Tesla misses its Model 3 deliveries by a mile

Tesla delivered just 1,550 of its Model 3 sedans in the fourth quarter, widely missing the 2,917 figure that Wall Street was expecting.

The company attributed missed deliveries over the holiday season to a production ramp-up in the final seven days of the quarter, in which it made 793 Model 3s, the company said in a release.

Tesla said it made as many Model 3s since December 9 as it had in the previous four months.

"This is why we were not able to deliver many of these cars during the holiday season, just before the quarter ended," the company said. "Model 3 deliveries to non-employee customers are now accelerating rapidly."

It's a big miss for the most anticipated car of the year, made worse by the CEO and founder Elon Musk's assertion in July that Tesla could hit a monthly Model 3 production target of 20,000 by December.

Looks like we can reach 20,000 Model 3 cars per month in Dec

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 3, 2017

The Model 3, which starts at $35,000, is Tesla's first mass-market vehicle. It was unveiled in March 2016 and released last year.

Tesla said it delivered 29,870 vehicles total in the fourth quarter, including 15,200 of the Model S, 13,120 of the Model X, and 1,550 of the Model 3.

The company said it manufactured 24,565 vehicles, including 2,425 Model 3s.

Heading into the report, Tesla slightly reduced production of the Model S and Model X "because of the reallocation of some of the manufacturing workforce towards Model 3 production, which also caused inventory to decline," it said.

Tesla was trading down 1.34%, at $313 a share, following Wednesday's closing bell.

(BI)