For the first time in its history, Tesla delivered more than 50,000 cars in one year
Tesla just released in fourth-quarter and full-year 2015 delivery numbers.
The automaker sold 17,400 vehicles in Q4: 17,192 were Model S sedans and 208 were Model X SUVs, the company said in a statement.
In 2015, total deliveries were 50,580, the most ever for Elon Musk's electric-car startup, but on the low side of the 50,000-55,000 guidance that the company provided in the middle of last year.
At the beginning of 2015, Musk said that that Tesla would deliver 55,000 vehicles, but the company later trimmed that back.
In 2014, Tesla managed to build a predicted 35,000 cars, but was unable to deliver them all in the calendar year, with some deliveries slipping into early 2015.
Deliveries have been a closely watched data point for analysts covering Tesla, as well as much of the media. Musk has consistently said that Tesla doesn't have any issues with demand for its vehicles, but rather is constrained in how many it can produce.
However, from the CEO's perspective, Tesla needs to come close to consistently meeting expectations on production and delivery targets, to avoid making customers who have put down deposits wait for their cars and assure investors that the company, with a market cap of around $30 billion, can achieve its goal of building 500,000 vehicles annually by 2020.
In the past few weeks, Tesla observers have expressed the expectation that the automaker would make the low end of its guidance.
Tesla provided a modest amount of commentary on the numbers in a short press release: