Chart: Ford Model T And Tesla Production 100 Years Apart – Tesla Set To Finally Overtake The T?

Note: Tesla production projected (conservatively) for 2023 and 2024

The many parallels between Henry Ford and Elon Musk have been chronicled many times. Self-made men, pioneering new concepts in automobiles and their production, involved in numerous other business activities, megalomania, egomania, highly sensitive to criticism, anti-union, media-darlings, etc..

The Model T and Tesla also roughly shared the same time period and trajectory in terms of their production exactly 100 years ago. I was curious to see just how close those numbers paralleled; sure enough, they are currently mirroring each other almost perfectly (’21 & ’22).  Tesla’s production for 2023 is projected at 1.8 M, but Musk has said it might be as high as 2.0 M. That’s almost exactly what the T did in 1923, 2.01 million. But that was the T’s all-time peak, before it fell back to earth. Meanwhile Tesla is still ramping up production at two of its newest plants, and rumors of more new plants are in the air.

The Tesla Model Y is already the highest selling vehicle in the world by revenue (and profit), and it is projected (by Musk) to be the highest selling car by volume in 2023, topping the perennial #1 Corolla, about 1.1 million. That’s still not as high as the Model T in 1923, but one could well argue that the Model 3 and Y are just body variants on the same platform, as were many body variants on the T chassis.

 

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