Tesla sinks as the EV maker's 3rd-quarter deliveries notch a new record but fall short of expectations

• Tesla shares dropped nearly 9% Monday after the EV maker's Q3 report on deliveries missed analyst expectations.
• Deliveries of 343,830 marked a new record but also fell short of an estimate of roughly 358,000 vehicles.

Tesla shares slid to their lowest price in more than two months Monday after the electric vehicle maker posted quarterly deliveries that missed expectations even as they set a record.

Shares dropped 8.6% to close the session at $242.40, the lowest finish since July 18.

Tesla on Sunday said it produced 365,923 vehicles and delivered 343,830 in the third quarter. The deliveries marked a new record but were below the nearly 358,000 vehicles expected in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

The company cited delivery issues for the production and delivery gap of 22,093 vehicles.

"As our production volumes continue to grow, it is becoming increasingly challenging to secure vehicle transportation capacity and at a reasonable cost during these peak logistics weeks," said Tesla. It said an increase in cars in transit at the end of the reporting period will be delivered after they arrive at their destination.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk also addressed the delivery situation in a question posed to him on Twitter.

"Smoothing out crazy end of quarter delivery wave to reduce expedite costs & relieve stress on Tesla team. Aiming for steadier deliveries intra-quarter," Musk wrote in a Sunday tweet.

"While the reasoning (in the PR) from Tesla makes sense on paper, the Street will not be convinced and lingering worries about demand issues will persist until we hear around year-end unit guidance on Tesla's conference call October 19th," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a Sunday note.

Ives said it views the deliveries report as "more of a logistical speed bump" rather than the start of a softer delivery trajectory into the fourth quarter of 2023. "We believe the unit set-up into 4Q is very robust and could approach massive numbers that are in the 475k+ range," Ives wrote.

Reuters reported late last week that Tesla has set an ambitious target to produce about 495,000 Model Y and Model 3 vehicles in the fourth quarter of this year. The report cited internal company plans reviewed by Reuters. The two vehicle models account for roughly 95% of Tesla's output.

Tesla shares year-to-date have lost about 25% in part as large-cap tech stocks broadly have sunk into a bear market as the Federal Reserve pushes up interest rates. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite has fallen by 31% in 2022.