Tesla has cut US prices on its entire electric vehicle line-up for the third time this year in an apparent effort to lure more buyers amid rising interest rates.

The cuts that appeared on Friday on Tesla’s website included 5,000 dollars (£4,000) per vehicle for the more expensive models, the S saloon and the X large SUV.

The company lopped 2,000 dollars (£1,600) off the Y small SUV, its most popular model, and added a lower-cost dual-motor version priced at 49,990 dollars (£40,100).

The 3 small sedan saw a 1,000 dollar (£800) cut.

The moves came as Tesla’s first-quarter sales grew 36% but fell short of analysts’ expectations.

The company said on Sunday that it delivered a quarterly record of 422,875 vehicles worldwide from January to March, up from just over 310,000 a year ago, but the increase fell short of estimates of 432,000 for the quarter, according to FactSet.

Guidehouse Research e-mobility analyst Sam Abuelsamid said the company needs to sell more vehicles to keep its factories running at full capacity.

“Overhead of underutilised plant eats up (profit) margin extremely quickly,” he said.

Tesla has added a huge plant near Austin to its US factory line-up, in addition to its original plant in Fremont, California.

The company also has built new plants in Shanghai and near Berlin.