- Tesla now just wants to sell as many of its products “as possible”
- Toyota is the world’s best-selling car brand with roughly 10 million vehicles sold in 2023
- Tesla’s sales plummeted by 20% in Q1 compared to Q4 2023
Tesla no longer seems determined to sell 20 million vehicles annually by 2030, leaving out the long-touted goal from its latest impact report.
In 2020, Elon Musk made the audacious claim that within a decade, the electric car manufacturer could be selling 20 million vehicles every year. That would be double the number of cars that Toyota sells annually and was a claim dismissed by many. However, it seemed to be a goal the firm was taking seriously and not just another one of Musk’s off-the-cuff dreams. In its 2021 and 2022 impact reports, Tesla reiterated the goal.
Watch: Elon Musk Isn’t Sure If Tesla Will Build 10 Million Or 20 Million Vehicles Each Year
However, Tesla’s 2023 impact report, there is no mention of the ambitious 20-million-sales target, simply saying its “goal is to displace fossil fuels by selling as many Tesla products as possible.”
Elon Musk himself has seemed a little unsure of the sales target in early 2022. Tesla’s boss told a crowd that Tesla’s best-case scenario for production would be 10 million vehicles annually. Moments later, he added that an aggressive goal would be for the company to sell 20 million cars annually by 2030 as if there isn’t a major discrepancy between 10 million and 20 million.
Last year, Tesla sold 1.8 million vehicles globally. This was a record for the manufacturer but things have got off to a shaky start in 2024. In Q1, Tesla delivered just 386,810 vehicles, an 8.5% drop from Q1 2023 and a 20.2% decline in deliveries from Q4 2023. That’s bad news for a company with such ambitious production and sales goals.
Reuters suggests Tesla may be shifting focus from selling as many electric vehicles as possible to focusing on robotaxis. The company plans to make an announcement about its robotaxi project on August 8.
