TESLA POSTS FIRST QUARTERLY INCREASE IN DELIVERIES, BUT SHARES SLUMP WITH INVESTORS HOPING FOR MORE

Low interest financing, sweet lease deals, price cuts and free charging boosted Tesla’s global deliveries in the third quarter, the first increase this year for the electric vehicle maker.

- 

The Austin, Texas, company said this week that it delivered 462,890 vehicles from July through September, bolstered by loans as low as 1.99%, and $299 monthly leases on the Model 3, its least expensive vehicle. It delivered 435,059 vehicles during the same period last year.

The figures for July through September came in slightly higher than analyst estimates of 462,000 for the period, according to data provider FactSet.

However, shares of Tesla Inc. dropped sharply in morning trading, down nearly 4%.

The deliveries were “good and a step in the right direction,” wrote Dan Ives of Wedbush, but that there would be pressure on the company’s stock because investors had been hoping for even better.