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AUTO PUNDITZ

Tesla Global Sales Statistics – 2019

Tesla sold more cars in 2019 than the previous two years combined! Tesla sold 3,67,386 units in 2019 v/s 3,48,343 units in 2017+2018 combined.

You may ask on why are we assessing Tesla’s global performance? Tesla has been the pioneer in the electric vehicle category and has outdid every traditional OEMs in terms of innovation in the past few years. Tesla is now by far the most valuable car company in America. As on Jan’20, Tesla’s market capitalization in US was a whopping $93 billion – compared to $50 billion for General Motors and $37 billion for Ford. That’s especially remarkable because GM sold around 20 times as many cars as Tesla in 2019, while Ford sold more than six times as many!

Tesla is primarily an American electric vehicle and clean energy company founded in July 2003 and is based in Palo Alto, California. The company specializes in EV manufacturing, battery energy storage from home to grid scale and, through its acquisition of SolarCity, solar panel and solar roof tile manufacturing. 2019 was special for Tesla Motors – After 11 years in the market, Tesla ranked as the world’s best-selling plug-in as well as best-selling battery electric passenger car manufacturer by cars sold in 2019, both as a brand and by automotive group, with a market share of 17% of the plug-in segment and 23% of the battery electric segment.

Tesla global vehicle sales increased 50% from 245,240 units in 2018 to 367,849 units in 2019. As per the sales statistics; it has sold near to 1 million electric cars till Q4 2020 and the year wise sales statistics is as mentioned below –

  1. Tesla sold 3,67,386 cars in 2019, a new record for the company. Sales of 3,00,703 units came from Model 3 alone; Model 3 contributed to 82% of Tesla’s volumes in 2019.

  2. The United States, China, Netherlands and Norway have long been the biggest markets for Tesla’s electric cars.

  3. Tesla sold 2,450 units of Roadster between 2008 and 2012. It started selling Model S post 2012. Later Tesla launched the Model 3 (originally stylized as “☰”), a four-door sedan, and is Tesla’s third-generation car. Tesla also had Model X & Y in its portfolio.

  4. Tesla sold 1,78,190 units in United States alone; ie US contributes to 49% of Tesla’s global sales. The Model 3 was by far the most popular all-electric car in the United States in 2019 –


Let us see how Tesla’s sales have grown exponentially over the years –

However aggressive Tesla’s sales growth has been – Tesla never had a profitable year till date! Although, it has had several individually profitable quarters, most recently the quarters ending September 2018, December 2018, September 2019, and December 2019. Tesla is targeting market share rather than profits in the mid-term. In Q3 2019, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he’d like to capture 1% of global automotive sales, but didn’t say when he expected to achieve that goal.

We would also want to highlight Tesla’s unique business model –

Tesla’s sales strategy is to sell its vehicles online and in company owned showrooms rather than through a conventional dealer network. Moving towards an e-commerce strategy, customers are able to customize and order their vehicles online. In US; Tesla operates stores and galleries which are usually located in shopping malls. However, customers buy vehicles only from the Tesla website. Tesla’s strategy of direct customer sales and owning stores and service centers is different from the standard dealership model in the global vehicle marketplace. Tesla is also the first automaker that sells cars directly to consumers.

General Trivia – 

Musk wanted the first three models to spell “SEX”, but Ford owns the trademark to “Model E”, so he settled for “S3XY” by making the Model Y.

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