Elon Musk says Tesla delivered fewer cars in Q3 than it made because there weren't enough trains, carriers, and boats to transport them

• Elon Musk said a shortage of carriers, trains, and boats affected Tesla's ability to deliver vehicles.
• Musk made the comments during Tesla's third-quarter earnings call Wednesday.

Elon Musk said a shortage of auto carriers, trains, and boats has affected Tesla's ability to deliver vehicles to customers during the third quarter of 2022.

In the three months that ended September 30, Tesla produced 365,923 vehicles and delivered 343,830 to customers.

That's a new company record but was below analysts' expectations and the 22,000 deficit was a bigger gap than usual.

"There weren't enough boats, there weren't enough trains, there weren't enough car carriers," Musk told investors on an earnings call Wednesday.

Musk has previously said that Tesla would produce more than 1.5 million vehicles this year. The latest results show it's made 929,910 so far, meaning it would have to make roughly 570,000 units by year's end to meet that goal.

Zachary Kirkhorn, Tesla's CFO, said the issue was particularly present for ships from Shanghai to Europe as well as "local trucking within certain parts of the US and Europe."

Musk said that Tesla is working to "smooth out its deliveries" to avoid having a "crazy delivery wave" at the end of each quarter.

Representatives for Tesla did not immediately respond to Insider's request for further comment made outside of normal working hours.

Automakers globally have been battling supply chain shortages, backlogs, and rising raw materials costs, especially for the precious metals crucial for making batteries.

Tesla has cited global factors for hindering the company's production and delivery in the last two quarters, including an enforced shutdown of its Shanghai factory and supply chain issues that have been exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Despite a larger deliveries deficit than usual, Tesla enjoyed a strong profit of $3.3 billion, more than double the $1.6 billion it made during the same period last year. Total revenue stood at $21.45 billion, less than Wall Street analyst estimates. Tesla shares opened down nearly 9% on Thursday.

Musk told investors the company has "excellent demand for Q4" and expects to sell every car it makes.

Correction: October 20, 2022 — An earlier version of this story misstated the last name of Tesla's CFO. It is Zachary Kirkhorn.