Tesla shares slide on low deliveries

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Shares of electric vehicle maker Tesla took a nose dive Monday after data showed its delivery figures for the third quarter were lower than expected.

The share price for Tesla Inc. (TSLA) was down about 7% as of 10 a.m. EDT to hit $246.90, its lowest in months.

The slump followed the release of data from the company that showed total deliveries of Tesla vehicles during the third quarter reached 343,000.

Deliveries, a proxy for total sales, were expected to reach 364,660 for the quarter, CNBC reported.

Tesla, like other companies, is grappling with higher commodity prices, but also executive turnover. And because of work needed for updates, its production facility in Shanghai was closed for several weeks during the quarter, limiting the car maker's output.

"While Tesla had delivery challenges in the quarter, this is clearly a soft number that the street will fret about," Daniel Ives, managing director and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, told CNN.

While not impacting production and delivery figures directly, the company was also forced to recall almost 1.1 million vehicles in September because of a possible safety issue with its automatic windows

It wasn't all bad news, however. Production figures improved over year-ago levels and from the second quarter. That, however, did little to mask some of the ongoing supply-chain issues.

"As our production volumes continue to grow, it is becoming increasingly challenging to secure vehicle transportation capacity and at a reasonable cost during these peak logistics weeks," the company stated.

Tesla released only production and delivery figures for the third quarter. Financial results are scheduled for release after the market closes on Oct. 19.