Tesla is close to hitting a delivery target of 500,000 cars for 2020 despite a pandemic Technology

Tesla reported that deliveries of its electric cars were delivered in the last three months of 2020, coming in within whiskey to meet the half-million target for the year set by its chief executive, Elon Musk.

The California-based manufacturer’s annual sales rose 36% after a final quarter that exceeded analysts ’expectations, delivering a total of 499,550 cars in 2020.

Tesla delivered 180,570 electric vehicles between October and December, falling just short of the total target Musk had set at the beginning of the year, before the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic began.

Covid-19 forced the closure of the U.S. Fremont collection center in the spring, but Musk urged production workers to increase production to meet the target, and last week offered an incentive including options “ self-driving ”free $ 10,000 (£ 7,300) worth of Tesla cars whose paperwork and delivery were completed in the last days of December.

Despite missing the target, Tesla said it had “taken out and delivered half a million vehicles, according to our latest guidance”, and Musk said it was a “huge milestone ”.

He tweeted: “So proud of Tesla team to achieve this huge milestone! At the beginning of Tesla we thought we had a (hopefully) 10% chance of surviving at all. ”

More than 509,000 cars were manufactured by the manufacturer in 2020. Production of its Model Y SUV has also begun at its Chinese facility in Shanghai, with delivery expected to begin soon, Tesla said.

Tesla’s share price, which rose eightfold in 2020, ended the year at more than $ 705, valuing the company at $ 669bn – 20% of which is owned by Musk himself, who is second richest in the world. It surpassed Toyota earlier this year as the world’s most prized car dealer and last month entered the prestigious Wall Street S&P index, becoming the the sixth most immediately valuable record company.