Target of 500,000 cars

Less than 500 cars fell short of Tesla's goal of 500,000 cars sold, which Elon Musk has been setting for the company for several years. But Tesla did deliver on Musk's production promise.

In 2020, Tesla produced 509,700 cars and managed to sell 499,550 vehicles, according to the automaker's report. The company fell short of 450 sales to deliver on a promise made by Elon Musk, who said that Tesla was capable of reaching the 500,000 vehicle sales mark in 2020.

In total, the company produced 454,900 Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers, a new series of electric cars, in 2020. Another 54,800 cars produced are earlier electric cars, Model S sedans and Model X crossovers. Of the 509,700 cars produced, 179,700 were assembled in the fourth quarter.

The company sold 57,039 Model S X series cars and 442,511 Model 3 Y cars in 2020. The total was 499,550 vehicles.

Founder Elon Musk has repeatedly cited the company's goal of reaching the 500,000 vehicles produced and sold in a year. In February 2019, the public announcement of this goal led to a scandal and a dispute involving the regulator. At the time, Musk wrote on his Twitter that Tesla planned to produce about 500,000 cars in 2019. He later clarified that he was talking about annual production volumes, while the company expects to deliver only 400,000 cars by the end of 2019. After that, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused the billionaire of violating an agreement requiring the company owner to agree with the regulator on messages for social media that could influence shareholders. Tesla only managed to sell 367,500 cars in 2019.

Plans to reach the target of 500,000 cars sold had been pushed back to 2020, but sales were affected by the pandemic.