Historical Milestone: Tesla Reaches Three Million EVs Manufactured Since 2013

If we stick to the production of other heavy weights in the industry such as Volkswagen, Toyota or Ford, Tesla's figures are rather humble - to say the least -, but if we look in perspective we see an impressive progression that has not been seen in the automotive sector for a very long time. In just 18 years of history Tesla now reaches the impressive figure of three million units produced; a special milestone that will soon come to nothing in the face of the prospects that Tesla actually plans for the future.

During the Tesla shareholders meeting held last week, Elon Musk announced the special moment with great fanfare: three million EV units produced since 2004. Although the first years passed in an almost flat way in terms of production - manufacturing only about 2,500 units of the 1st generation Tesla Roadster - the big explosion came with the launch of the Tesla Model S, back in 2013. Since then the Fremont company, now based in Austin - Texas, has raised their numbers to exceed any expectations.

The thing is that during the first years of the company almost nobody actually gave a penny for Tesla. Elon Musk was on the edge of the precipice many times, for a long time, but he did not give up on his efforts. His vision was very clear: to produce quality electric cars to show that electric mobility is possible. 18 years after its founding, Tesla has reached a point of clear market dominance: as of today, nobody manufactures more electric cars than Tesla; although that may not be actually the most important thing that the company has achieved during these years.

Without a doubt Tesla´s great milestone does not lie in its three million manufactured EV units, which are insignificant as compared with the figures of other large, legacy automakers; the great achievement of the company is to have actually changed and disrupted the whole car industry. Today large legacy car companies are basically trying to catch up with Tesla, although so far they have clearly not succeeded. Not many people can say that they have changed the world, but as a matter of fact Tesla workers actually have: its electric cars are today the standard that everyone wants to imitate, although after so many years they have not yet achieved it.

Elon Musk knows that his rule is probably nearing its end, in some ways: Tesla knows that it cannot fight against the tremendous productive arsenal of other – older, well established legacy - brands, but it does not actually matter. Its overall market share is falling at the same rate as new rivals are emerging, but the company's plans are very different: the goal is to reach a production rate of 2 million cars by the end of this year. This year 2022 will set a milestone for the general EV figures worlwide. The key and most important question is what will happen in the next 10 years.

Some good highlights in case you missed the meeting https://t.co/Ef7kb1AICm— TESBROS (@teslabros) August 5, 2022

Elon Musk is confident in his master plan; ramping up production to a whole new level is the next big step, and Musk himself has stated that "… I would be surprised if we don't exceed 100 million cars in the next 10 years". Only time will tell, although the course of events seems to point in that direction. With the goal of producing 20 million electric cars by 2030, Tesla Gigafactories will have to work at a hellish pace to be able to achieve it. As for the present and future Giga-Factories, as mentioned before, we will soon know the location of the next one, although everything seems to indicate that it will be finally placed in Canada (Giga-Ontario??).

Also See: Musk Just Sold Massive Amount of Tesla Shares Nicely Timing His Sale.

Source: insideEvs

All images courtesy of Tesla Inc.

Nico Caballero is the VP of Finance of Cogency Power, specializing in solar energy. He also holds a Diploma in Electric Cars from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and enjoys doing research about Tesla and EV batteries. He can be reached at @NicoTorqueNews on Twitter. Nico covers Tesla and electric vehicle latest happenings at Torque News.