Tesla Reaches Landmark Production Level

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Sunday that the electric automaker had now produced three million cars during its lifetime. The first-ever Tesla rolled off the line in 2009. The model, known as the Roadster, initially cost about $109,000. Today, after almost 15 years of production efficiencies and economies of scale, a similar Tesla model sells at almost half the price, for around $58,000.

The company’s Shanghai factory, which opened in 2019, has helped lower production costs for the US automaker. This year, Tesla opened a roughly $5 billion gigafactory near Berlin, Germany, its first plant in Europe. The German plant can produce 500,000 cars annually if run at full capacity.

Tesla’s main factory, based in Fremont, US, has made over two million cars, and its output has been augmented by plants in Shanghai, Berlin, and Texas.

Tesla is ramping up production amid growing competition from traditional automakers and increased consumer interest in Electric Vehicles (EV) in response to government subsidies for EV purchases. 

As global competition heats up, Tesla has announced steep price cuts in several European markets, including Germany and France, for all versions of the Model 3, S and X, as well as the Model Y Performance. This follows Tesla's decision last week to cut US prices on all its EVs. Tesla also reduced prices in Australia, Israel and Singapore.