Tesla Production Surges 64%; Misses 4th Quarter Delivery Target

(@FahadShabbir)

Tesla production surges 64%; misses 4th quarter delivery target

WASHINGTON, Jan 3, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 04th Jan, 2017 ) - Electric carmaker Tesla said Tuesday production last year surged 64 percent compared to 2015, but the company it missed its delivery target for the final three months of 2016.

Tesla produced 24,882 vehicles in the final quarter of the year, resulting in total 2016 production of 83,922 vehicles. Because of issues around the transition to new Autopilot auto-driving hardware, "production was weighted more heavily towards the end of the quarter than we had originally planned" and nearly 2,800 vehicles were not delivered, the company said in a statement.

As a result, the share price fell 1.83% to $213.02 around 22.00 GMT in after-hours trading. However, the company said it hit its production goal and had 6,450 vehicles in transit to customers that will count towards to first quarter delivery total.

"We were ultimately able to recover and hit our production goal, but the delay in production resulted in challenges that impacted quarterly deliveries, including, among other things, cars missing shipping cutoffs for Europe and Asia," the company said.

Even if the vehicles were fully paid for, they did not count these as deliveries in the fourth quarter unless the customer received the vehicle and completed all the paperwork. Vehicle demand late in the year was particularly strong, with net orders for Model S and X at an all-time record and 52% higher than the fourth quarter of 2015.