Tesla shares hit the skids as sales fall short

TESLA shares tumbled last night as its latest sales figures fell short of sky-high expectations.

The electric car maker booked record sales of £19.1bn in the third quarter – 56pc higher than a year earlier.

But it missed analyst forecasts, sending shares down as much as 7pc in after-hours trading on Wall Street.

The update for the three months to September also raised questions over boss Elon Musk’s plan to boost deliveries by 50pc this year.

Tesla delivered a total of 343,830 new cars in the quarter, just 42pc higher than a year earlier.

Tesla insisted it would still hit the target ‘ over a multiyear horizon’ but fears persist that global economic turmoil and Musk’s takeover of Twitter are taking their toll.

Tesla raked in profits of £4.4bn in the third quarter – 55pc higher than the same period last year. It was boosted by a jump in the average selling price of its cars but was dogged by soaring costs and trouble securing shipping for cars.

Tesla shares soared in 2020 and 2021 as demand for electric cars boomed and governments increasingly looked to discourage the use of petrol and diesel cars.

It made boss Elon Musk ( pictured) the world’s richest person with a net worth of around £ 200bn, overtaking Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. And the boom saw Tesla become the world’s most valuable carmaker, ahead of giants including Toyota, Volkswagen and Ford.

But its shares have dropped more than 45pc since Musk revealed he had taken a 9.2pc stake in Twitter in April.

He then launched a £38bn takeover bid for Twitter – raising fears he will be distracted from his duties as chief executive of Tesla.