San Francisco Electric car maker Tesla reported a record loss of USD 675.4 million – USD 4.01 per share -- on a revenue of USD 3.29 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017. The Palo Alto car company partly blamed the worst-ever figures on the high costs related to the production of its Model 3 electric sedan. Tesla, which lost USD 121 million in the same quarter last year, said revenue was up 36 per cent over the same period in 2016 because of the deliveries it made of the luxury electric Model S sedan and Model X crossover.

The report said that "Revenue from automotive products rose to USD 2.7 billion for the final quarter of 2017 -- up from USD 1.99 billion in the year-earlier quarter."

Tesla also reported that revenue from its energy storage products -- batteries and home electric storage systems -- rose by six per cent.

The Zero Emission Vehicle credits that the company earns for building zero-emissions vehicles, which it can then sell to companies that produce too few such cars -- rose to USD 179 million for the quarter from USD 20 million during the same period in 2016.