Tesla notches best production and delivery results

Tesla notched up the best vehicle production delivery results, building 25,418 Model S sedans and Model X crossover vehicles in the quarter that ended 31 March.

This was in line with the guidance which was given to shareholders earlier this year. According to commentators, though it was a positive development in itself, it did not quite measure up to CEO Elon Musk's goal of quintupling Tesla production to a half million units by 2018.

The Palo Alto, California-based company's figures were slightly above its previous quarterly high of 25,185 in last year's third quarter.

Global delivery of Teslas, which often cost more than $100,000 each, totaled ''a little bit more than 25,000,'' or 69 per cent better than in the first quarter of 2016, according to the company. That included about 13,450 units of Model S and 11,550 of Model X. The figures released 2 April were preliminary estimates that could vary by 0.5 per cent from final according to Tesla.

Musk raised over $1.2 billion in a stock and debt sale last month to help fund costs related to producing the Model 3, Tesla's first widely affordable electric car, which is expected to retail at about $35,000.

''It's all about the Model 3 right now, but this is very good news,'' Ben Kallo, an analyst at Robert W Baird & Co, said in an interview, Bloomberg reported. ''25,000 units is the best we could have thought, and people are looking at Model 3 for growth.''

Meanwhile, investors pushed up Tesla shares 30 per cent this year in anticipation of the Model 3 and on news that Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd had taken a 5 per cent stake. Its $45.4 billion market value was only $870 million less than Ford Motor Co, which produced millions of vehicles a year.