Tesla doubles Q3 profit, but sales revenues are below expectations

US electric carmaker Tesla on Wednesday said it doubled its third-quarter profit compared to a year ago, while revenues fell short of analysts' predictions.

The electric car maker earned $3.29 billion in the three months ending in September, more than double than the same time frame last year, Tesla said after the close of the US stock market.

Revenues increased 56% to $21.45 billion, but remained below market expectations. Analysts had expected sales of almost $22 billion. Stock initially fell 5% in after-hours trading.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk's company delivered almost 344,000 electric cars in the third quarter, setting a new record.

Nevertheless, it is uncertain whether the group can achieve its ambitious goal of increasing deliveries in 2022 by 50% compared to last year.

To do this, Tesla would have to sell more than 1.4 million vehicles for the year as a whole and deliver more than half a million cars to customers in the final quarter.

Tesla explained that the growth rate will depend on various factors, including component availability and supply chain stability.

"Despite these challenges, we expect to continue to deliver every vehicle produced while maintaining strong operating margins," Tesla said in a quarterly report issued on Wednesday.

In that report, Tesla spoke of some issues it has had with the delivery of new cars in the final weeks of the quarter, but added that it has since "smoothed outbound logistics" for what it called a smoother delivery pace.