Tesla will soon build more than 1M vehicles per year

Tesla successfully pushed vehicle output to record levels at its existing factories in California and China last year, despite the semiconductor shortage. The automaker plans to maintain rapid expansion of sales globally as it brings new electric vehicle plants online in Austin, Texas, and Berlin.

"In 2022, supply chain will continue to be the fundamental limiter of output across all factories," CEO Elon Musk said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call last week. "Nonetheless, we do expect significant growth in 2022 over 2021, comfortably above 50 percent growth."

Tesla's deliveries rose 87 percent last year to 936,000 globally, the company said. Tesla does not break out U.S. sales, but Cox Automotive put deliveries at about 350,000, based on estimates. If accurate, that would put Tesla above luxury leader BMW for 2021.

"There should no longer be doubt about the viability and profitability of electric vehicles," Tesla said in its earnings report, citing data that it had achieved higher operating margins than global automakers that rely on internal combustion engines.

For the coming year, Musk said the automaker's new factories in Austin and Berlin will be moving toward volume production after starting with validation vehicles last quarter. Tesla also said it may be able to push production at its Fremont, California, plant to beyond 600,000 vehicles per year.

The EV maker is still finalizing its manufacturing permit for the Berlin plant. Once ready, Tesla will begin to deliver German-made models in Europe.

And the company is already considering its next factory locations, as it plans for growth into the millions of vehicles annually.

Musk said Tesla should "probably be able to announce new locations toward the end of the year, I expect."

Despite the better-than-expected earnings report, Tesla stock fell sharply last week on concerns about future products and supply chain shortages.

Bernstein senior analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a research note that Tesla's goal of 50 percent vehicle growth would translate to more than 3 million vehicles in 2024. That would be highly ambitious with just two volume models, the Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover, plus the lower-volume Cybertruck.

Nonetheless, half a dozen analysts raised their price targets for Tesla shares after the automaker's earnings report, Reuters said. The median price target of nearly $1,100 per share was about 25 percent above Tesla's closing price last Thursday, Jan. 27.