(Reuters) -Tesla missed market estimates for third-quarter deliveries on Monday as planned upgrades at its factories forced production halts, sending its shares down 2.4% in early trading.
The electric-vehicle maker handed over 435,059 vehicles in the three months to Sept. 30, down nearly 7% from the preceding quarter, but said its target to deliver 1.8 million vehicles this year remained unchanged.
An LSEG poll of eight analysts estimated deliveries of 459,949 vehicles, with the lowest at 442,000 and the highest at 511,405.
The electric vehicle market has seen a slowdown in the United States, although there are signs of growth, Canalys Research said in its report.
“While Tesla remains a dominant force in the US EV market for 2023, there is an increasing demand for a wider range of EV options to satisfy the growing consumer interest in electric vehicles,” said Ashwin Amberkar, analyst at the market research firm.
The world’s most valuable automaker produced 430,488 vehicles in the third quarter, compared with 479,700 in the second quarter and 365,923 a year earlier.
Some analysts believe the factory upgrades could spark a rebound in deliveries in the fourth quarter by allowing Tesla to refresh its line-up with models that could compete better with offerings from U.S. rivals such as Ford and BYD in China.
The updated Model 3 has a higher price and its China and Europe deliveries are expected to start in the fourth quarter, while a Cybertruck launch event is also expected later this year.
In the third quarter, Tesla cut prices of its premium Model S and Model X by 14-21% in main markets China and the United States.
It also boosted discounts on its mainstay Model 3 and Model Y to as much as over $5,000 in the United States, while cutting prices of Model Y and offering other incentives in China.
The company will report third-quarter results on Oct. 18.
(Reporting by Aditya Soni and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Anil D’Silva)
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