Tesla’s share price took a weird turn today after the company reported its first-quarter financial results and billionaire CEO Elon Musk dissed analysts’ concerns about the Tesla Model 3 mass-market electric car.
The raw numbers reflected Tesla’s efforts to ramp up production over the quarter: Net loss widened to a record $784.6 million for the quarter, but revenue rose to $3.41 billion, outdoing analysts’ estimates.
The key questions have to do with the Model 3, which Musk is counting on to bring the company to profitability by the latter half of this year.
“It’s high time we became profitable,” he said during today’s teleconference for analysts. “The reality is, you’re not a real company until you are.”
