Tesla Just Passed A Huge Production Milestone

Tesla has announced a new quarterly record, having delivered more than 25,000 vehicles during the first quarter of this year. This represents a huge 69-percent year-on-year increase over the deliveries it made in the first quarter of 2016. Of the 25,418 vehicles Tesla delivered this past quarter, about 13,450 of them were Model S cars and about 11,550 were Model X. A few thousand cars, though, weren't included in the quarterly total.

According to Tesla, the quarterly vehicle total is 'slightly conservative' due to the company's counting method — it only includes vehicles that were fully delivered, meaning the customer received it and 'all paperwork is correct.' For this reason, the automaker explains, the actual number of cars delivered in Q1 could vary buy a max of 0.5%.

As well, the company goes on to say that approximately 4,650 of its vehicles were in the process of being shipped to the customer when the quarter reached its end, and so none of those vehicles have been included in the Q1 tally; instead, they'll be included in the second quarter's final number, which will be revealed when this quarter comes to an end.

It's a great achievement for the company, which managed to beat out estimates, but there's still an uphill battle for Tesla. Company CEO Elon Musk previous stated that it would produce 500,000 Model 3 cars next year, a huge uptick for the company's low-cost, high volume model. Analysts, understandably, have been skeptical about the claim and the company's ability to reach it, but these latest numbers show Tesla, for now at least, hitting big (relatively speaking) goals.