Your Tesla Model 3 wait just got longer

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SAN FRANCISCO — Your Tesla Model 3 delivery wait just got a little longer.

Tesla announced Wednesday that it had delivered a total of 29,870 cars in the last quarter of 2017, which includes just 1,550 Model 3 sedans. While overall that's up from the 25,336 vehicles delivered in Q3, the all-important Model 3 numbers were well below what analysts anticipated and what Tesla CEO Elon Musk once predicted.

The newly released production numbers did not thrill investors as Tesla's stock, which closed down 1% at $317, continued dropping in after hours trading.

More than 400,000 people have put down $1,000 deposits for the right to order a $35,000-and-up Model 3, whose success many analysts say is critical to Tesla's survival as a mass market manufacturer. Currently, the Palo Alto-based automaker annually sells around 100,000 high-end Model S and Model X sedans whose price tags can easily top $100,000.

In order to fill all those Model 3 pre-orders, Musk initially had promised that his company would making 5,000 Model 3 units per week by the end of 2017, and around 10,000 a week — or around 500,000 Model 3s a year — by the end of 2018.

Analysts at Evercore ISI wrote in a note before the numbers were announced that "finishing the year with a weekly run-rate of (around) 1k units a week would be positive in our view, a run-rate of 750 to 1k units a week would be par, while anything under 750 a week would leave plenty of scaling to be achieved over the next 90 days if Tesla is indeed to meet its targets."

In a statement, Tesla officials said the company continues to "focus on quality and efficiency rather than simply pushing for the highest possible volume in the shortest period of time," and anticipates ending Q1 2018 at a weekly rate of about 2,500 Model 3 vehicles, and wrapping Q2 making 5,000 Model 3s per week.

Tesla supported that projection by noting that in the last seven days of Q4, the company made 793 Model 3s after addressing production issues. The company also said 860 Model 3s were in transit to customers at the end of the last quarter and would be booked as Q1 deliveries. All told, Tesla built 2,425 Model 3s in Q4.

While still comparatively low, these new Q4 Model 3 numbers represent a notable leap beyond Q3's tally, when a mere 220 vehicles were Model 3s. That was far shy of the 1,500 new-model units Tesla had expected to produce in the quarter, a shortfall company officials attributed to those same "production bottlenecks."

Musk was typically candid at the official unveiling of the Model 3 at Tesla's Fremont plant last July, saying that the company was in "production hell" with its new mass-market model.

Not helping matters were hundreds of layoffs at the Fremont plant, which the company said was a culling related to poor performance reviews and not a staffing cutback.

And while Musk clearly understanding how vital the Model 3 is to Tesla's survival, he has chosen to simultaneously ramp up other ambitious plans that include rocketing to Mars, starting The Boring Company to build tunnels for a high-speed hyperloop transportation network, taking orders for an electric Tesla Semi, and offering a sneak peak of the forthcoming Tesla Roadster replacement.

Follow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter.

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