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Tesla expected to sell 800,000 EVs in 2021

Jessie Lin, DIGITIMES Research, Taipei

Tesla is expected to sell 800,000 electric vehicles (EV) globally in 2021, increasing 60.1% on year, and the more price-friendly Models 3 and Model Y will together take up 90.4% of the volume, Digitimes Research forecasts.

Tesla sold nearly 500,000 EVs for a global market share of 16% in 2020. Nearly 140,000 units of Model 3 were sold in China for a EV market share of 11% and nearly 88,000 units in Europe for a 6% in 2020.

Tesla has brought in handsome revenues from sales of software consisting of FSD (full self-driving) kits, payable OTA (over the air) functional upgrades, subscription-based infotainment services.

For FSD, the major source of software sales revenues, Tesla initially offered hardware/software-integrated ADAS kits in 2014 and had kept upgrading them until it offered initial FSD in early 2019. FSD/AP HW3.0, the latest FSD version featuring support to Level 5 autonomous driving, was launched in October 2020.

In line with autonomous driving technology development, Tesla plans to establish Robotaxi Network to operate rental self-driving taxicabs, as its new business model.