Tesla still aims for 1.8 million electric cars, despite a drop in production

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At the start of the year, Tesla set itself the objective of producing 1.8 million electric vehicles in 2023. And if, recently, the manufacturer has chained bad news, it affirms that its production target for the year 2023 has not changed.

On October 2, Tesla presented the figures for its production for the third quarter of 2023, in anticipation of the presentation of financial results this October. And according to this official data, Tesla produced 430,488 electric cars during this 3-month period.

However, compared to the figures for the second quarter, this corresponds to a decrease. In the second quarter, Tesla announced production of 479,700 vehicles. But despite this drop, Tesla reassures its investors.

“In the third quarter, we produced more than 430,000 vehicles and delivered more than 435,000 vehicles. A sequential decline in volumes was caused by planned downtime for factory upgrades, as noted during the last earnings conference call. Our volume target for 2023 of around 1.8 million vehicles remains unchanged”, we read in the manufacturer's press release, published on October 2.

1.8 million, at Tesla's reach?

In any case, this is not the only bad news from the car manufacturer. This week, Reuters relays data from the China Passenger Car Association which indicates that sales of electric cars manufactured by Tesla in China are down 10.9% in September, year-on-year.

But in any case, according to an analysis by Electrek, 1.8 million vehicles in 2023 remains an achievable goal. According to the site's calculations, since the start of the year, Tesla has delivered 1,324,074 vehicles worldwide. And it should deliver 476,000 in the last quarter to reach its objective. Tesla should therefore just deliver 10,000 more vehicles than in the second quarter of 2023, which was a record quarter.

Otherwise, it should also be noted that at the start of the year, Elon Musk indicated that Tesla had set itself a target of 1.8 million vehicles for safety reasons, while the manufacturer would be able to produce 2 million units in a year.

“Our internal production potential is actually closer to two million vehicles, but we say 1.8 million because – I don't know, there always seems to be some force majeure that has happened somewhere on Earth, and we can't control if there are like earthquakes, tsunamis, wars, pandemics, etc.”, Tesla boss said in January.

• Tesla production was down sequentially in the third quarter
• But the manufacturer maintains its target of 1.8 million vehicles in 2023
• At the start of the year, Elon Musk even declared that Tesla would be able to produce around 2 million vehicles in one year

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