that of Texas are no strangers to these results since the first began delivering in March 2022 and the second in April of the same year.
Already in 2021, Tesla had narrowly missed reaching the one million car mark with 930,422 vehicles produced and 936,172 delivered. This latest figure was an 87% increase from the 499,550 Teslas delivered in 2020. With more than 1,300,000 cars currently delivered, the figure is still climbing by 40%, and production is up by 47%. Note, however, that Tesla is doing less well than the objectives initially displayed. Elon Musk had set himself the goal of increasing sales by 50% on average each year, and thought he would achieve this by 2022.
A decline in growth
Tesla also saw a decline in growth over 2022, in part due to the Covid-19 epidemic in China. Between the first and second quarters of 2022, the growth curve has indeed experienced a dip (310,048 cars produced in Q1 compared to 258,580 vehicles in Q2) due to persistent problems in the supply chain and the temporary closure of the Shanghai factory. In the third quarter, the records already reached of 365,923 cars produced and 343,830 delivered are therefore exceeded by those of the fourth quarter.
The Model 3 and Model Y represent the vast majority of sales. Indeed, only 20,613 Model S and Model X were produced, and 17,147 sold. The Model 3 and Model Y represented 419,088 units built for 388,131 delivered. So even without international Model S and Model X deliveries, that would have been enough for a new quarterly record. However, note that the delta between production and delivery highlights significant logistical problems for the manufacturer. The latter indeed announces to continue “its transition to a more balanced regional mix of vehicle productions, which again led to a further increase in cars in transit at the end of the quarter”. Some analysts also see it as a sign of falling demand.
Last but not least, Tesla shares saw their value plummet by 65% in 2022. A tumble which is partly explained by the development of competitors who are eating away at more and more market share in the electric car segment. But also by the concern of investors who see Elon Musk turning away from Tesla in favor of Twitter, bought this year for 44 billion dollars. The rise in interest rates and the economic context are also not unrelated to this devaluation of the title.