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Equity Incentive Plans - Additional Information (Detail)	1 Months Ended				3 Months Ended			9 Months Ended
	Oct. 31, 2020 USD ($)	Mar. 31, 2018 USD ($) Tranches milestone shares	Dec. 31, 2014 Tranches shares	Aug. 31, 2012 Tranches shares	Sep. 30, 2020 USD ($) shares	Jun. 30, 2020 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2019 USD ($)	Sep. 30, 2020 USD ($) Vehicle $ / shares shares	Sep. 30, 2019 USD ($)
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Contractual term of stock options, in years								10 years
Unrecognized compensation expense					$ 2,910,000,000			$ 2,910,000,000
Weighted-average period of recognition of unrecognized compensation, in years								2 years 8 months 12 days
Stock-based compensation								$ 1,101,000,000	$ 617,000,000
Aggregate number of vehicle production \| Vehicle								300,000
Income tax benefit from stock option exercises								$ 0
Upon Completion of First Model X Production Vehicle [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Portion of stock options scheduled to vest upon successful completion of performance objectives								25.00%
Upon Achieving Aggregate Production of 100,000 Vehicles in Trailing 12-month Period [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Portion of stock options scheduled to vest upon successful completion of performance objectives								25.00%
Aggregate number of vehicle production \| Vehicle								100,000
Upon Completion of First Gen III Production Vehicle [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Portion of stock options scheduled to vest upon successful completion of performance objectives								25.00%
Annualized Gross Margin of Greater Than 30% for Any Three Year Period [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Portion of stock options scheduled to vest upon successful completion of performance objectives								25.00%
Gross margin								30.00%
Fourth Tranche [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Aggregate number of vehicle production \| Vehicle								100,000
Third Tranche [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Aggregate number of vehicle production \| Vehicle								200,000
2019 Equity Incentive Plan [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Shares were reserved for issuance \| shares					52,000,000			52,000,000
2018 CEO Performance Award [Member] \| Chief Executive Officer [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Number of stock options grant \| shares		101,320,210
Number of vesting tranches CEO Performance Award consists \| Tranches		12
Increase to market capitalization for each remaining milestone		$ 50,000,000,000.0
Number of operational milestones focused on total revenue \| milestone		8
Number of operational milestones focused on adjusted EBITDA \| milestone		8
Award vesting description								Each of the 12 vesting tranches of the 2018 CEO Performance Award will vest upon certification by the Board of Directors that both (i) the market capitalization milestone for such tranche, which begins at $100.0 billion for the first tranche and increases by increments of $50.0 billion thereafter (based on both a six calendar month trailing average and a 30 calendar day trailing average, counting only trading days), has been achieved, and (ii) any one of the following eight operational milestones focused on total revenue or eight operational milestones focused on Adjusted EBITDA have been achieved for the previous four consecutive fiscal quarters on an annualized basis.
Holding period of shares post-exercise		5 years
Payment of exercise price per share \| $ / shares								$ 70.01
Operational milestones based on total revenue						$ 20,000,000,000.0
Stock-based compensation					$ 338,000,000		$ 56,000,000	$ 571,000,000	167,000,000
2018 CEO Performance Award [Member] \| Chief Executive Officer [Member] \| Operational Milestones Probable of Being Achieved [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Annualized Adjusted EBITDA of operational milestone					6,000,000,000.0	4,500,000,000
Recognized catch-up expense during period					77,000,000	79,000,000
Unrecognized compensation expense					354,000,000			$ 354,000,000
Weighted-average period of recognition of unrecognized compensation, in years								2 years 4 months 24 days
2018 CEO Performance Award [Member] \| Chief Executive Officer [Member] \| Operational Milestones Not Considered Probable Achievement [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Unrecognized compensation expense					888,000,000			$ 888,000,000
2018 CEO Performance Award [Member] \| Chief Executive Officer [Member] \| First Tranche Milestone [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Market capitalization		$ 100,000,000,000.0
Market capitalization achieved						100,000,000,000.0
Unamortized expense						$ 22,000,000
2018 CEO Performance Award [Member] \| Chief Executive Officer [Member] \| Second Tranche Milestone [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Market capitalization achieved					150,000,000,000.0
Unamortized expense					95,000,000			95,000,000
Annualized Adjusted EBITDA of operational milestone					1,500,000,000
2018 CEO Performance Award [Member] \| Chief Executive Officer [Member] \| Third Tranche Milestone [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Market capitalization achieved					200,000,000,000.0
Unamortized expense					118,000,000			118,000,000
Annualized Adjusted EBITDA of operational milestone					3,000,000,000.0
2018 CEO Performance Award [Member] \| Chief Executive Officer [Member] \| Fourth Tranche Milestone [Member] \| Scenario Forecast [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Market capitalization achieved	$ 250,000,000,000.0
Unamortized expense	122,000,000
Annualized Adjusted EBITDA of operational milestone	$ 4,500,000,000
2014 Performance-based Stock Option Grants [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Number of stock options grant \| shares			5,365,000
Stock-based compensation					0		0	0	0
Number of vesting tranches \| Tranches			4
2014 Performance-based Stock Option Grants [Member] \| Performance Condition Not Considered Probable Achievement [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Unrecognized compensation expense					4,000,000			4,000,000
2012 CEO Performance Award [Member] \| Chief Executive Officer [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Number of stock options grant \| shares				26,374,505
Number of vesting tranches CEO Performance Award consists \| Tranches				10
Market capitalization					4,000,000,000.00			4,000,000,000.00
Initial market capitalization					3,200,000,000			3,200,000,000
2012 CEO Performance Award [Member] \| Chief Executive Officer [Member] \| Performance Condition Not Considered Probable Achievement [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Unrecognized compensation expense					6,000,000			6,000,000
Fourth Tranche [Member] \| Chief Executive Officer [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Stock-based compensation					$ 0		$ 0	$ 0	$ 0
Maximum [Member] \| Stock Options [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Vesting period, in years								4 years
Maximum [Member] \| RSUs [Member]
Share Based Compensation Arrangement By Share Based Payment Award [Line Items]
Vesting period, in years								4 years