Tesla reports record sales

Tesla reported that it delivered a record 936,000 cars in 2021, an 87% increase from the year before, despite the computer chip shortage that has disrupted auto production around the world.

In the fourth quarter alone, the company delivered more than 308,000 vehicles, a 71% increase from the quarter a year earlier. The overwhelming share of the deliveries were of the Model 3 sedan and the Model Y hatchback. Wall Street analysts had been expecting deliveries of about 266,000 cars in the fourth quarter and about 855,000 for the year.

“The numbers are hard to poke holes in,” Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in a note to investors. “While there are many competitors in the EV space, Tesla continues to dominate market share as evidenced again this quarter.”

Tesla increased sales despite a global shortage of computer chips, which serve as the brains for a variety of electronics, including engine controllers and touch screens. The shortage forced most automakers to idle some plants for weeks at a time and kept them from producing as many vehicles as they had planned.

In July, Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, said his company was overcoming the shortage by switching to types of chips that were more readily available and writing new instructions, or firmware, to be embedded into the chip. Tesla can make such a switch because the components in its cars are designed to be controlled largely by software.

Tesla does not break out its deliveries by country. Much of its recent growth has been propelled by sales in Europe and China.

The jump in deliveries capped a momentous year in which Tesla’s stock price and profits soared. It has also worked to open factories near Austin, Texas, as well as Berlin, in hopes of sustaining its rapid growth.

In October, Tesla’s market value for the first time exceeded $1 trillion, making it more valuable than General Motors, Ford Motor, Toyota, Volkswagen, Stellantis, BMW and several other automakers combined.