Tesla delivered 201,250 vehicles in the second quarter of 2021, a record for the company but still falling slightly short of Wall Street expectations. Elon Musk’s company also produced 206,421 vehicles during the same period.
Of all the cars that Tesla produced during the quarter, the vast majority — 204,081 — were Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. On top of that, Tesla also produced 2,340 Model S and Model X vehicles — though the company did not break out how many Model S sedans were the high-end Plaid variant that just started reaching customers.
Earlier last month, Tesla held a delivery event for the redesigned Model S, featuring a new powertrain, more horsepower, a new landscape touchscreen and steering wheel, and more range. A Model S Plaid recently caught fire in Pennsylvania, briefly trapping the driver inside.
The second quarter delivery numbers broke the previous quarter’s record, when Tesla delivered nearly 185,000 vehicles. Tesla has been ramping up production capacity, including building new factories in Texas and Germany, and just nearly missed CEO Elon Musk’s goal of delivering 500,000 cars in 2020.
Tesla does not break out deliveries by region, so we don’t know how many vehicles the company is sending to customers in China. Tesla has been hit by a slate of bad news in the country, most recently announcing the recall of more than 285,000 vehicles —most of which were made locally— over a safety risk with the vehicles’ cruise control.
Like the rest of the auto industry, Tesla has also struggled with the parts shortage, including a dearth of semiconductors. In May, Musk tweeted that prices were increasing as a result of “supply chain price-pressure industry-wide [sic].”
The second quarter also saw the departure of several high-level Tesla executives, including former long-time acting general counsel Al Prescott in April, and both deputy general counsel Lynn Miller and former president of automotive and heavy trucking Jerome Guillen in June.
