Tesla’s Shanghai GigaFactory in China has confirmed that its 1,000,000th Model Y rolled off the production line earlier this month – a milestone that only took some 30 months to complete.
Launched in the US several years ago and in right-hand drive markets like New Zealand last year the Model Y has quickly become one of the most popular electric vehicles in the world, going some way to validating claims by outspoken Tesla CEO Elon Musk that the Y would be the best-selling car in the world in 2023.
The achievement is not only an accolade for Tesla, but also further evidence of rising EV output from China. Tesla’s Shanghai GigaFactory is the largest battery-electric car manufacturing site in the world.
July has proven itself to be a big month for Tesla’s production lines, with the brand’s Texas GigaFactory also celebrating the manufacturing of the brand’s first Cybertruck this month.
Tesla’s Shanghai factory is where the vast majority of New Zealand’s Tesla supply has been sourced from. InsideEVs reports that the plant has also produced approximately 800,000 Model 3s since 2019.
It is estimated that Tesla has produced around 4.5 million vehicles overall, with 2.7 million coming from its Fremont, California, Texas, and Berlin factories. It celebrated the production of its 4,000,000th vehicle in March of this year.
Underscoring the Model Y’s success are fresh reports that the plug-in was the best-selling car in Europe across the first six months of 2023.
Automotive News reports, using preliminary figures from Dataforce, that 125,114 Model Ys were sold in Europe in the first half of the year, seeing the model edge the Dacia Sandero (118,883 units) and the Volkswagen T-Roc (107,249 units).
The figures signal that Model Y sales have tripled year-on-year in the region, with the EV owning a 14.6% market share of dedicated electric vehicle sales in Europe for January to June, 2023.
The Model Y was the only fully electric model to feature in Europe’s top 10 best sellers for the six-month period, with the Opel Corsa, Peugeot 208, Renault Clio, Toyota Yaris Cross, Volkswagen Tiguan, Golf, and Dacia Duster rounding out the top 10.
The Tesla Model Y’s sales momentum applies in New Zealand, too. It was the best-selling EV in the first half of 2023 locally, too; its 1,957 registrations narrowly edging the BYD Atto 3’s 1,836.
At the end of June, Tesla sat seventh in the local brand charts, beating the likes of Nissan, Volkswagen, and Subaru.
