(Reuters) - Tesla on Wednesday warned of a notable slowdown in its vehicle sales growth this year, and reported a fall in fourth-quarter gross margin as it cut prices and offered incentives to boost demand.

"In 2024, our vehicle volume growth rate may be notably lower than the growth rate achieved in 2023, as our teams work on the launch of the next-generation vehicle at Gigafactory Texas," it said in a statement.

Shares of the Austin, Texas-based company were down 2.3% in after-hours trading.

The company reported a gross margin of 17.6% for the three months ended December, compared with 23.8% a year earlier, and analysts' average estimate of 18.3% according to LSEG data.

In the third quarter, Tesla posted gross margin of 17.9%.

Automotive gross margin, excluding regulatory credits - a closely watched figure - dropped to 17.2% from 24.3% a year earlier, although it improved from 16.3% in the third quarter.

Tesla said lower raw material costs and U.S. government credits helped lower cost-per-vehicle, but Cybertruck production and AI and other research projects increased costs.

On an adjusted basis, Tesla earned 71 cents per share in the fourth quarter, missing an average analysts' estimate of 74 cents, according to LSEG data.

Record deliveries in the quarter also pushed margins lower, as price cuts and costs associated with the production ramp-up of the new Cybertruck offset lower costs of raw materials for batteries.

Tesla slashed prices throughout last year. It reduced the price of the Model Y, its most popular vehicle, by as much as 26.5% in the past year in the U.S.

The company managed to hit its 2023 deliveries target of 1.8 million cars, even as CEO Elon Musk warned of a hit to demand from high interest rates. However, Tesla lost its spot as the top EV maker by sales to China's BYD in the fourth quarter.

Tesla's fourth-quarter revenue rose 3% to $25.17 billion, which marked its slowest pace of growth in more than three years. Analysts on average expected $25.62 billion, according to LSEG data.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Hyun Joo Jin and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Sayantani Ghosh and Matthew Lewis)