Tesla set a goal of 80,000 vehicle deliveries for itself at the start of 2016. According to its fourth quarter earnings report, the electric car manufacturer fell short of the threshold despite strong sales throughout the year.

Elon Musk's car company delivered an approximated total of 76,230 cars during the 2016 fiscal year, leaving it about 3,770 short of its goal of 80,000 deliveries. That includes a solid showing in the fourth quarter, in which the company shipped 22,200 cars, including 12,700 Model S and 9,500 Model X vehicles.

The company noted the fourth quarter sales figures were "slightly conservative" as it only counted a car as delivered if it was transferred to the customer and all the paperwork was completed.

"Because of short-term production challenges starting at the end of October and lasting through early December from the transition to new Autopilot hardware, Q4 vehicle production was weighted more heavily towards the end of the quarter than we had originally planned," the company explained in a press release. "We were ultimately able to recover and hit our production goal, but the delay in production resulted in challenges that impacted quarterly deliveries, including, among other things, cars missing shipping cutoffs for Europe and Asia."

Because of that, Telsa didn't include the nearly 6,450 vehicles that were in transit to customers at the end of the quarter. Those cars will count as deliveries in the first quarter of 2017 despite being enough to tip Tesla over the 80,000 bar if included in the 2016 numbers.

While it fell short in its delivery goals, Tesla continued to enjoy considerably strong sales figures. According to its earnings report, the company set all-time records for orders of the Model S and X vehcles during the fourth quarter of 2016. The order numbers were 52 percent higher than during the same peroid of 2015 and 24 percent higher than Tesla's previous best, the third quarter of 2016.

The company appears likely to escape the slight miss unscathed, as its stock dropped just two percent following the earnings report. Reports of a profit made during the third quarter of 2016 may have earned Tesla some good will with investors.

Earlier this week, Tesla announced an updated version of its autopilot software was on its way during January. The car maker is set for a big year in 2017, as it will be rolling out its more affordable Model 3 vehicle, solar roof tiles for vehicles, and expanded production both in the U.S. and abroad—including in China.

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