After an unsatisfying second quarter of 2016,hidden sex videos in which the company delivered only 14,402 electric cars, Tesla has delivered a record 24,500 cars in the third quarter, a 70 percent increase. Of these, 15,800 were Model S and 8,700 were Model X vehicles.

Furthermore, the company said Sunday about 5,500 vehicles were in transit to customers at the end of the quarter, meaning Tesla should have no problems hitting its target of 50,000 delivered vehicles in the second half of 2016.

Production also rose to 25,185 vehicles in the third quarter, a 37 percent increase from the second quarter.

Tesla said it expects the deliveries and production in the fourth quarter will be at or slightly above the level of the third quarter.

This is great news for Tesla, which needs to seriously ramp up production and deliveries to meet the demand for its cheaper electric sedan, the $35,000 Model 3. More than 370,000 Model 3 cars were pre-ordered as of May 2016; Tesla plans to start delivering these in "late 2017," with production fully ramping up to half a million per year in 2018.

We still don't know if all this amounts to a positive quarter, though, which would be the first one for Tesla since 2013. We'll find out more when the company releases its quarterly earnings report later this month.