Tesla delivered 90,700 cars in Q4, Wall Street freaks out

Enlarge / Tesla’s Fremont factory in July 2018. (credit: Mason Trinca for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Tesla produced a record number of cars in the final quarter of 2018, the company reported on Wednesday. Tesla produced 61,394 Model 3s, a 15 percent gain from the previous quarter. Production of the Model S and Model X totaled 25,161 units—slightly below last quarter’s figure of 26,903.

This represented a new overall production record, but Wall Street wasn’t impressed. As I write this, Tesla’s shares are down about 8 percent for the day to $305.

Tesla produced about 4,700 Model 3 vehicles per week in the fourth quarter. Notably, that’s still below the 5,000-car weekly production rate Tesla achieved—however briefly—in the final week of June. It’s also well below targets previously articulated by CEO Elon Musk.