www.noahpinion.blog/p/only-fools-think-elon-is-incompetent
1 correction found
as of 2023, Tesla produced more cars in America than it did in China
Tesla’s own 2023 figures point the other way: Shanghai alone handled about 947,000 vehicles, while Fremont made about 560,000 and Texas was only at a 5,000-per-week run rate (~260,000 annualized).
Full reasoning
This sentence appears to confuse installed capacity with actual 2023 output.
Tesla’s FY2023 shareholder update says "In 2023, the Tesla Fremont factory produced nearly 560,000 vehicles". The same update separately lists capacity, not output, for each site and explicitly warns that "Installed capacity ≠ current production rate".
For Texas, Reuters reported on May 9, 2023 that the factory had reached 5,000 Model Y vehicles per week, which is about 260,000 vehicles annually at that run rate. Even adding that optimistic annualized figure to Fremont’s ~560,000 gives only about 820,000 U.S.-built vehicles, and actual 2023 Texas output would have been lower because the plant only hit that pace in May and Cybertruck was just beginning its ramp.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s Shanghai plant delivered 947,000 vehicles in 2023, according to Tesla’s production/deliveries reporting as cited by Shanghai’s official English-language news site. That is higher than the U.S. total implied by Fremont output plus Texas’s 2023 run rate.
So the article’s claim that Tesla produced more cars in America than in China in 2023 is not supported by Tesla’s own reported numbers; the opposite is true.
3 sources
- Tesla Q4 and FY 2023 Update (Exhibit 99.1)
Installed capacity ≠ current production rate ... In 2023, the Tesla Fremont factory produced nearly 560,000 vehicles thanks to our ~20,000 Fremont-based employees.
- Tesla says its Texas factory hits output of 5,000 Model Ys per week | KFGO (Reuters syndication)
Tesla said on Tuesday that its Texas factory achieved production of 5,000 Model Y vehicles per week, meaning that it would be able to produce about 260,000 of the vehicles annually.
- Tesla's Shanghai plant delivers 947,000 vehicles in 2023
Tesla's Shanghai plant ... delivered 947,000 vehicles in 2023 ... more than half of the over 1.8 million electric vehicles Tesla globally delivered last year came from the Shanghai plant.