WASHINGTON, Jan 3 — Tesla said Sunday it delivered nearly one million vehicles in 2021, almost twice as many as in the previous year, results that were better than expected despite global supply challenges. 

The US electric carmaker delivered more than 936,000 cars of all models in 2021, an increase of 87 per cent over the previous year, the company said in a statement.

Tesla had announced last January that it was aiming to increase deliveries by 50 per cent per year over several years, so Sunday's results far exceeded that goal.

The group, which recently moved its headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Austin, Texas, sold 911,208 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles as well as 24,964 vehicles of its luxury S and X models (at a price of US$90,000 and US$100,000 respectively).

In the fourth quarter alone, Tesla delivered 308,600 cars.

Tesla has managed to overcome global logistics issues that have plagued the auto industry. 

Its chief Elon Musk previously said he was able to get around much of the semiconductor shortage by using new chip designs and rewriting software. 

Tesla got another boost in October when it received an order for 100,000 electric vehicles from the rental company Hertz, to be completed by 2022. 

This announcement brought the automaker into the very select club of companies worth more than US$1 trillion on the stock market. 

Tesla, however, finds itself under scrutiny from the NHTSA auto regulator, which is probing its autopilot system over safety concerns.

The automaker has also agreed to update its software to prevent drivers from playing video games on the car's system while the vehicle is in motion, following a government safety investigation. — AFP