Tesla, Inc. TSLA Model Y was the world’s best-selling car in 2023, beating Toyota’s RAV4 SUV and Corolla compact car to snag the top spot. The Elon Musk-led company began the first deliveries of this electrified small crossover SUV four years back.
Model Y’s Rise: Musk first unveiled the Model Y at Tesla’s design studio in Hawthorne, California, on March 14, 2019 — a time when the company was hit with the double whammy of a financial crunch and demand slowdown.
The company began taking orders for the Long Rage (LR) and Performance variants immediately after the unveiling. Model Y production at the Fremont, California facility started in January 2020, while the Giga Shanghai production of the EV started in December 2020.
The Model Y is now manufactured at the Giga Texas and Giga Berlin as well.
The first deliveries of the Model Y began in the U.S. on March 13, 2020, with a customer in Utah reportedly taking possession of the vehicle.
The Model Y launch led to a substantial increase in volume growth for Tesla, perking it up from 36% in 2020 to 87% in 2021, resulting in a seven-fold surge in Tesla's stock, said Future Fund’s Gary Black.
The company now sells three variants of Model Y EVs in the U.S. – a rear-wheel drive standard range, a dual motor all-wheel drive Performance variant, and a dual motor AWD Long Range version. All new 2024 Model Y EVs are eligible for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.
Model Y unit sales were at 1.23 million in 2023.
Tesla is working on a Model Y refresh, named Juniper, Reuters reported earlier this month, citing sources. The revamped model will include changes to the exterior and interior of the vehicle and production will likely start in 2024, the report said.
See Also: Everything You Need To Know About Tesla Stock
Returns From Investing In Tesla: A hypothetical investment of $1,000 in Tesla just ahead of the start of Model Y deliveries may have fetched an investor 26.8 shares. The stock traded at a split-adjusted price of $37.37 on March 12, 2020.
Notwithstanding the stock decline seen since the middle of 2023, the investment would have grown to $4,535.19. Tesla ended Wednesday’s session down 4.54% at $169.48, according to Benzinga Pro data. This would translate to a return of 354% compared to the 122% return for the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the S&P 500 Index.
Source: Benzinga
Wall Street currently has a muted outlook for Tesla’s shares, given the macroeconomic, geopolitical, industry- and company-specific challenges.
This is despite the overwhelmingly positive opinion about the long-term. Much of the optimism around the long term is premised on the full self-driving technology coming to fruition and other ancillary businesses such as energy and the Tesla bot.
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