Tesla (TSLA) reported a wider-than-anticipated net loss for the fourth-quarter as higher production costs offset better-than-anticipated revenues.
The electric-car maker reported a fourth-quarter non-GAAP net loss of 65 cents per share on revenue of $306.3 million. A year earlier, the company lost 69 cents per share on just $39 million in sales.
Analysts had expected the company to report a loss of 53 cents a share on $298 million in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Research and development costs were $62 million in the quarter on a non-GAAP basis but Tesla expects R&D spending to fall about 15 percent in the first quarter.
The company also expects to continue to make production improvements and should be "slightly profitable" in the first quarter.
Tesla is also forecasting that its gross margin will expand in the second half of the year to its target of 25 percent, despite a lower contribution from regulatory credits. It's fourth-quarter gross margin was nearly 8 percent.
Tesla also said it expects to achieve its goal of 20,000 Model S deliveries in 2013 and that it added 6,000 new reservations in the quarter, up from almost 2,900 in the third quarter. The company plans to start delivering the Model S in Europe this summer and in Asia later in the year.
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Tesla's Model S was the subject of a critical review from the New York Times which claimed the car's mileage didn't meet expectations. Tesla CEO Elon Musk pushed back against the claims calling the article "unreasonable."
On Tuesday, CNBC's Phil LeBeau recreated the test drive from Washington, DC to Boston.
(Read More: Why the Tesla S May Be a Game-Changer)
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