Tesla produced 24,882 vehicles in Q4, resulting in total 2016 production of 83,922 vehicles. This was an increase of 64% from 2015.
Tesla delivered 76,230 vehicles last year, just slightly below the 80,000 the company had set as its 2016 goal.
The company delivered 22,200 vehicles in the fourth quarter, about 12,700 of which were Model S and 9,500 were Model X. The delivery number is slightly below the 24,500 vehicles Tesla delivered in the third quarter.
The electric carmaker said in a press release that the numbers “should be viewed as conservative” because Tesla only counts a car as delivered if it is transferred to the customer and all of the paperwork is correct.
In total, about 2,750 vehicles missed being counted as deliveries in Q4 either due to last-minute delays in transport or because the customer was unable to physically take delivery. Even where these customers had already fully paid for their vehicle, Tesla still did not count these as deliveries in Q4.
In addition to Q4 deliveries, about 6,450 vehicles were in transit to customers at the end of the quarter. These will be counted as deliveries in Q1 2017.
Tesla also said demand for its cars is strong, and was especially so last quarter. Q4 net orders for Model S and X, which were an all-time record for us, were 52% higher than Q4 2015 and 24% higher than our previous record quarter in Q3 2016.
Tesla vehicle deliveries represent only one measure of the company’s financial performance and should not be relied on as an indicator of quarterly financial results, which depend on a variety of factors, including the cost of sales, foreign exchange movements and mix of directly leased vehicles.
