Tesla Motors late Wednesday reported a surprise fourth-quarter loss and weaker-than-expected revenue. The luxury electric carmaker lost 13 cents a share excluding items vs. views for a 31-cent profit. Tesla Motors' (TSLA) earned 33 cents a year earlier. The Q4 loss including items was 86 cents.

Non-GAAP revenue rose 44% to $1.1 billion. The consensus was $1.23 billion. Operating expenses nearly doubled to $336.5 million.

The stock fell 3.9% late ahead of an evening conference call. It closed off 1.6% to 212.80. It's down 3.9% in 2015 after soaring 344% in 2013 and 48% last year. Shares peaked at 291.42 on Sept. 4.

Tesla says it met its 2014 production goal of 35,000 Model S sedans, building 11,627 in Q4. But some of its highest-end P85D all-wheel-drive versions were delayed till the year-end, with deliveries "physically impossible" due to customer vacations, winter weather and shipping issues.

As a result, about 1,400 vehicles slipped out of December and were delivered this year. It actually delivered 9,834 Model S cars in Q4.

Tesla said it entered 2015 with "over 10,000 orders for Model S and almost 20,000 reservations for Model X." It expects to ship 55,000 Model S and Model X vehicles this year — a 70% gain. Tesla said the Model X crossover SUV will start shipping in 6 months, earlier than some estimates.

Lagging sales in China, cheap gas, other automakers' pipeline of luxury electrics or hybrids — such as VW's (VLKAY) Audi, BMW and the GM (GM) Chevrolet Bolt EV concept car — have hurt the stock. Analysts also wondered about the X launch date, how promising its battery technology will be and how the battery gigafactory construction is progressing.

"There have been so many moving parts over the last couple of months," Dougherty & Co. analyst Andrea James told IBD ahead of the results. "I think the big picture is intact.

Tesla said that 55% of its 2014 deliveries were into North America, and that orders grew there year-on-year, but it funneled some deliveries to the Asia-Pacific region, which accounted for 15% of the year's deliveries. Europe accounted for 30%, and deliveries there more than doubled.

James expects that the crossover SUV will get a lot of fanfare in Q3 and Q4. In all, she sees 2015 as "another bridge year" to Tesla's Model 3 mass-market vehicle down the road. But, she says, amid spending on a battery gigafactory in Nevada "they need to generate operating cash flow.

Neither James nor Stifel Nicolaus analyst James Albertine see other automakers' alternative-fuel-vehicle efforts taking any bite out of Tesla's pie near-term.