Tesla delivers over 100,000 electric vehicles in 2017, still falls short of Model 3 production goals – report

Tesla has announced that deliveries of its electric vehicles has surpassed the 100,000-unit mark for the first time last year, according to a report by The Verge. In total, 101,312 units of the Model S and Model X found homes in 2017, an increase of 33% over the previous year.

During the forth quarter of the year, the company delivered 29,870 cars, with 15,200 of those being the Model S and 13,120 made up of Model Xs. Despite just 1,550 units of the new entry-level Model 3 reaching customers’ hands during that quarter, it all adds up to a 9% increase over the third quarter and a 27% jump compared to the same period in 2016.

The Palo Alto-based carmaker added that it built 2,425 units of the Model 3 during that quarter, with 793 built during the last seven days of the quarter – about 10 times the amount produced in the third quarter. To make way for the new car, Model S and Model X production was reduced during that period.

“As a result of the significant growth in our production rate, we made as many Model 3s since December 9 as we did in the more than four months of Model 3 production up to that point,” Tesla said in a statement. “This is why we were not able to deliver many of these cars during the holiday season, just before the quarter ended.”

Despite this, the company is behind schedule on the Model 3, with Tesla saying that it will have a slower-that-planned production ramp up in the first quarter of 2018. It now intends to build 2,500 units per week during this period, with the original target of 5,000 units per week – originally planned for the end of 2017 – now pushed back to the second quarter of this year.

Its eventual goal of making 10,000 cars per week has also been postponed indefinitely; nevertheless, Tesla said that Model 3 deliveries to non-employee customers “are now accelerating rapidly.” The company’s earnings report for the quarter and for 2017 is expected to be released in the coming weeks, which should provide a better understanding of its vitals, and what kind of delivery targets it hopes to hit this year.