Lengthy earlier than Tesla CEO Elon Musk was gathering his Individual of the Yr awards from Time and the Monetary Instances this month, the automaker was celebrating a exceptional rise to the highest ranks of the worldwide auto business.

Amid social media squabbles sparked by Musk’s provocative Twitter feed, Tesla was delivering the laborious numbers over the course of 2021 that disproved the harshest critics of each the corporate and of electrical automobiles generally.

Tesla delivered 241,391 automobiles and crossovers globally within the third quarter, a 73 p.c improve from a 12 months earlier. Income was $13.8 billion and internet earnings got here in at $1.62 billion, beating forecasts.

Within the U.S., Tesla’s Mannequin Y crossover and Mannequin 3 sedan scored as the most well-liked automobiles supplied by any premium model via October, in keeping with new-vehicle registration information from Experian.

“This has been an ideal 12 months for Tesla,” mentioned Jessica Caldwell, government director of insights at Edmunds. “And the corporate is in a singular place by sustaining vital demand for its extra reasonably priced, high-volume merchandise.”

As well as, she mentioned, Tesla has managed to keep up its fame because the “cool child on the block,” even whereas going mainstream.

Tesla is on observe to supply about 900,000 automobiles this 12 months from its crops in Fremont, Calif., and Shanghai. In 2022, the automaker is predicted to start manufacturing at new factories in Berlin and Austin, Texas.

Whereas Tesla pushed again its 2021 launch date for the extremely anticipated Cybertruck popping out of the Austin plant, the corporate mentioned manufacturing will begin after a ramp-up subsequent 12 months of the Texas-built Mannequin Y.

“We will develop as shortly as is feasibly potential with a watch towards a 50 p.c annual progress price,” CFO Zach Kirkhorn mentioned on the automaker’s third-quarter earnings name. For the quarter, he mentioned, Tesla’s automotive gross margin reached a file 31 p.c.

The corporate additionally crossed $1 trillion in market worth in late October, reflecting its notion as extra of a tech innovator than a maker of automobiles and lightweight vans.

Alongside the best way, Tesla and Musk have been embraced by key gamers within the auto business institution, who’ve taken a cue from Tesla’s success to push their very own firms to do extra.

Jim Farley, CEO of Ford Motor Co., took to Twitter to congratulate Musk on his Time award with a serious nod to Tesla’s means to disrupt the business.

“Elon says: ‘Our intent with Tesla was all the time that we might serve for example to the automotive business,’ ” Farley tweeted final week. “Mission completed. Congrats @ElonMusk.”

Musk returned the favor a couple of days later: “Congrats @jimfarley98,” Musk wrote in response to an article on Ford’s plans to extend manufacturing of its Mach-E crossover, a severe Mannequin Y competitor. Farley final week was named 2022 MotorTrend Individual of the Yr for pushing formidable automobiles such because the Mach-E and Bronco SUV.

One other institution Tesla fan is Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess. He had Musk dial right into a VW government assembly in October, throughout which the world’s richest particular person spoke for greater than an hour.

Diess acquired some pushback.

“I am typically being requested why I hold evaluating us with Tesla. I do know that it is annoying some folks,” Diess instructed staff final month, in keeping with Bloomberg. “Nevertheless it’s my job, and that of the whole administration, to evaluate the competitors accurately, to arrange the group for it and make it future-proof.”

And if ever there was an indication of Tesla’s rising mainstream embrace, Hertz introduced in late October that it ordered 100,000 Tesla automobiles for its rental fleet, beginning with the Mannequin 3.

“How will we democratize entry to electrical automobiles? That is an important a part of our technique,” Hertz interim CEO Mark Fields instructed Bloomberg. “Tesla is the one producer that may produce EVs at scale,” mentioned Fields, who beforehand was CEO of Ford.

To make sure, it hasn’t been all wine and roses for Musk and Tesla over the previous 12 months. Actually, the corporate is below better scrutiny from regulators and traders because it pushes new software program that guarantees to show its automobiles sometime into robotaxis.

Tesla’s rollout this 12 months of incomplete Full Self-Driving software program, which requires drivers to always monitor and proper wayward automobiles, has been one thing of a fail for Tesla. Though many hundreds of householders have paid as much as $10,000 for the function, Tesla has solely enabled it for small teams of them based mostly on a computer-generated driving rating.

In August, Musk himself known as an early 9.2 beta model of the software program “really not nice.” However in late October, he predicated its eventual worth might be immense.

“The day FSD goes to huge launch might be one of many greatest asset-value will increase in historical past,” he wrote on Twitter.

In November, NHTSA mentioned that Tesla was recalling Full Self-Driving software program in almost 12,000 automobiles due to a communication error that might trigger a false forward-collision warning or set off the automated emergency braking system needlessly. Tesla homeowners complained of “phantom braking.”

Musk has additionally grown bolder in criticizing lawmakers over tax coverage and regulators over perceived bias in opposition to Tesla — typically with insults. This month, he instructed the Wall Avenue Journal that the Biden administration ought to kill its Construct Again Higher Act that features funding for EV charging and tax breaks for EV consumers.

Tesla additionally faces proprietor complaints relating to poor construct high quality, uneven customer support, abrupt value will increase and lengthy delays for fashionable automobile trims. A typical theme on social media amongst Tesla consumers is complaints about their automobiles or service, however with the caveat that there is not any actual various out there.

However that could possibly be altering as automakers lastly take Tesla critically and supply their very own EVs. New opponents are gunning for Tesla.

Edmunds predicts that EV market share within the U.S. will attain a file 4 p.c, or 600,000 automobiles, subsequent 12 months. It additionally estimates Tesla’s EV market share will fall to 46 p.c, from 65 p.c this 12 months.

“That is Tesla’s second within the solar,” Caldwell mentioned. “And it is good that the corporate is capitalizing on it earlier than different manufacturers roll out compelling EVs, which is able to undoubtedly eat into its market share”

“At this level,” she mentioned, “Tesla’s greatest manner ahead is rising the EV market base and having a bigger variety of prospects to promote to.”