Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares dropped in pre-market trading after the electric cars firm said “production bottlenecks” has left the firm behind its planned ramp-up for its new Model 3 as it reported that deliveries were up by 4.5% year-on-year in the third quarter.
In after-market trading, Tesla shares were around 2.4% to US$333.25.
In a statement after New York trading hours,Tesla said it delivered 26,150 vehicles in the third quarter, including 14,065 Model S vehicles and 11,865 Model X cars, up 17.7% from the second quarter of this year.
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But the company delivered just 220 Model 3 sedans, having produced 260 during the quarter. Production of the Model 3, which starts at $35,000 - half the starting price of Tesla’s Model S – began in July
Tesla had said in its second quarter financial report that it expects “to achieve a rate of 5,000 Model 3 vehicles per week by the end of 2017.”
The automaker also said it expects at some point in 2018 to further ramp to a rate of “10,000 Model 3 vehicles per week,” and an annual production rate in excess of 500,000 vehicles.
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In its third quarter statement, Tesla said: “It is important to emphasise that there are no fundamental issues with the Model 3 production or supply chain.”
It added: “We understand what needs to be fixed and we are confident of addressing the manufacturing bottleneck issues in the near term.”
Tesla said it was on track to deliver around 100,000 S and X models this year.
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