Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) on Monday reported its third-quarter delivery numbers, which were well short of the initial shipment goal set for the Model 3, its first mass-market car. As per the numbers, the EV maker shipped a total of 220 Model 3 cars and produced 260 of them in the third-quarter. The numbers are well short of the 1,500 Model 3 deliveries that Tesla mentioned in its letter to the shareholders in August.
On Monday, the Palo Alto-based company also talked about the production glitches that have come their way. Further, the EV maker said that it is aware of what needs to be fixed, and are confident of resolving the issues in the near-term.
In a statement to CNBC, the company said, “It is important to emphasize that there are no fundamental issues with the Model 3 production or supply chain. Although the vast majority of manufacturing subsystems at both our California car plant and our Nevada Gigafactory are able to operate at a high rate, a handful have taken longer to activate than expected.”
Further, Tesla said it is on track to meet its target of delivering around 100,000 Model S and Model X cars this year. Tesla has also shown that once it gets the things right, it can easily maintain that speed. For instance, in the third-quarter of 2017, the company delivered about the same number of Model S and Model X vehicles as it did in the first and second of this year, notes Ars Technica.
Though it is not the first time Tesla failed to reach its production goals, it does come as a surprise. For the Model 3 cars, Tesla had aggressive production plans with CEO Elon Musk previously stating that the company is looking forward to manufacturing 5,000 Model 3 cars per week at some point of time this year, and eventually growing that up to 10,000 per week sometime in 2018.
For Tesla investors, thee Model 3 delivery numbers should come as a concern because lately Musk, on whom the company depends heavily for guidance, has been talking about everything else in the world but Tesla, ranging from space travel to the Hyperloop. Musk seems to be treating Tesla as merely a side project, notes The Street. Even Tesla in its annual report notes that though the company is dependent on Musk, he does not dedicate his “full time and attention” to the company.
For the third-quarter, total deliveries increased 4.5% compared to the same period last year. Compared to the last quarter, deliveries were 17.7% higher. In the second-quarter, the company delivered 22,000 vehicles, and informed that around 3,500 vehicles were in transit to the customers at the end of the quarter. Tesla stated that these vehicles will be taken into account in the third-quarter. However, not much has changed this quarter as the company stated that around 4,820 Model S and X vehicles were in transit, and therefore, would be counted in the fourth-quarter, notes Fortune.
On Monday, Tesla shares closed up 0.13% at $341.53. Year to date, the stock is up almost 60% while in the last one-year, it is up over 67%. In pre-market trading today, Tesla shares were in the red.
