Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA), the maker of high-end electric cars, gained the most in six weeks after the carmaker said it delivered 6,900 Model S sedans in the fourth quarter, pushing full-year sales beyond a company target.

Tesla rose 12 percent, the biggest intraday increase since Dec. 3, to $156.40 at 1:41 p.m. New York time, after earlier rising to as much as $156.44.

The quarterly figure is “about 20 percent above our previous guidance,” Jerome Guillen, Tesla’s head of global sales, said today at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. There are now more than 25,000 units of Model S on the road today, he said, including those sold in Europe.

Sales of the battery-powered Model S, priced from about $70,000 totaled at least 22,450 last year, based on figures previously released by the Palo Alto, California-based carmaker. The company had said it aimed to sell 21,500 in 2013. Tesla revenues for the fourth-quarter will exceed forecasts by 20 percent, the company said separately in a statement.

Tesla, led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, posted its first profit in 2013’s first quarter, aided by sales of environmental credits to other automakers. That triggered a surge in Tesla shares last year, with its market value more than quadrupling.

‘Tough Hill’

Beating last year’s delivery forecast for Model S meant Tesla fulfilled Musk’s initial target of delivering 25,000 units in 2012 and 2013, even after deliveries fell short of a 5,000-car goal in 2012.

Making up the shortfall from a year earlier “was a tough hill to climb,” Musk said in an e-mail today. He didn’t attend the company’s Detroit briefing.

“With 6,900 deliveries in the quarter it’s still a niche vehicle, though you could say they are legitimately established in the marketplace,” Kevin Tynan, an auto analyst for Bloomberg Industries, said in an interview. “You are now looking at enough volume in the market domestically that hybrids and plug-ins, or a combination of the two, are now a legitimate technology option for other carmakers as well.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Detroit at aohnsman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jamie Butters at jbutters@bloomberg.net

A view to the future,

Best Inca.