Tesla triples deliveries of electric cars but share price tumbles

• Shares fall 9% as deliveries fall short of market expectation
• Elon Musk's company delivers 90,700 vehicles in fourth quarter

Tesla more than tripled deliveries of its electric cars in the last three months of the year but the news was not enough for Wall Street, which sent the company's shares into a tailspin following news that sales of its first mass market vehicle were less than expected.

Elon Musk's car company delivered a total of 90,700 vehicles in the fourth quarter, up from 29,870 a year earlier. But deliveries of the Model 3 sedan, Tesla's cheapest vehicle, were less than expected. The company announced it had delivered 63,150 vehicles in the quarter, up from 1,550 in the same period last year but below the 64,900 nine analysts surveyed by Factset had been expecting. A Tesla spokesperson said that its deliveries were roughly in line with a wider survey of Wall Street's estimates.