Tesla reported sales that fell short of Wall Street estimates, citing delivery and production bottlenecks, and prompting Elon Musk to assure investors that demand for his company’s cars remains strong.
Getting cars onto ships and trucks proved especially costly and troublesome in the latest quarter, as much of the electric-vehicle maker’s output was concentrated in the final weeks of the period. That made it tough for Tesla to deliver all the vehicles — and led Chief Executive Officer Musk to address concerns demand may be faltering.
"We have excellent demand for Q4 and we expect to sell every car that we make for as far into the future as we can see,” he said on a conference call Wednesday. "Knock on wood, it looks like we’ll have an epic end of year.”