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Tesla sells record 500,000 cars globally in 2020

The electric car specialist’s global sales fell just shy of the half-a-million mark, but it produced 509,000 vehicles. Both figures are annual records for the brand.


Electric car specialist Tesla has fallen just shy of 500,000 sales globally for 2020, however the tally of 499,550 deliveries and a production run of 509,737 are both records for the brand.

Buoyed by the Tesla Model 3 sedan, its most affordable vehicle to date, Tesla posted its eighth year in a row of growth, more than doubling its output and sales in just two years (see table below).

On social media platform Twitter, Tesla boss Elon Musk said: “So proud of the Tesla team for achieving this major milestone! At the start of Tesla, I thought we had (optimistically) a 10 per cent chance of surviving at all.”

The company is expecting to continue to grow its sales globally as the Tesla Model Y small SUV ramps up in 2021, after the company expanded its production footprint to include China, to supplement its current California factory.

According to a report by the news agency Reuters, Tesla plans to sell cars in India from this year and might build an assembly line there eventually.

Tesla does not disclose its sales figures locally, however a report by Carsales.com.au in January 2020 revealed the car maker had shipped 3793 vehicles to Australia in 2019 and that its running total at the time had eclipsed 7000 sales since the first Tesla Roadster arrived here in 2012.

Tesla is understood to have delivered close to 5000 cars in Australia in 2020, though the figures will not become available until NEVDIS data is updated later this month. 

Unlike most other car companies in Australia, Tesla does not provide sales figures to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, which publishes monthly reports.

Excluding Tesla, sales of electric cars remain minuscule in Australia, representing approximately 1600 (or 0.2 per cent) of the 800,000 new vehicles reported as sold in the first 11 months of 2020. 

YearTesla global sales, change from prior yearVehicles produced
2020499,550, up 36 per centModel S, Model X, Model 3, Model Y
2019367,500, up 50 per centModel S, Model X, Model 3
2018245,240, up 138 per centModel S, Model X, Model 3
2017103,120, up 35 per centModel S, Model X, Model 3
201676,230, up 51 per centModel S, Model X
201550,557, up 60 per centModel S
201431,655, up 41 per centModel S
201322,477, up 625 per centModel S
20123100Model S, Roadster (2008 to 2012)
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Joshua Dowling

Joshua Dowling has been a motoring journalist for more than 20 years, spending most of that time working for The Sydney Morning Herald (as motoring editor and one of the early members of the Drive team) and News Corp Australia. He joined CarAdvice / Drive in 2018, and has been a World Car of the Year judge for more than 10 years.

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