Tesla has officially built 5,000 examples of the Model Y at its factory in Texas for the very first time. In doing so, it joins Tesla’s site in Berlin, Germany as the second of its factories to be building 5,000 Model Ys per week. To put that in perspective, Lucid expects to build around 10,000 EVs this year – up from 7,180 in 2022.
The Californian EV manufacturer has long aimed to build 5,000 Model Ys each week in Texas but hitting that target has proved more difficult in Texas than it was in Berlin. This is because some of the Model Ys being built in Texas are equipped with the company’s new 4680 battery cells and have the brand’s innovative structural battery pack chassis design.
It is not clear how many of the Model Ys being assembled in Texas have the older 2170 cells and how many use the 4680 cells. Nevertheless, increased production numbers should help Tesla boost gross margins on the Model Y.
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The jump in production will also help Tesla keep up with demand for the Model Y. This comes shortly after it was reported that the Model Y may have been the third best-selling new vehicle in the world last year.
Data from JATO Dynamics indicates that Tesla sold some 747,000 examples of the Model Y last year, placing it behind the Toyota Corolla with 992,000 units sold and the Toyota RAV4 with approximately 1,016,000 units sold. If these figures are accurate, that means the Tesla Model Y outsold the Honda CR-V (733,000), Toyota Camry (673,000), Toyota Hilux (632,000), and the Nissan Sentra which saw sales of 566,000 units. However, it’s worth noting that these figures aren’t set in stone as JATO only analyzes sales data from 53 countries while making estimations for 95 other markets.
