Elon Musk says Tesla has made over 3 million cars

Tesla has made over three million cars, CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday. Of that total, Tesla’s Shanghai factory has made one million cars, according to the tweet.

“Congrats Giga Shanghai on making millionth car! Total Teslas made now over 3M,” Musk tweeted.

Musk’s announcement comes after months of lockdowns and parts shortages in China that threatened Tesla’s vehicle production, and suggests that Tesla’s Shanghai factory is producing a significant number of new vehicles after opening in 2019 and subsequent years of investment.

The total vehicles achievement celebrated by Musk on Sunday comes after Tesla’s reported deliveries, the closest approximation for sales, have been rising in recent quarters. In July, Tesla said that it delivered 254,695 vehicles in the second quarter, a 26.5% rise year-over-year.

But the milestone also highlights how small Tesla is compared to automotive giants. For example, Toyota delivered over 10 million vehicles in 2021 alone. Tesla said earlier this year it plans to increase vehicle deliveries by 50% annually.

In addition to its Shanghai plant, Tesla produces cars at factories in Fremont, California; Austin, Texas; and near Berlin in Germany. Musk said in July that the Fremont factory, the company’s first, had made 2 million cars.

In June, Musk said he wanted to get the Shanghai plant “back in the saddle” and lamented that Tesla’s Berlin and Austin factories were “money furnaces” losing “billions of dollars” because of supply chain and production issues.

Tesla stock is down nearly 25% in 2022 as investors have been reassessing fast-growing companies in the face of inflation and macroeconomic concerns. Musk sold over 7 million shares of Tesla last week worth about $6.88 billion as he is simultaneously tied up in litigation over his efforts to terminate an agreement to buy Twitter for $44 billion.