Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter on Sunday to congratulate the company’s Shanghai team for producing its one-millionth car in less than three years since opening the factory.
Congrats Giga Shanghai on making millionth car! Total Teslas made now over 3M. pic.twitter.com/2Aee6slCuv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 14, 2022
The tweet comes as thousands of Tesla electric cars in right-hand drive configuration were videoed lined up at the docklands in Shanghai ready for export to Australia.
The Gigafactory Shanghai milestone also follows less than a fortnight after Elon Musk shared during the company’s annual shareholders meeting that Tesla had manufactured a total of three million vehicles.
That news came only a month after Tesla announced that its Fremont factory in California had manufactured the company’s two millionth car.
And, for each million-car milestone, Tesla has commemorated the occasion with a red Tesla, making a red Model Y in 2020 and a red Model 3 Performance for the two millionth car in Fremont.
Tesla’s ambitions are not tapering off, either, as Elon Musk confirmed at the Tesla annual shareholder meeting earlier this month, during which he explained that the company is aiming to achieve a two million annual vehicle run rate by the end of 2022.
“We’re aiming to achieve a 2 million vehicle run-rate by the end of the year,” Musk said.
“Thanks to the hard work of the Tesla team, we’ve already been able to achieve a 1.5-million-unit annualized run rate.
“And depending on how the rest of this year goes, I think we might get close to, or will get approximately at the 1.5 million mark, and will be exiting the year at a 2 million-unit run-rate.”
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.