Tesla's fourth quarter net loss, its biggest ever, soared to US$675.4m, $4.01 per share compared with $121.3m (78 cents) a year ago, media reports said.

Sales for the period to 31 December 2017 however rose to $3.29bn from $2.28bn.

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Excluding special items, the company lost $3.04 per share compared with the $3.12 loss expected by analysts, Reuters said.

Founder Elon Musk, criticised recently for over-promising, reportedly is sticking to revised output forecasts. 

Model S production delays blamed on battery issues resulted in only 1,550 deliveries in the fourth quarter, far below the 4,100 vehicles expected by analysts – meaning revenue from the highly anticipated '$35,000 Tesla' has yet to affect its maker's bottom line, the news agency said.

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Obstacles to production of 5,000 vehicles by the end of the second quarter "were getting smaller with every week", Reuters quoted Musk as telling analysts on a conference call. Once output gets that high, Tesla could begin to generate sustained positive operating income "at some point in 2018", Musk said.

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Musk reportedly reiterated his goal of building 1m vehicles a year by 2020 and plans to make capital investments related to the upcoming Model Y SUV towards the end of this year. He has missed previous goals due mainly to difficulties getting the Model 3 up to the planned rate.

Analyst Jamie Albertine of Consumer Edge Research told Reuters there was a balance between accelerating growth and vehicle quality and it was better not to rush Model 3 production and risk a recall. But Tesla's reiteration of its production target for the quarter was good news.

The news agency quoted Tesla CFO Deepak Ahuja as saying that over half of Tesla's spending was on the Model 3, emphasising its importance and high cost.

The report said Tesla spent $3.4bn last year, $787m in the fourth quarter alone, and had said capital spending in 2018 would be "slightly more" than in 2017 due to expanded production at the Fremont factory in California and Nevada Gigafactory.