Tesla Motors delivered just 220 Model 3s so far; says "production bottlenecks" derailed supply

California-based premium electric car specialist Tesla Motors has delivered 26,130 vehicles in the third quarter, up 4.5 percent from the same time last year. However, the most in-demand model from the brand, the Model 3's deliveries are not up to the mark.

Out of the total of 26,130 vehicles delivered in the last quarter, 14,065 units were  Model S and 11,865 were Model X. This means Tesla Motors managed to deliver only 220 units of the Model 3 so far.

This is well short of 1,500 unit deliveries Tesla Motors planned by September-end. Tesla Motors blamed the delay on production bottlenecks. "Although the vast majority of manufacturing subsystems at both our California car plant and our Nevada Gigafactory are able to operate at high rate, a handful has taken longer to activate than expected," the company said in a statement.

"It is important to emphasize that there are no fundamental issues with the Model 3 production or supply chain," Tesla continued. "We understand what needs to be fixed and we are confident of addressing the manufacturing bottleneck issues in the near-term."

The electric sedan already has over four lakh bookings from all over the world and delay in production will essentially see a new booking getting delivery of the Model 3 only by late 2019.

Previously, company CEO Elon Musk said that he was optimistic about Tesla Motors scaling up production to 20,000 Model 3 cars per month by 2017-end. The number is expected to double up by the year 2018. With the delay in Model 3 production, it remains to be seen whether Tesla Motors reaches production target as they envisioned.

Priced at $35,000 (Rs 23 lakh), Model 3 is one of the most practical electric cars around. It comes in five seats and four doors layout. As for performance, Model 3 will run from standstill to 100kmph in less than six seconds and comes with the range of 346km in one full charge.