Gary Zhou 
Tesla is still the leading automaker in the battery electric vehicle market. General Motors and Volkswagen have set their eyes on taking Tesla’s crown, but the Elon Musk-led company isn’t letting up, so it won’t be easy.
Tesla delivered approximately 310,048 vehicles in the first quarter and 254,695 in Q2 2022. Despite a rough second quarter, Tesla sold 564,743 cars for the first half of 2022.
According to Barron’s, BYD was the closest top seller to Tesla selling 323,519 vehicles in the first six months of this year. In third place is SAIC —which has a joint venture with General Motors—selling 154,623 cars in the first two quarters of 2022. Europe’s top-selling BEV maker Volkswagen came in fourth place with 151,545 vehicles sold.
Tesla sold 386,050 vehicles in the first half of 2021 and sold a grand total of 936,172 battery electric vehicles all of last year. So the EV automaker still seems on track to achieving its 50% or above growth rate for 2022.
Tesla experienced some supply chain challenges in the second quarter, and Giga Shanghai was hit by lockdowns in China, accounting for the slight drop in delivery numbers compared to Q1 2022. Tesla China seems to be recovering and preparing to return with a vengeance.
Tesla reported its highest vehicle production month in June, even though Giga Shanghai hasn’t fully recovered and the new gigafactories in Texas and Berlin haven’t fully ramped yet. Giga Shanghai and Giga Berlin will undergo upgrades this month to increase manufacturing output, likely boosting Tesla’s delivery numbers.
Some of Tesla’s delivery estimates are already well into next year. Increasing production capacity will probably help the company chip away at those deliveries and get vehicles to their owners faster.
