US regulators have demanded Tesla hand over information as part of a criminal investigation into whether Elon Musk’s electric car maker misled investors over its production figures.

The company has disclosed that it had received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission, and an informal request for information from the Department of Justice.

The two regulators are investigating whether Mr Musk and the company over-promised about how many of its new Model 3 car it could make.

The investigation threatens to drag Tesla back into trouble even as it appears to emerge from a year of turmoil. It recently settled a separate SEC probe over Mr Musk’s aborted plan to take the company private, and last week soothed investors’ fears over its financial state by reporting its first profit in two years.

“The SEC has issued subpoenas to Tesla in connection with… certain projections that we made for Model 3 production rates during 2017 and other public statements relating to Model 3 production. The DOJ has also asked us to voluntarily provide it with information about each of these matters and is investigating,” the California-based company said in a filing.

Tesla has often struggled to hit its chief executive’s ambitious production forecasts. When it first began manufacturing the Model 3 in the summer of 2017, Mr Musk tweeted that it could be making 20,000 cars a month in December. The company ultimately made only just 2,425 in the entire fourth quarter.