Debt - 2025 Notes - Additional Information (Detail) - 5.30% Senior Notes due in 2025 (2025 Notes) [Member] - Subsequent Event [Member]	Jul. 16, 2021
Debt Instrument [Line Items]
Debt instrument redemption description	On July 16, 2021, we issued a notice of redemption to the holders of the 2025 Notes informing the holders that we will redeem the notes in full in August 2021 at a redemption price equal to 102.65% of outstanding principal amount, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any.
Redemption price of outstanding principal amount	102.65%

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Description of debt redemption features under terms of the debt agreement.

+ References

Reference 1: http://fasb.org/us-gaap/role/ref/legacyRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 942
-SubTopic 470
-Section 50
-Paragraph 3
-Subparagraph e
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=75038535&loc=d3e64711-112823

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentRedemptionDescription
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Percentage price of original principal amount of debt at which debt can be redeemed by the issuer.

+ References

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentRedemptionPricePercentage
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DebtInstrumentAxis=tsla_FivePointThreeZeroPercentSeniorNotesDueTwentyTwentyFiveMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_SubsequentEventTypeAxis=us-gaap_SubsequentEventMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type: