NEW YORK, Oct 3 — Tesla reported yesterday that its new auto deliveries fell in the third quarter compared with the three months prior, but the company’s full-year volume target stayed unchanged.

The electric automaker led by Elon Musk said the sequential decline "was caused by planned downtimes for factory upgrades,” according to a press release.

Deliveries were 435,059 in the July to September period, down about seven per cent from the three-month stretch before.

Musk, during a July 19 conference call, had signaled that volumes would be lower in the third quarter due to "summer shutdowns for a lot of factory upgrades.”

The Tesla statement did not specify which plants underwent maintenance, but Wedbush analysts said longer than expected downtimes at Shanghai and Austin were responsible for volumes that were "nothing to write home about.”

Production declined 10 per cent from the second quarter to 430,488, according to the figures.

But Tesla confirmed that its full-year volume target of 1.8 million vehicles remained unchanged.

Tesla is set to report quarterly results later this month. In the second quarter, the company scored a surge in revenues to US$24.9 billion (RM117.4 billion) as a series of price cuts boosted sales.

During the second quarter conference call, Musk spoke glowingly of the new Cybertruck, Tesla’s futuristic answer to the American pickup truck model.

Musk has said the Cybertruck would begin deliveries in 2023. Tesla’s statement yesterday did not mention the vehicle.

Shares of Tesla rose 1.4 per cent to US$253.71 in late-morning trading. — AFP