Tesla's record car sales fall short of Wall Street estimates

Results add to pressure on CEO Elon Musk to focus on the carmaker instead of Twitter

Tesla said on Monday that deliveries in the last three months of the year rose 18 percent from the previous quarter, disappointing Wall Street analysts and adding to pressure on Mr Elon Musk, the company's chief executive, to focus on making cars rather than overhauling Twitter.

Tesla said it delivered 405,000 electric cars from October to December.

It was a record number but Wall Street analysts had predicted that Tesla would sell around 420,000 vehicles, up from 343,000 vehicles in the third quarter.

The company sold a total of 1.3 million cars in 2022, a 40 percent increase from the year before. This was short of the 50 percent annual growth target that Tesla had set for itself.

While the increases were impressive by auto industry standards, Tesla has become the most valuable carmaker in the world by growing at the sizzling rates more commonly associated with Silicon Valley technology companies.

In recent months, Tesla has appeared vulnerable to competition from established carmakers and to rising borrowing rates that made its electric cars more expensive for people taking out loans.

Indications that Tesla is mortal have contributed to a 65 percent decline in Tesla shares in 2022, and led investors to focus more on conventional measures like sales and profits rather than dreams of world domination.