Tesla Builds Its 10 Millionth EV - Halfway to Musk's $1 Trillion Pay Target
Six years after its one millionth vehicle, Tesla hits the midpoint of the production goal tied to Elon Musk's compensation package.
Tesla built its 10 millionth EV today. Six years after rolling out vehicle number one million, the company posted the milestone on X alongside footage from the production line. Crossing 10 million puts Tesla halfway toward the 20 million vehicle target tied to CEO Elon Musk's $1 trillion compensation package.
Four Goals, One Pay Package: Musk Needs 20 Million Vehicles by 2035
Shareholders approved Musk's compensation package last year. Musk must hit four product goals by 2035 to access the full value: 20 million vehicles built, 10 million active FSD subscriptions, one million robots delivered, and one million robotaxis on the road. Tesla currently reports just under 1.5 million FSD subscribers - though whether free trials count toward the official tally remains unclear. SpaceX's $75 billion IPO briefly put Musk among the world's first trillionaires on paper, but the 20 million vehicle goal is the one he is closest to meeting out of the four.
Tesla Has Not Sold 2 Million Vehicles in a Single Year
Two million in a year has not happened. Tesla has yet to hit 2 million vehicle sales in a single calendar year, and US sales fell 13% year-over-year in Q2 2026, pushing the company toward newer markets like Japan, Australia, and Lithuania. At the current sales pace, 20 million total vehicles would take until the early 2030s - and Musk has already walked back his earlier promise of 20 million per year by 2030. Tesla's adjusted EBITDA also needs to reach $400 billion by 2035; it currently sits at $3.27 billion, shrinking under discounts and rising AI and robotics spending.
BYD Crossed 17 Million Before Tesla Reached 10 Million
BYD got there first. China's automaker crossed 17 million new energy vehicles before Tesla hit 10 million - though roughly half of BYD's total were plug-in hybrids, not fully electric. Ford rehired 350 engineers this year after AI failed its EV quality control, and major US automakers broadly retreated from the EV market, leaving Tesla with little domestic scale competition but also a softer home market to sell into. Reaching 20 million with US demand falling and a Chinese rival already far past that threshold is a different milestone than the one Musk originally envisioned.
