Elon Musk celebrates record quarter for Tesla

In the last quarter of 2021, Tesla upped its previous delivery record set in last year’s third quarter.

Tesla delivered 308,600 electric vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2021, beating the previous high of 241,300 set in quarter 3. This also surpassed analyst predictions by more than 40,000 deliveries.

The quarter 4 deliveries put Tesla at 936,172 EV deliveries for the year, a sharp 87% increase from 2020 when the company had its first annual profit.

CEO Elon Musk tweeted about the first look of the quarter’s activities after they were released Sunday, celebrating his team’s work.

Also in quarter 4, Tesla produced 305,840 vehicles, though the cars had some slight adjustments.

In May, Tesla announced cars produced at the Fremont, California factory would have some technical changes, including the removal of radar sensors from Model 3 and Model Y vehicles built for North American customers. Instead, the cars use a camera-based system to enable features like automatic lane-keeping and traffic-adjusted cruise control.

Even with changes to features and a massive recall following safety reports by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla dominates the EV industry over competitors like Rivian and Ford.

Going forward, Austin will play a major role in Musk’s goal to increase the company’s vehicle sales volume to 20 million annually over the next nine years.

The long-anticipated Gigafactory in southeast Travis County, which will have public tours early this year, will soon add to production numbers, as production of the Model Y is expected to ramp up, and eventually the Cybertruck. Recently, Musk said the site, which now serves as the company’s headquarters, will generate 20,000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs, a move that would make it the largest private employer in Austin.