Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been claiming exponential progress for Tesla for years. And it’s taking place. 

The U.S. automaker introduced Saturday that it has produced its 5 millionth car globally.

To place this into perspective, Tesla celebrated its 1 millionth car simply three and a half years in the past, in March 2020. And simply this March 1 it reported making 4 million cumulative autos. 

This week, we produced our 5 millionth automobile—thanks Tesla house owners in your ongoing assist!

— Tesla (@Tesla) September 16, 2023

Tesla handed one million annual EV gross sales in 2022, buoyed by manufacturing ramps in Germany and Texas. It’s been concentrating on 1.8 to 2 million for 2023, aided by these amenities. 

The Worldwide Vitality Company (IEA) predicts 14 million EV gross sales globally in 2023—a 35% year-over-year enchancment. If that’s the case, Tesla might quantity to one among each seven EVs bought globally. 

2023 Tesla Mannequin Y – Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.

No different automaker approaches Tesla’s numbers primarily based on EVs alone. Whereas final yr many had predicted VW to overhaul Tesla in 2024, Tesla now has much more of a lead versus the German automaker—and the Mannequin Y stays the top-selling EV on its house turf, outselling the VW ID.4 and ID.3 mixed in Europe.

China’s BYD has been the closest rival on this race to speed up EV manufacturing on a world scale, nevertheless it contains an asterisk. BYD claimed to have hit 5 million cumulative “new vitality car” gross sales in August—a determine that features plug-in hybrids, which BYD has pushed out to South American markets, as an illustration. 

If getting folks to plug in and drive electrical regionally is the precedence, in sheer manufacturing of plug-in autos, BYD stays within the lead. It claimed to supply greater than 1.5 million plug-in autos within the first half of 2023 and be on monitor for 3 million for this yr alone.

BYD Han

BYD has additionally been going massive on electrical vehicles and buses, in addition to supplying its Blade battery to different firms—like Mercedes-Benz reportedly. And Tesla. 

Few different automakers can but declare the exponential progress of Tesla and BYD in EVs. Nissan reported earlier this summer season that it had surpassed a million international EV gross sales—a milestone it took 12 years to realize. 

Mercedes-Benz AMG EQE sedan at Tesla Supercharger station

However for Tesla, EV manufacturing wasn’t the one massive milestone Tesla has reported up to now month. In September it reached 50,000 Superchargers globally. Based on knowledge from the DOE’s Different Fuels Information Heart about 21,000 of these are within the U.S.. With offers not too long ago inked with a broad swath of automakers for Supercharger entry and the adoption of Tesla’s NACS cost port, count on that progress additionally to