Tesla produces its five millionth EV, takes just six months for last million

Tesla has produced its five millionth EV, just six months after producing its four millionth unit globally. The latest milestone was achieved at Tesla’s most productive factory in Shanghai and happened to be the new Tesla Model 3, in white.

Tesla shared a photo of the new Model 3 on its Weibo page with the caption surrounded by the GigaShanghai team. 

Behind the team, multiple new Tesla Model 3 vehicles can be seen being tested and finished as the vehicles roll off the production line. 

In the Weibo post sharing the milestone, Tesla highlighted the timeline of how long it took to get to each million vehicles produced by the brand. To get from four to five million EVs took just six months.

• 1 million EVs – 12 years
• 2 million EVs – 18 months
• 3 million EVs – 18 months
• 4 million EVs – 7 months
• 5 million EVs – 6 months

Of the five million EVs produced, more than 70,000 of these vehicles have landed in Australia over the last 10 years. 

64,500 of these have been produced after Tesla switched the Australian supply plant from Fremont to Shanghai back in 2021. These consist of Model 3 and Model Y vehicles which have been by far the best selling EVs in Australia.

On top of the Tesla Fremont and Shanghai plants, Tesla has opened two new factories in the last 24 months. 

The first one is located in Germany, which currently produces Model Y vehicles to various left-hand-drive markets in Europe. Tesla still manufactures and delivers the Model 3 from the Shanghai plant for the European market.

Texas is Tesla’s largest and most recent factory . It currently produces the Model Y vehicles for the North American market and is the main manufacturing plant for the Cybertruck as it moves into customer production in the coming months.

Tesla also has plans to build a factory in Mexico that is tipped to produce the next, more affordable “Model 2” product which is dubbed the “$US25,000 car”.

The new production milestones are a far cry from just five years, when CEO Elon Musk described the “production hell” in 2018 as the brand looked to scale the production of its first mass-market car, the Model 3.

The five millionth produced vehicle milestone also comes with the 50,000th Tesla supercharger opening last week. Tesla is likely to reach the six millionth vehicle in the early months of 2024.