Tesla issued a statement on Sunday confirming that it had met its goal of delivering 50,000 vehicles in 2015. By year end on December 31, the electric car maker had delivered 50,580 Model S sedans and Model X sport utility vehicles. Those numbers included 17,400 vehicles shipped during the last quarter. While those numbers may make Tesla fans happy, auto industry analysts note that they come in at the low end of Tesla’s revised November guidance of 50,000 to 52,000 vehicles shipped in 2015, which was already down from their February guidance of 55,000 delivered vehicles in calendar year 2015.
But the number that will be a standout–-for all the wrong reasons-–to Tesla fans is the amount of its Model X vehicles shipped last quarter. Only 208 units of its popular crossover sport utility vehicle were delivered to buyers. To be fair, the Model X was only just announced right before Q4 began and the company does note that it actually produced 507 units–-the remainder of those will be delivered to buyers this quarter.
Unsurprisingly the limited amount of Model X’s shipped won’t help the month’s long wait list for the Model X. The good news is that production of the Model X is ramping up steadily with the company noting that in the final week of 2015 238 Model Xs rolled off the assembly lines. Even better news for Tesla: when the Model S is taken into account, deliveries of Tesla vehicles were up 75% year over year.
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