Tesla built and delivered 499,550 electric vehicles in 2020

It is safe to say that the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the automotive industry in 2020, with the likes of Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Mazda all reporting a 40% decline in vehicle sales.

There is however one company that managed to have quite a successful 2020, that being Tesla. The automaker set an ambitious goal at the beginning of last year, to build and deliver 500 000 vehicles in 2020, and the company almost achieved that goal.

Tesla managed to build and deliver an astonishing 499 550 electric vehicles in 2020, which represents an increase of 36% over the previous year, and is just 450 vehicles short of the 500 000 goal. The company managed to reach this milestone after it delivered 180,570 electric vehicles between October and December.

While building and delivering over 490 000 vehicles is a feat any automaker would be proud of, the achievement is even more impressive in 2020, a year where economies around the world were crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic. What’s even more impressive is the fact that Tesla’s main factory in Fremont, California was forced to close its doors for around 60-days when the mandatory stay-at-home orders were implemented.

In 2020, we produced and delivered half a million cars. Huge thanks to all those who made this possible.https://t.co/q43vz6RMhd

— Tesla (@Tesla) January 2, 2021

Despite falling short of the target, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to celebrate the milestone and thank his team at Tesla for their efforts.

“So proud of the Tesla team for achieving this major milestone! At the start of Tesla thought we had (optimistically) a 10% chance of surviving at all,” he tweeted.

Tesla intends on opening two new factories in Austin, Texas and Berlin, Germany later this year to further ramp up production numbers. This means the company could easily surpass the 499 550 vehicles benchmark set last year.

Picture: Twitter/@Tesla