Tesla sold more cars than ever in 2019 despite Elon Musk's bad tweets

Not even Elon Musk's defamation suit or stoner tweets could keep Tesla from a banner year of selling cars.

Boosted by the growing popularity of the Model 3, Tesla sold 367,500 vehicles in 2019, which is more than the company sold in 2018 (around 245,000) and 2017 (101,312) combined.

It's a nice cap to a year that started out pretty rough for Tesla and, in particular, its investors. The first half of 2019 saw Tesla's stock tumble following Musk's infamous August 2018 tweet claiming he was taking the company private.

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Musk won out in his tussle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was allowed to remain as CEO of the company.

There was also the aforementioned lawsuit over Musk's "pedo guy" comment and the, uh, mixed reaction to the Cybertruck unveiling.

And, yet, Tesla finished 2019 strong with its stock doubling from its sub-$200 per share price in late May to nearly $450 a share Friday morning.

Happy, Tesla investors? Credit: Tesla

Tesla's big fourth quarter has a lot to do with that. During that time, Telsa delivered 112,000 vehicles, 92,550 of which were the Model 3, accounting for nearly a third of its deliveries in 2019.

It also helps that, despite all the jokes, 146,000 Cybertrucks were preordered in the 48 hours after it was unveiled, at least according to Musk.

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Of course, customers only had to pay $100 to place a preorder and the Cybertruck doesn't arrive until late 2021, so plenty of orders could be canceled by then. But those initial numbers, coupled with the Model 3's increasing popularity, prove that Tesla has become a powerful brand beyond its controversial owner.