Tesla misses estimates for quarterly deliveries; shares fall

(Drops extraneous word from headline)

(Reuters) - Tesla missed market estimates for third-quarter deliveries on Monday as the automaker was forced to curb production due to planned factory shutdowns, sending its shares down 3.7% in trading before the bell.

The electric-vehicle maker handed over 435,059 vehicles in the three months to Sept. 30, down nearly 7% from the preceding quarter.

It said that the company's target to deliver 1.8 million vehicles this year remains unchanged.

The world's most valuable automaker produced 430,488 vehicles in the third quarter, compared with 479,700 in the second quarter and 365,923 a year earlier.

Wall Street on average had expected Tesla to deliver 454,100 vehicles, according to 19 analysts polled by Visible Alpha.

An LSEG-compiled figure of eight analysts put the estimate at 459,949 vehicles, with the lowest estimate at 442,000 and the highest at 511,405.

Some analysts believe the factory upgrades could spark a rebound in deliveries in the fourth quarter by allowing Tesla to refresh its line-up with models that could compete better with offerings from U.S. rivals such as Ford and BYD in China.

The updated Model 3 has a higher price and its China and Europe deliveries are expected to start in the fourth quarter, while a Cybertruck launch event is also expected later this year.

In the third quarter, Tesla cut prices of its premium Model S and Model X by 14-21% in main markets China and the United States.

It also boosted discounts on its mainstay Model 3 and Model Y to as much as over $5,000 in the United States, while cutting prices of Model Y and offering other incentives in China.

The company will report third-quarter results on Oct. 18.

(Reporting by Aditya Soni and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Anil D'Silva)