Tesla said Monday that deliveries in the last three months of the year rose 18 percent from the previous quarter, disappointing Wall Street analysts and adding to pressure on Elon Musk, the company’s chief executive, to focus on making cars rather than overhauling Twitter.
Tesla said it delivered 405,000 electric cars from October through December. Wall Street analysts had predicted that Tesla would sell around 420,000 vehicles, up from 343,000 vehicles in the third quarter.
The company sold a total of 1.3 million cars in 2022, a 40 percent increase from the year before. That was short of the 50 percent annual growth target Tesla had set for itself.
While the increases were impressive by auto industry standards, Tesla has become the most valuable carmaker in the world by growing at the sizzling rates more commonly associated with Silicon Valley technology companies.
Fourth quarter deliveries were below the forecasts of analysts, who had already lowered their expectations, and less than Tesla executives had suggested just a few months ago. Tesla said it produced 440,000 cars during the quarter, 34,000 more than it delivered, suggesting that supply chain problems and production woes were not the main explanation for disappointing sales.
