Tesla Posts Record Deliveries To Close 2015, Ships 208 Model X SUVs

SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla Motors closed out 2015 on a high note, delivering 17,400 vehicles over the past three months, a record quarter for the Silicon Valley company. Tesla also managed to ship 208 of its Model X crossover SUVs, a vehicle customers had been awaiting for three years.

The strong fourth-quarter delivery figures are up 75 percent year to year and 50 percent more than Tesla's next-highest quarter. With the 17,400 vehicles, Tesla was able to achieve its forecast of 50,000 deliveries in 2015, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Just prior to the start of the fourth quarter, Tesla finally began shipping the Model X, a crossover vehicle that was originally supposed to be released in late 2013. It delivered only 208 vehicles during the period but produced 507 Model X vehicles, and it is now churning out 238 X units per week, according to the Verge. The company is presumably easing into the delivery of this model so as to easily handle any problems that may arise.

At launch, Tesla was producing only about five Model X vehicles per week, but CEO Elon Musk said he expects production to be at full force by March, with the company pumping out between 1,600 and 1,800 of its Model X and the original Model S vehicles per week. The Model S, for its part, saw 17,192 deliveries on the quarter, up 48 percent quarter to quarter.