Tesla has fallen short of Wall Street expectations by revealing that it delivered just 1550 examples of the Model 3 in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Confirmation of these lower-than-expected delivery figures come just a couple of days after the Californian EV startup pushed back its target of producing 5000 Model 3 sedans per week until the end of the second quarter. Tesla initially intended on reaching this mark at the end of December.

On the back of these revelations, shares in Tesla fell by 1.7 per cent to $312 in after-market trading.

Many analysts believed Model 3 production would ramp up significantly in the fourth quarter this year and that roughly 4100 examples would be delivered.

Beyond the Model 3, Tesla says it delivered 15,200 Model S vehicles and 13,120 Model X SUVs in the fourth quarter, bringing total deliveries up to 29,870.

In a statement, Tesla said Model 3 production is increasing.

“In the last seven working days of the quarter, we made 793 Model 3s, and in the last few days, we hit a production rate on each of our manufacturing lines that extrapolates to over 1,000 Model 3s per week.”

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