Tesla beats Wall Street estimates, delivers 112,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter

Tesla Inc. is back on top and this time it is sure to stay in power for the long haul.

The Model 3 maker that has begun production at a new factory near Shanghai delivered a record 112,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter. With the stock soaring at an all-time high, Tesla’s market capitalization finished the week just short of $80 billion, which is more than double Ford Motor Co.’s stock value.

The Model Y, its next crossover SUV, is slated to launch this summer.

“Tesla is close to escape velocity,” said Gene Munster, managing partner of the venture capital firm Loup Ventures. “Demand for electric vehicles is real, and people are stretching to buy a Model 3. Everything is beginning to gel.”

Tesla is however famous for announcing big steps forward, only to then take steps back. For instance in 2019, after finishing strong the year before, Elon Musk decided to dismiss 7% of the workforce. To top it all, the company’s first-quarter deliveries remained dismal, shifting of the retail strategy that kept the customers and employees on the hook and the chief executive officer remaining a magnet for controversy.

But after years of drama, there’s a growing sense among investors that Tesla is finally hitting its stride. The company reported a surprise third-quarter profit in October and the shares have been on the rise ever since.

Automakers continued to take their shots at Musk with so-called “Tesla Killers,” but no serious competition has materialized so far. U.S. sales of General Motors Co.’s fully electric Chevrolet Bolt plummeted 47% in the fourth quarter and finished down 9% for the year.

Taking on his adversaries, Musk however said that the upcoming Model Y will outsell the S, X and 3 combined, without giving a time frame. He announced plans in November to build a third auto factory, near Berlin, in the backyard of German automakers BMW AG, Daimler AG and Volkswagen AG, whose initial electric offerings haven’t drawn much demand.

In 2012, the year Tesla launched the Model S sedan, the company delivered just 2,650 cars. Seven years later that was up to 367,500 -- 138 times as many.

If Tesla can successfully launch the Model Y, analysts believe that they have fully arrived and are here to stay.