high stock price, more deliveries, more problems

End of 2021 found Tesla richer than ever – and in the position of CEO Elon Muskin the case of, richer than everyone. The tram notched manufacturer records for both deliveries and profit this year though global lack of chips destroyed supply chains around the world, effectively exploiting the rest of the auto industry’s production capacity. However, its financial successes are often overshadowed by Tesla’s ongoing problems with the quality of production, many NHTSA and SECOND investigations, its high profile failures are praised”Fully self-drivingSystem”, as well as many means remember and delays for upcoming models. And with existing solid industries like Ford, GM, Honda’s motobike and Volkswagen With the group making a concerted effort to electrify their own products, could 2022 be the year when Tesla’s reign as flagship EV automaker finally comes to an end?

Good

Without a doubt, 2021 is going to be a profitable year for Tesla. Company in this year reached its goal of producing half a million vehicles in 2020 (499,550 units for customers), an increase of nearly 133,000 units compared to 2019. As of April, Tesla has produced a record 180,338 vehicles and delivered 184,800 of them. there. Demand remained strong throughout the first half of the year thanks in part to discounts on both Model 3 and Model Y.

Company then break its same record in July, built 200,000 vehicles in the past three months, giving Tesla $1.1 billion in net income for the same period. “Public sentiment towards electric vehicles is at a complicated point, and at this point, I think most people agree that EVs are the only way forward,” Musk said during the interview. call 2nd quarter earnings.

Not surprisingly, Tesla’s record-breaking trend continued unabated until Q3 with the company rolling out 237,823 vehicles off the production line – nearly all of which are Model 3 and Model Y varieties – and offers 241,300 of them. The company also started taking pre-orders for Model Y release in the UK in October and announced that Model Ys for the Chinese market will receive upgraded AMD Ryzen chipsets.

Tesla ended its stellar financial year with an announcement from Hertz that it plans to order 100,000 vehicles (although there Still uncertain about how that deal will actually play out) and from Uber How much is the food it plans to rent? 50,000 Tesla cars for its drivers.

Bad people

While Tesla enjoys unwavering revenue success with its core product line, the company often struggles to meet release deadlines for some of its as-yet-unreleased models. Both Cybertruck and Half both are pushed back to 2022 while Tesla Roadster is said to not come until at least 2023. Tesla also had a strange tactic when it launched the “low-end” Model Y standard car in just a few weeks. before stopping the cutting level. Similarly, Tesla push back the release its Model S plaid version worth 130,000 USD to June 10, launching just days after Musk unilaterally announced that Model S Plaid+ has been completely canceled,

The company has also been beset by a series of production problems and vehicle recalls this year. In February, Tesla bowed to pressure from NHTSA and recovered 135,000 VND X model and car S due to faulty touch screen. That same month, Tesla was forced to ordered another 12,300 Model Xs to be recalled on account of removable decorative panels. In April, customers reported that the company had charge double for their vehicle, up to $71,000 in some cases Tesla promptly refunded affected buyers and even threw in a $200 gift certificate to the company store.

June saw another recall, this time over 6,000 Model 3s and Ys brake caliper bolt defectiveand in October, Tesla had to recall a set of Y and 3 because their suspension continues to separate. Just in the last month, the company had to pull nearly 12,000 vehicles from its product line about software problems – that should not be confused with Tesla app recently stopped working making it impossible for drivers around the world to use their vehicles.

Tesla’s crisis march also extends to the production lines faced by the Fremont factory a sizable COVID outbreak shortly after reopening in March. Musk complained often and loudly throughout 2020 about California’s lockdown laws and eventually made good on his threats to bring his toys and go home, officially. move Tesla headquarters to Texas in October.

The company was also ordered to pay $137 million for former employee Owen Diaz after a San Francisco federal court jury found Tesla responsible for the unscrupulous racial bigotry Diaz faced while working at the Fremont factory. That lawsuit was followed by another, filed in November by Jessica Barraza, who alleges “Pervasive sexual harassment“As well as continued verbal and physical abuse while she worked at the Fremont location.

Tesla’s fully self-driving beta also becomes a mixed bag for the company in 2021. After launching last October, beta 8.3 coming in May, double the size of the test program, previously beta 9 release in July. Version 9 was deployed to coincide with new FSD registration program charge customers $199 a month (or $99 a month if they previously purchased the now discontinued Advanced Autopilot feature) – assuming they have $1,500 FSD computer hardware installed la in his car.

However, Tesla decided to abandon the radar-based automatic sensor in favor of optical-only setup in May led to a backlash from NHTSA which then forced the company to remove some of its driver assistance designations such as forward collision and lane departure warnings. In an attempt to counter claims that Using the Autopilot feature may cause the driver to lose attention and less responsive as they continue to drive the vehicle, Tesla activates the camera to monitor the driver in the car at the end of May.

FSD beta 10 arrived to great fanfare in September with owners noting smoother turns on city roads, improved visuals and an overall improvement in the car’s off-highway navigability. Those feelings were short-lived when, in October, the company was forced to reverting its 10.3 beta implementation after becoming aware of “several problems,” according to Musk, including a “retracement” when turning left. Users also reported virtual forward collision warnings and autonomous driving errors.

Corporate FSD errors – related to many crashes in which Teslas inexplicably rammed first responders and other civilian drivers as well as a widely reported wreck in Houston no one behind the wheel – has led to calls for increased surveillance from and by NHTSA, NTSB, United States Senate, and even DMV California.

The FSD feature also promotes the recall of 300,000 units by the Chinese government’s order for easily in which FSD can be enabled, though that’s not the only problem Tesla faces the nation. In April, China ban its Tesla cars military bases and “key state-owned companies” because of concerns that countless car cameras could be used for espionage. After almost a month of arguing and engage the social media, Tesla eventually accepted China’s cybersecurity requirements and established a local payment vault for that data.

Musk

And what would a year of evaluation of Tesla look like without looking back at CEO Elon Musk’s unique brand of mischief? Last October, Musk unilaterally disbanded Tesla’s PR department, thereby making his personal Twitter account the first, last and only Twitter account to stop to confirm the company’s decisions. This January, Musk reversed course a bit and, instead of revamping the division, started hiring people to respond to customer complaints against him on the social media platform.

Speaking of tweets, Tesla was also sued this year for allegedly breaking a previously signed agreement with the SEC by allowing Musk to continue sending tweets. unapproved, “erratic” tweets as well as the fact that the company does not have a neutral general counsel to hold its CEO position. The National Labor Relations Board also pursued Tesla in 2021, finding that the company illegally fired a union activist. NLRB therefore required to re-hire workers and Musk delete a 2018 union vandalism tweet related to the case.

2021 is also the year that Musk focuses heavily on cryptocurrencies. Tesla bought $1.5 billion worth of goods in February and quickly toyed with the idea of allowing customers to use the currency to buy their cars, though those plans were quickly completed due to concerns about Environmental Impact of Bitcoin Mining. Musk also makes time for Saturday Night Live Host Mission next May collapse the value of Bitcoin rival Dogecoin, though his subsequent tweets helped Dogecoin price recovers, up to a limmit.

And then the whole Tesla.”Robot“Which I can’t even, I mean, it’s really just an actor in spandex jumpers jumping around while Musk makes a bunch of wild and unfounded claims.

What’s next?

Looking ahead to 2022, Tesla appears to be on track for continued success. Its Berlin Gigafactory is almost ready to start production and is expected to do so later this month – minus any unforeseen setbacks. The company’s chipset stockpile and Actively working to stock up on supplies belong to the battery precursor materials will insulate Tesla from many of the production bottlenecks that many other EV automakers may be grappling with throughout the new year.

Still, even with Tesla’s record production numbers over the past few years, the number of vehicles it delivers annually is still a fraction of what older automakers sell. BMW car, for example, sold 2.3 million vehicles worldwide in 2020. That same year, GM sold 2.5 million vehicles in the United States. alone. And as those companies pay more and more attention to the electric vehicle market while taking advantage of economies of scale that Tesla can’t match, Musk’s company could soon become a more niche brand of electric vehicles. is an industry giant.

This report by A.Tarantola originally appeared on Engadget.

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