Elon Musk has once again lashed out at the Securities and Exchange Commission, after the regulator asked a judge to hold him in contempt of court for ignoring an order banning him from tweeting market-moving information about Tesla.

Writing on Twitter, Mr Musk said that something was "broken with SEC oversight", after his tweet, from February 19, prompted the regulator to claim he had violated the terms of his settlement.

Mr Musk had initially said the electric car company would make half a million cars in 2019 in a post on the social network, later backtracking to clarify he meant the annualised production rate at the end of the year would be 500,000.

"Deliveries for year still estimated to be about 400k," he wrote in one of a series of tweets, posted four hours after the original message.

The Securities and Exchange Commission claimed that not only was the tweet inaccurate, but that it did not receive approval from board members, a condition of a recent settlement for market manipulation.

Musk could face a possible jail sentence, or fines. A federal judge has given him until March 11 to show why he shouldn't be held in contempt of court.

Musk argues that he did not need prior approval for the post, as it was based on a comment he made on the company’s January 30 earnings call that Tesla may sell as many as 500,000 Model 3 sedans this year.