Tesla announced today that it squeaked past its own quarterly production and delivery records with “just over” 25,000 cars delivered in the first quarter of 2017. The highlight so far this year is the Model X SUV, which is catching up to the Model S sedan in production. Tesla delivered about 11,450 SUVs in Q1 2017 — a 33% rise over the 8,700 it delivered in Q3 2016.
Tesla said it expects to deliver about 50,000 cars in the first half of 2017, and today’s stats suggest it will be on track to meet that goal. The company is also planning on starting production of limited production its Model 3 sedan in July with a goal of producing 5,000 Model 3s a week toward the end of 2017. To feed those cars with energy, Tesla is also planning to open three more of its enormous battery-producing Gigafactories.
