Production under-utilisation issue looming for Tesla?

Tesla's global deliveries remain firmly below 2 million units on a 12-month rolling annualised basis, despite the company's record Q3 2025 volume result.

Tesla delivered a record 497,009 new models globally during the most recent quarter, according to official company data; however, that only corrected previous slow quarters rather than creating a further uplift for the company that continues to expand further into fringe markets, such as Japan (when it comes to BEV uptake) as its volumes slow in established markets such as Europe. Third quarter volumes were also boosted by the non-recurring effect of an increase in domestic EV demand across the US, prior to EV tax credits ending from October.

According to company data, Tesla has sufficient online capacity to manufacture 2.35 million vehicles annually, with underutilization of certain plants increasingly becoming an issue for the company as it planned to expand at a potentially faster rate than its current trajectory.

Its current 12-month rolling volumes indicate that 1.71 million vehicles were delivered between Q4 2024 and Q3 2025, which would indicate a utilisation rate of between 70-75% globally.

Our full industry studies can be downloaded here (€). 

Source: Schmidt Automotive Research 

Download our full studies here

---

All of our reports, which feature exclusively researched data, can be purchased here. ◼︎︎

---

*Western Europe 18 Markets: EU Member States prior to the 2004 enlargement plus EFTA markets Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, plus UK