Tesla shares sink as shortage of car transporters affects electric car targets

Tesla has missed its electric car delivery targets despite an acceleration in the pace of its production line, blaming a shortage of car transporters. Photo / AP

Tesla has missed its electric car delivery targets despite an acceleration in the pace of its production line, blaming a shortage of car transporters.

The company said a struggle to find companies to move its vehicles meant it shipped fewer electric cars than expected in recent months.

Tesla said in a statement: "As our production volumes continue to grow, it is becoming increasingly challenging to secure vehicle transportation capacity and at a reasonable cost during these peak logistics weeks."

The electric car maker delivered 344,000 vehicles during the three months to September 30, falling short of the 365,000 forecast by analysts.

Shares fell 5.8 per cent in the pre-market in New York on Monday.

Musk said on Twitter he was "smoothing out crazy end of quarter delivery wave to reduce expedite costs and relieve stress on Tesla team".

He added that he was "aiming for steadier deliveries intra-quarter".

"Customer experience suffers when there is an end-of-quarter rush. Steady as she goes is the right move," he tweeted.

Weaker-than-expected deliveries came despite strong production volumes. Tesla made 366,000 vehicles in the quarter, up from 258,580 in the second quarter.

Tesla has set itself a target to produce almost 495,000 Model Y and Model 3s in the fourth quarter of this year, according to Reuters.

Separately on Monday, Chinese electric car rival BYD said it had delivered 200,000 cars in August alone, setting yet another monthly record.

BYD, the Chinese electric car maker, shipped 200,000 vehicles during September according to figures it released on Monday. This was a 15 per cent increase on August's production, comfortably beating Tesla. The company produced 534,164 vehicles in the third quarter.

Tesla competes with BYD in China, which recently announced plans to expand into the UK and Europe.

Analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities called Tesla's weak delivery figure "a logistical speed bump" rather than a cause for serious concern.

"In a nutshell, this quarter was nothing to write home about and the Street will be disappointed by the softer delivery number," said Ives in his note.

"That said, we view this as more of a logistical speed bump rather than the start of a softer delivery trajectory into [the final three months of 2023] and [we] remain bullish on the Tesla story."

Tesla has faced a number of challenges in 2022, including a months-long shutdown of its Shanghai factory thanks to local Covid-19 restrictions that saw workers locked into the factory.

Rival carmakers such as Ford have begun ramping up deliveries of all-electric vehicles, while Chinese competition from BYD is set to hit the UK before the end of 2022. BYD overtook Tesla as the world's biggest electric car company by sales earlier this year.

Musk is also involved in a bitter legal dispute with Twitter over his aborted bid to buy the company. The billionaire is set for a legal showdown with the social media business this month as Twitter attempts to force him to complete his $44 billion offer to buy the company. A trial in Delaware is scheduled to begin on October 17.

On Friday, Musk showed off a prototype of Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus, predicting the electric vehicle maker would be able to produce millions and sell them for under $20,000 apiece.