While the EV transition might actually be taking place slower than it seems, manufacturers around the globe are setting big goals. Tesla started that trend, and now, as many question whether or not the Texas-based company can keep its lead, it’s setting big goals for the near and long term, the first of which is to have a 2 million car production rate by the end of this year.
That’s no small number. Volkswagen, which is one of Tesla‘s biggest rivals, has a goal of producing 1.5 million EVs in 2025. Ford hopes to build 2 million EVs per year by 2026 and General Motors says that it wants to make 1 million by 2025. Tesla might have had a head start but building 2 million cars this year is definitely noteworthy.
The announcement came at the brand’s 2022 annual meeting of shareholders where CEO Elon Musk said that “If all goes as planned, we will be exiting 2022 at a 2 million annual run rate,” per Automotive News. Of course, things going “as planned” isn’t by any means a sure thing. Musk himself also acknowledged that the brand has had to make several changes due to variables like inflation that could not be anticipated.
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Robyn Denholm, Chair of Tesla’s board, went even further into the future with big goals for the automaker. She reiterated a previous commitment that the brand made to build 20 million cars per year by 2030. That, admittedly ambitious, target would very likely keep Tesla at the forefront of the EV segment.
Part of the plan to accomplish such a bold goal is to use what Musk says is a very unique manufacturing process. Tools like the “Giga Press”, a machine that cast a huge single piece of aluminum instead of using numerous parts held together with welds, are just one part of the strategy.
At the same time, adding more Gigafactories will be an important part of the process too. Musk believes that with 10 to 12 in total, the goal is possible. That would make Tesla about halfway to that facility goal, though not all current plants are up to full production capacity speed just yet.