Tesla Has Built Its 300,000th Electric Vehicle, Report Says
Tesla is only just starting to ramp up Model 3 production, which could put it in position to overtake Nissan Leaf production.
Tesla exceeded 286,000 total vehicle deliveries at the end of 2017, posting a quarterly delivery record of 29,870 in spite of troubled Model 3 production and a vortex into which cash vanishes. While the company's production announcements arrive quarterly, meaning that Q1 2018 numbers are still several weeks away from us, Electrek reports that Tesla has signified its crossing of the 300,000 mark in a statement to shareholders earlier this week.
Elon Musk is reported to have satisfied all but one of the requirements: 30 percent profit over four consecutive quarters—of his old compensation plan, one of which was the 300,000 vehicle target. Musk hopes that Tesla can be achieving six-figure yearly sales of its semi trucks alone by 2023, which would position the company as one of the globe's biggest manufacturers of commercial vehicles.
Only Nissan has produced more electric vehicles than Tesla, surpassing 300,000 sales of the Leaf in early January, though the Leaf's three-year head start on mass production makes a Tesla leapfrog some time this year look possible, even with the Leaf's 2018 refresh and its accompanying Nismo performance model arriving on the market. The Leaf also has the disadvantage of being a compact hatchback, in a market currently favoring SUVs and crossovers, like the Tesla Model X and eventual Model Y.
