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It's Been A Hard Year For Tesla And The Model 3

Elon Musk Pushing Building Half Million Cars A Year

Tobias Schwarz/Pool via REUTERS Elon Musk sent an email to his employees laying out an ambitious goal: building 500,000 vehicles in 2020. Tesla needs to produce 170,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter — a 17% increase over Q3 — to reach that mark. Musk's email comes after Tesla topped analyst expectations for third-quarter vehicle deliveries. "It will be tough but super exciting if we can exceed 500,000 cars made in a single year for the first time in Tesla history," Musk told his staff in an email reported by Electrek.

Tesla Delivers First Shanghai-Made Model Y Crossovers

Tesla Missed Goal, Delivering Half Million Vehicles

Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images Tesla had set a goal of 500,000 deliveries for 2020. On Saturday, it announced it missed the target by 450 vehicles. Some analysts had said the ambitious target could be tough to reach because of a slump in auto sales during the coronavirus pandemic. The company reached its production goal for the year, making a total of 509,737 vehicles. It also said production of its mid-size SUV, the Model Y, has begun in Shanghai. Consumers cut back spending on cars during the pandemic and Tesla's sales in the first half of 2020 dropped 15% from the second half of 2019.

Tesla Reports Nearly 500,000 Vehicle Deliveries In 2020