Defying supply constraints that have plagued the automobile industry for large parts of 2021, Tesla reported a steep increase in vehicle deliveries over the past twelve months. The electric car maker delivered 308,600 cars to customers in Q4 2021, smashing its previous record of 241,300 vehicles delivered in the preceding quarter. For the full year, Tesla’s deliveries jumped 87 percent year-over-year reaching 936,000 vehicles, which is towards the higher end of the 840,000 to 1,000,000 target range given at the beginning of the year.
In a year recently described by Elon Musk as a “supply chain nightmare”, Tesla profited from its software-driven approach to car manufacturing enabling it to rewrite software in order to use alternative chips in its vehicles according to Musk. The company also benefitted from its more integrated supply chain compared to traditional car makers, giving it more control, better supply-chain visibility and more direct relationships with key suppliers, i.e. chipmakers.
As the following chart shows, Tesla’s deliveries grew almost tenfold over the past five years. An achievement that seemed unthinkable when the first Model 3 rolled off the assembly line in July 2017.
