Year in review: a look back at Tesla in 2022

2022 has been a big year for Tesla, with the automaker surpassing some key milestones despite a bear market. Tesla is heading into 2023 with newly and substantially increased production output, a growing charging infrastructure and energy sector, and firm financials to back these milestones up.

Gigafactory Progress

Tesla opened two new factories this year: one in Austin, Texas where it is now headquartered, and the other in Grünheide, Germany in the state of Brandenburg. Since opening, both Gigafactories have been gradually ramping up production throughout the year, and they each recently reached output capacity milestones of 3,000 Model Y units built per week this month.

Additionally, Tesla is aiming to produce 75,000 Model Y units at Giga Texas in Q1 2023, ahead of the automaker’s plans to start producing the Cybertruck, currently slated for July.

Tesla also expanded its Model Y production lines by about 30 percent at Gigafactory Shanghai, targeting an annual production of about 1.2 million vehicles. The automaker built its one-millionth vehicle at the Shanghai factory in August, just weeks after the upgrade was completed.

Superchargers Evolve

About a year ago, Tesla had 30,000 Supercharger connectors globally. As of June, the automaker had deployed another 5,000 charging stalls, before reaching 38,883 charging stalls worldwide and 10 years of Supercharger deployment by the third quarter of the year.

In addition, Tesla has been opening its Superchargers to non-Tesla vehicles in a new pilot program across Europe, and the automaker is expected to do so in the U.S. soon.

Tesla Energy grows

Tesla reached 500,000 solar panel and roof installations earlier this month, despite facing supply chain constraints and a slow production ramp-up period.

The company also debuted its Virtual Power Plant program earlier this year to create huge, distributed batteries from homes with Powerwalls and solar energy. Tesla held its first few Virtual Power Plant events in California, the most recent in which over 3,600 homes helped supply power back to the grid.

Tesla also established a handful of its Megapack power storage sites throughout the world.

FSD beta expands, Tesla delivers Semi

Over the past few months, Tesla has been gradually increasing users for its Full Self-Driving beta in the U.S. The expansion of the FSD beta in North American markets culminated in a wide release of the system to public testers in the U.S. in November, letting anyone in the country who purchases the system test it out.

Tesla also delivered its first Semis to PepsiCo this month, marking it the first to enter a newly emerging electric semi-truck industry.

Let's also take a closer look at Tesla's quarterly revenue and deliveries.

Q1 2022 revenue and deliveries

Tesla reported $18.7 billion in revenue in Q1 for an 81-percent increase year over year, as well as $3.3 billion in net income and a 19.2-percent operating margin. Tesla delivered 310,048 vehicles in Q1 for a 67.7-percent increase year over year.

Q2 2022 revenue and deliveries

In the second quarter, Tesla reported $16.9 billion in revenue for a 42-percent increase year over year, with $2.3 billion in net income. The automaker delivered 254,695 vehicles in the quarter, representing a 23.4-percent increase year over year.

Q3 2022 revenue and deliveries

Tesla reported $21.4 billion in revenue in the third quarter for a 56-percent increase year over year. It had $3.3 billion in net income, representing a 103-percent increase year over year. Tesla delivered 343,830 vehicles in Q3 to beat its previous delivery record within a single quarter, marking a 42-percent increase year over year.

Q4 2022 revenue and deliveries

Tesla will report its Q4 2022 earnings sometime in January. Last year’s Q4 earnings call was held on January 26, 2022, during which Tesla reported $17.71 billion in revenue, $2.32 billion in net income and 308,650 deliveries in Q4 2021. Throughout all of 2021, Tesla delivered 936,222 vehicles, and the company is expected to surpass one million vehicles delivered in a year in 2022.