Elon Musk said Tesla has produced more than 3 million cars to date, and it highlights just how much smaller the company is than the auto giants it's up against

• Tesla has produced over 3 million cars to date, with 1 million of them made in its Shanghai factory.
• CEO Elon Musk said "production is a much bigger challenge than demand" for the EV maker.

Tesla has produced over three million cars so far, with one-third of them coming from the company's Gigafactory in Shanghai, CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Sunday.

Musk was congratulating Tesla Shanghai on making its one-millionth car, which came amid months of lockdowns and COVID-19 restrictions in China. Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory opened in 2019.

While producing over 3 million cars is a milestone for Tesla, the electric-vehicle maker still lags far behind output from legacy car companies. Toyota, the world's largest car maker, delivered over 10 million cars, while Volkswagen, the world's second-biggest auto maker, delivered almost 9 million cars — and that's just in 2021 alone.

However, Tesla does have strong demand going for it: Musk said Sunday on Twitter that "production is a much bigger challenge than demand" for the company.

On Tesla's second-quarter earnings call in July, Musk said the company has been in "supply chain hell" for the past few years but could have a "record-breaking" second half of 2022.

In July, Tesla announced that it delivered more than 250,000 cars in the second quarter of the year. That's 18% lower on-quarter due to supply chain issues and a shortage of parts, but the delivery number represented a 27% increase from a year ago. Tesla produces cars in California, Texas, and Berlin.

Tesla's share price closed 4.7% higher at $900.09 on Friday. The stock is down 25% this year so far.