Tesla has had quite a phenomenal year in 2022. As the year comes to a close and we move into 2023, it’s great to step back and take a look at Tesla’s progress. Tesla shared a thread on Twitter thanking its supporters, employees, and customers for helping to make 2022 a good year for EVs.
Although Tesla shared its long list, we are highlighting a few of those key moments for Tesla.
2022 was a huge year for EVs.
Thank you to Tesla owners, supporters & employees for helping us accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy! ⚡️🚘🔋☀️❤️
— Tesla (@Tesla) December 29, 2022
Tesla started the new year by moving full speed ahead after delivering almost one million vehicles in 2021. In total last year, Tesla delivered 936,172 electric vehicles.
In March, Elon Musk danced as he and Tesla handed over the first made-in-Germany vehicles produced at the newly opened Giga Berlin, which opened in the fall of 2021. At this event, Elon Musk gave a passionate speech about how Giga Berlin would be the gemstone for Europe and the world. He said:
“I’m incredibly excited to hand over the first production cars from our incredible team here at Giga Berlin Brandenburg. This is a great day for the factory, and I just like to thank everyone who helped. Thank you, thank you very much. It really made a big difference.”
“And to the community, Tesla will make sure that this is a gem — a gemstone for the area, for Germany, for Europe, and for the world.”
“Every vehicle that we make will be another step in the direction of a sustainable energy future. We will also make battery storage. So this is going to be very important for storing renewable energy — so, for solar and wind. Because it’s intermittent, it needs to be stored, but we’re extremely confident that the world will transition to a sustainable energy future with the combination of solar, plus battery storage, and electric vehicles.”
“If you have those three legs of the stool, then you can create a sustainable energy future for as long as the sun shines and the wind blows.”
“I want to be clear that sometimes people are sad about the future or they think, well, ‘will we solve sustainable energy?’ and ‘maybe the climate issue is too late’ or something like that. I really want to assure everyone that you can have hope in the future.”
“You should have hope in the future. This problem will be solved. And this factory is a major step in that direction. And so, believe in the future.”
In the following month, Tesla held its grand opening Cyber Rodeo event at Giga Texas. Event goers were invited to tour the factory and see how Tesla manufactured its made-in-Texas Model Y vehicles. I attended and spot-interviewed one of Tesla’s employees, Kyle Wozniak. Tesla displayed its Tesla Semi, Cybertruck, and the next-gen Roadster.
Kyle Wozniak say hi pic.twitter.com/0nHKl0IdMw
— Johnna (@JohnnaCrider1) April 7, 2022
In June, Tesla’s US Energy Markets Policy Lead, Arushi Sharma Frank, gave public comments to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which paved the way for Tesla owners to participate in virtual power plants (VPPs) later this year. On December 15, Tesla officially launched its Tesla Electric for Tesla as a result of the tireless efforts of Frank and her team.
Tesla opened its Megafactory in Lathrop, California, this year also. It broke ground in August, and provided a sneak peek into the Megafactory in October as it ramped up hiring. Tesla held its second AI Day in September and unveiled a working prototype of the Optimus Bot and shared a video of the bot doing work around the office. “Our goal is to make a useful humanoid robot as soon as possible,” Elon Musk said.
In December, Tesla delivered its first Semi to PepsiCo and FritoLay, and following the deliveries, FritoLay showcased one of the trucks in the Modesto Christmas parade. Pepsi announced plans to deploy 100 of the Tesla Semis it purchased in 2023, and the vehicles will deliver products to customers such as Walmart and Kroger.
Although these are not all of Tesla’s achievements for 2022, the highlights show just how much progress it’s made toward accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
Disclosure: Johnna is a $TSLA shareholder and believes in Tesla’s mission.
Your feedback is welcome. If you have any comments or concerns or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter at @JohnnaCrider1.
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News
Tesla expands Robotaxi geofence, but not the garage
This has broadened its geofence to nearly three times the size of Waymo’s current service area, which is great from a comparative standpoint. However, there seems to be something that also needs to be expanded as the geofence gets larger: the size of the Robotaxi fleet.
Tesla has expanded its Robotaxi geofence four times, once as recently as this week.
However, the company has seemingly kept its fleet size relatively small compared to the size of the service area, making some people — even pro-Tesla influencers — ask for more transparency and an expansion of the number of vehicles it has operating.
Over the past four months, Tesla has done an excellent job of maintaining growth with its service area in Austin as it continues to roll out the early stages of what is the Robotaxi platform.
The most recent expansion brought its size from 170 square miles (440.298 sq. km) to 243 square miles (629.367 sq. km).
Tesla sends clear message to Waymo with latest Austin Robotaxi move
This has broadened its geofence to nearly three times the size of Waymo’s current service area, which is great from a comparative standpoint. However, there seems to be something that also needs to be expanded as the geofence gets larger: the size of the Robotaxi fleet.
Tesla has never revealed exactly how many Model Y vehicles it is using in Austin for its partially driverless ride-hailing service (We say partial because the Safety Monitor moves to the driver’s seat for freeway routes).
When it first launched Robotaxi, Tesla said it would be a small fleet size, between 10 and 20 vehicles. In late August, after its second expansion of the service area, it then said it “also increased the number of cars available by 50 percent.”
The problem is, nobody knows how many cars were in the fleet to begin with, so there’s no real concrete figure on how many Robotaxis were available.
This has caused some frustration for users, who have talked about the inability to get rides smoothly. As the geofence has gotten larger, there has only been one mentioned increase in the fleet.
Trying to book a RoboTaxi in the new geofence and can’t get paired with a car.
Really think Tesla needs to add more cars to the fleet in Austin. Has become tougher and tougher to use the service reliably @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/KHqea3oUxU
— Farzad (@farzyness) October 29, 2025
Tesla did not reveal any new figures or expansion plans in terms of fleet size in the recent Q3 Earnings Call, but there is still a true frustration among many because the company will not reveal an exact figure.
News
Tesla recalls 6,197 Cybertrucks for light bar adhesive issue
On October 20, Tesla issued a voluntary recall of the impacted vehicles and has identified 619 warranty claims and just a single field report that is related to the issue.
Tesla has recalled 6,197 Cybertrucks for a light bar adhesive issue that was utilized by Service to install the aftermarket part.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), impacted vehicles may have had the light bar “inadvertently attached to the windshield using the incorrect surface primer.”
Tesla identified an issue with the light bar’s adhesion to glass back in February and worked for months to find a solution. In October, the company performed chemical testing as a part of an engineering study and determined the root cause as the BetaPrime primer it utilized, figuring out that it was not the right surface priming material to use for this specific application.
On October 20, Tesla issued a voluntary recall of the impacted vehicles and has identified 619 warranty claims and just a single field report that is related to the issue.
The component is manufactured by a Romanian company called Hella Romania S.R.L., but the issue is not the primer’s quality. Instead, it is simply the fact that it is not the correct adhesive for this specific type of application.
Tesla says there are no reports of injuries or deaths due to this issue, and it will be resolved. In the 473 report that the NHTSA released this morning, Tesla said:
“At no charge to customers, Tesla will inspect the service-installed optional off-road light bar accessory for delamination or damage and if either is present, replace the light bar with a new light bar adhered with tape and a positive mechanical attachment. If no delamination or damage is present, Tesla will retrofit the service-installed optional off-road light bar accessory with a positive mechanical attachment.”
This is the third recall applied to Cybertrucks this year, as one on March 18 highlighted the potential for exterior trim panels to detach while driving, and another earlier this month when the NHTSA said its front parking lights were too bright.
Tesla resolved the first with a free assembly replacement, while the headlight issue was fixed with an Over-the-Air software update earlier this week. Owners said there was a noticeable difference in the brightness of the lights now compared to previously.
Investor's Corner
Tesla investor Calpers opposes Elon Musk’s 2025 performance award
Musk’s 2025 pay plan will be decided at Tesla’s 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting, which will be held on November 6 in Giga Texas.
One of the United States’ largest pension funds, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers), has stated that it will be voting against Elon Musk’s 2025 Tesla CEO performance award.
Musk’s 2025 pay plan will be decided at Tesla’s 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting, which will be held on November 6 in Giga Texas. Company executives have stated that the upcoming vote will decide Tesla’s fate in the years to come.
Why Calpers opposes Musk’s 2025 performance award
In a statement shared with Bloomberg News, a Calpers spokesperson criticized the scale of Musk’s proposed deal. Calpers currently holds about 5 million Tesla shares, giving its stance meaningful influence among institutional investors.
“The CEO pay package proposed by Tesla is larger than pay packages for CEOs in comparable companies by many orders of magnitude. It would also further concentrate power in a single shareholder,” the spokesperson stated.
This is not the first time Calpers has opposed a major Musk pay deal. The fund previously voted against a $56 billion package proposed for Musk and criticized the CEO’s 2018 performance-based plan, which was perceived as unrealistic due to its ambitious nature at the time. Musk’s 2018 pay plan was later struck down by a Delaware court, though Tesla is currently appealing the decision.
Musk’s 2025 CEO Performance Award
While Elon Musk’s 2025 performance award will result in him becoming a trillionaire, he would not be able to receive any compensation from Tesla unless aggressive operational and financial targets are met. For Musk to receive his full compensation, for example, he would have to grow Tesla’s market cap from today’s $1.1 trillion to $8.5 trillion, effectively making it the world’s most valuable company by a mile.
Musk has also maintained that his 2025 performance award is not about compensation. It’s about his controlling stake at Tesla. “If I can just get kicked out in the future by activist shareholder advisory firms who don’t even own Tesla shares themselves, I’m not comfortable with that future,” Musk wrote in a post on X.
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