Tesla Motors posts 9.4 per cent fall in quarterly deliveries

Jan 3 (Reuters) – Tesla Motors Inc said on Tuesday fourth-quarter deliveries fell 9.4 per cent due to short-term production hurdles from the transition to a new autopilot hardware.

Deliveries fell to about 22,200 vehicles in the fourth quarter from 24,500 vehicles in the preceding quarter.

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Total deliveries for 2016 of 76,230 also fell short of the company’s projection of 80,000 to 90,000.

Shares of the company, led by entrepreneur Elon Musk, were down nearly 2 per cent at $212.90 in extended trading.

Tesla said production challenges, which started at the end of October and lasted through early December, shifted vehicle production towards the end of the quarter, resulting in delayed deliveries.

“We tried to recover these deliveries and expedite others by the end of the quarter, time ran out before we could deliver all customer cars,” the electric carmaker said.

Nearly 2,750 vehicles missed being counted as deliveries in the quarter due to last-minute delays in transport or because of the inability of customer to physically take delivery.

In addition to the fourth-quarter deliveries, about 6,450 cars were in transit and these would be counted in the first quarter, the company said.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)