Tesla Sets New Record For Electric Vehicle Deliveries

Tesla set a new company record for electric vehicle deliveries in Q4 of 2021, according to the company’s fourth-quarter vehicle production and deliveries report for 2021 published on Monday.

The report said that the electric vehicle manufacturer delivered a total of 308,6000 cars, surpassing industry expectations.

This makes Q4 of 2021 the best quarter in the company’s history for vehicle deliveries ever, bringing the yearly amount to 936,172.

Analysts had expected Elon Musk’s company to deliver 267,000 vehicles in Q4. The company beat this analysis by nearly 50,000, causing their stock to surge by 7%.

“For the full year, Tesla delivered 936,172 vehicles, an 87% increase versus 2020 when it reported its first annual profit on deliveries of 499,647,” CNBC reported, adding that “in the third quarter of 2021, vehicle deliveries reached 241,300, Tesla’s previous best quarter.”

Tesla recalls over 450,000 vehicles

Tesla issued voluntary recalls for 475,318 of its vehicles last Thursday. The company hopes to rectify issues with its Model S and Model 3 vehicle’s trunk latching systems.

The recall is for all Model 3 units released from 2017 to 2020, and also applies to a number of Model S units as well. The company believes that the function of the trunk in Model 3 may cause damage to the cable harness attached to the car’s rearview camera, which could lead to its malfunction. The model S issue, however, affects the entire trunk, making it incapable of fully latching.

Tesla has submitted documents to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that indicated there are 475,318 total vehicles that will be recalled, with 356,309 of those vehicles being Model 3 and 119,109 being Model S.

The Model S’s recall is considered more serious, as a malfunction of the front trunk could prevent the car’s driver from seeing the road.

“The front trunk latch assembly may be misaligned, preventing the secondary hood latch from engaging,” Tesla said in its filings with the NHTSA.

The company plans on repositioning the trunk’s latch in order to fix the issue.

Tesla previously investigated for faulty vehicles

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) started investigating a consumer report last month that indicates Tesla’s Model Y self-driving cars may be causing accidents.

A Tesla Model Y owner filed a report with NHTSA on November 3 stating that the car started to drive recklessly while using its autopilot technology:

“While taking a left turn the car went into the wrong lane and I was hit by another driver in the lane next to my lane,” the owner stated, adding that the vehicle “gave an alert halfway through the turn” and that the owner attempted to interfere with the autopilot “but the car by itself took control and forced itself into the incorrect lane,” causing the car to crash and incur damage.

“NHTSA is aware of the consumer complaint in question and is in communication with the manufacturer to gather additional information,” a spokesperson for the agency said in a statement last week.

The technology used in the Tesla Model Y is the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta software. Although the feature’s name contains the phrase “full self-driving,” Tesla has clarified that the technology is meant to only partially assist a driver and that the technology should be monitored by a “fully attentive driver.”