An annual production of 500,000 automobiles will put Tesla squarely in the #1 spot for luxury production 3x more than Mercedes.
Mercedes-Benz produced 1.49 million vehicles in 2013 and BMW produced 1.8 million in 2012 worldwide.
If you look at global auto sales[0] Tesla will be one of the largest, read top 5, auto manufacturers in the USA depending on how you slice the pie between domestic and international sales.
That would be far more impressive if there weren't only 3 major US car manufacturers (Chrysler, Ford & GM). In fact, Tesla must be the #4 largest US automaker right now.
I believe the key term of the parent comment you're replying to in your first statement is "luxury production". While Mercedes and BMW both produce a large number of luxury vehicles, they also produce a large number of non-luxury vehicles such as trucks, buses, vans, motorcycles (BMW only) and even garbage trucks.
For global auto sales from US manufacturers, I'm guessing that companies like Paccar and Oshkosh are keeping Tesla out of the top five currently. They make trucks and commercial vehicles so people tend to overlook them when it comes to comparing auto manufacturers.
Still, I do agree with the underlying message of your post. It's not like there are a ton of US auto companies left.
Even still, Tesla's plan isn't to become a luxury car company- they've been clear from the beginning that they've started with luxury as a way to bootstrap development. I'm guessing that the 500k cars a year that they're looking for is also going to include those new "standard" models.
I doubt that they plan on 500,000 luxury sales. If so that would pretty much mean abandoning any pretense of having a mass market electric car.
I would hope that they think they will put this towards a sub 40k car, or better yet below 30k which is where many of the smaller electrics are now.
Still a large factor like opens the possibility of packs not certified for cars being given other uses. Put in Texas and reap the power of the wind to power the factory too!
Mercedes-Benz produced 1.49 million vehicles in 2013 and BMW produced 1.8 million in 2012 worldwide.
If you look at global auto sales[0] Tesla will be one of the largest, read top 5, auto manufacturers in the USA depending on how you slice the pie between domestic and international sales.
That would be far more impressive if there weren't only 3 major US car manufacturers (Chrysler, Ford & GM). In fact, Tesla must be the #4 largest US automaker right now.