Tesla on Sunday said it delivered 308,600 electric vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2021, beating its previous single-quarter record as well as analysts’ expectations. The automaker produced 305,840 fully electric vehicles total during the same period.

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.

In the third quarter of 2021, vehicle deliveries reached 241,300, Tesla’s previous best quarter.

According to a consensus compiled by FactSet, Wall Street analysts had anticipated Tesla deliveries of 267,000 in the fourth quarter and 897,000 for all of 2021.

Deliveries are the closest approximation of sales reported by CEO Elon Musk’s electric car company.

Tesla combines delivery numbers for its higher-priced Model S and X vehicles, and lower-priced Model 3 and Y vehicles. The company does not break out sales or production numbers by region.

Deliveries of its flagship Model S sedan and Model X falcon wing SUV represented just under 3% of Tesla’s total deliveries in 2021. Model 3 and Model Y deliveries amounted to 296,850 in the final quarter of 2021, and 911,208 for the full year.

Tesla makes Model 3 and Model Y vehicles at its factory in Shanghai and in Fremont, California, but only produces the Model X and S in Fremont.

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Tesla shares surged 13.5 per cent on Monday after the electric-car maker smashed its own production and delivery records in the final months of last year. The company shrugged off supply chain problems and other issues to hand customers the keys to more than 308,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter, sending its stock up as much as 10 per cent in early trading. The blowout figure, announced on Sunday, capped a year in which Tesla broke through bottlenecks and rapidly scaled up production at a plant in China to come close to reaching 1m annual vehicle sales. Growing confidence that the carmaker could overcome its persistent growing pains while also achieving comfortable profit margins lifted its stock market value by one-third in 2021, to more than $1tn. Monday’s rally drove Tesla’s market value to $1.2tn at the end of the New York trading day. Tesla’s fourth-quarter deliveries came in at about 40,000 higher than Wall Street analysts’ mean estimate, according to FactSet. The strong performance put its total deliveries for 2021 at 936,172, up from 499,550 the year before. Semiconductor shortages and other supply constraints hit some carmakers last year, slowing production. Speaking to investors in October, Zach Kirkhorn, Tesla chief financial officer, said shortages had prevented the company from running its factories at full capacity, and its big jump in production in the first nine months of the year had been “exceptionally difficult to achieve”.

Despite those obstacles, Tesla went on to surpass its own record production volume in the final quarter, with 305,840 new vehicles rolling off its production lines, 68,000 more than in the preceding three months. The 308,600 new vehicles delivered to customers in the final quarter was 28 per cent higher than the previous record, which was hit in the third quarter. It was also 71 per cent more than in the same period last year. With two new plants due to start increasing production this year, Wall Street is forecasting another leap in sales, with Tesla’s deliveries expected to reach 1.42m. That is despite delays to some of the company’s planned models, with volume production of its Cybertruck pick-up delayed until 2023 and no target delivery dates for its semi-truck and a new version of its original Roadster. Additional reporting by Joe Rennison in New York.

• 2022 should be a strong year for auto manufacturers as global supply chain shortages in 2021 have limited the supply of new cars.
• 2022 will likely mark the return of a $7500 EV credit for new Tesla vehicles in the US.
• The EV credit plus strong existing demand has allowed Tesla to raise the prices significantly. The least expensive Model 3 has gone from $37,990 last year to $44,900 now.
• The Tesla China factory is already exporting significant production to Europe. Where will this production go when Giga Berlin opens?
• Tesla maintaining higher pricing with additional supply coming online, both from Tesla itself and competitors, will be key to watch in 2022.