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All eyes are on Tesla as it begins its transformation into a mass-market manufacturer.
But the electric vehicle maker helmed by Elon Musk fell far short of its goal of producing 1,500 of its new Model 3 vehicles in the third quarter, as it announced today. Tesla only produced 260 of its first mass-market vehicle as of the end of the quarter — not even 20 percent of its goal.
The company attributed that to “production bottlenecks,” but says there are no “fundamental issues with the Model 3 production or supply chain.” Shares fell less than 2 percent in after-hours trading, according to Google Finance.
“Although the vast majority of manufacturing subsystems at both our California car plant and our Nevada Gigafactory are able to operate at high rate, a handful have taken longer to activate than expected,” the press release reads. “It is important to emphasize that there are no fundamental issues with the Model 3 production or supply chain. We understand what needs to be fixed and we are confident of addressing the manufacturing bottleneck issues in the near-term.”
The always-ambitious Musk was confident at the handover of the first Model 3s that Tesla would be able to produce 5,000 cars a week by the end of 2017.
That said, the company marked a new record high of cars delivered, and now expects to far exceed the original goal of delivering a little more than 47,000 cars in the second half of the year. Tesla delivered 26,150 cars in the third quarter, and expects to deliver 100,000 cars in 2017.
There is a lot riding on the next few months for Tesla, as the industry and Wall Street watch closely to see whether the company will be able to successfully manufacture a mass-market car. Tesla has struggled to meet a number of its production and delivery deadlines in the past, and posted a record quarterly loss in August.
Still, Tesla continues to lead in EV sales in the U.S. — though both General Motors and Ford expect to push harder into EVs. GM, for its part, outlined its EV plans during a press call on Monday, saying that it expected to unveil two new all-electric cars in the next 18 months. The company said that it planned to launch at least 20 new EVs by 2023.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
