Feb. 5 (UPI) — Tesla stock fell 17 percent Wednesday after a company executive said vehicle deliveries in China would be delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The company’s shares fell as much as 20.6 percent during the day as Tesla Vice President Tao Lin announced that deliveries from its new Shanghai plant scheduled for February will be delayed due to the 2019-nCoV.
“The proposed delivery in early February will be delayed,” Tao said. “We will catch up the production line once the outbreak situation gets better.”
Last week, Tesla said the outbreak would cause a delay in production in the plant because city authorities extended the Lunar New Year holiday from Jan. 30 to Feb. 9.
The slide, Tesla’s second worst single-day drop since 2012 when shares fell 19.3 percent, came after two days of increases as the company’s shares rose 20 percent on Monday and another 13.7 percent on Tuesday.
Tesla’s market cap is currently $132.4 billion and the company’s stock remains up 71 percent in 2020 and 140 percent in the past 12 months.
The company delivered the first of its Chinese produced Tesla 3s to employees in December before making deliveries to customers in January.
The Shanghai plant, which opened last year, is now making more than 1,000 cars per week with plans of doubling that over 2020, eventually reaching a production rate of 3,000 per week.
