Tesla Share Price Remains High From the Rocket Man Effect

The company built only 2,425 Model 3 vehicles in the fourth quarter and had to cut the production target yet again last month, admitting it won’t hit full-scale production until at least the end of June.

Sitting at the wheel of Musk’s cherry red Tesla Roadster, Starman was launched into space yesterday on SpaceX’s test launch of its new Falcon Heavy rocket. Of course, Musk brought up the launch of the Tesla Roadster by SpaceX as some measure of Tesla’s ability to produce a auto in a timely fashion saying, “if we can send a Roadster to the asteroid belt, we can probably solve Model 3 production”.

At first, Musk suggested on Twitter that the Tesla overshot its intended orbit and would fly out past Mars and into the asteroid belt.

With that in mind, Tesla announced new production goals for the Model 3.

The tax credit implications McCaffery referred to concern the $2,500 to $7,500 federal credit for electric-vehicle purchases that starts phasing out when a auto maker hits 200,000 vehicles sold domestically, a number Tesla is expected to hit this year.

Space tourism is a promising industry but the costs will limit its availability for some time to the super-rich.

Answering a question during the call, Musk said the company could’ve already done it, but it would require “too much specialized code” which would be “gaming”, and would only work for a single route and not as a general solution. Its other cars sell for around twice that price.

Model 3 production has not gone entirely to plan, to put it lightly. This was just above the $3.28 billion expected by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Tesla ended the fourth quarter with $3.37 billion in cash, just below the $3.5 billion in the previous quarter. Tesla’s 2017 financial results released on Wednesday still show the company has a long way to go, however.

Tesla has been digging deep into its pockets as it rolls out the next generation of electric cars, the Model 3 sedan. It was later reported by Elon Musk that the third booster, which was set to land on a droneship, crashed.

Musk earned $49,920 previous year, Tesla said Thursday. By noon Pacific time Monday, Kennedy Space Center’s visitor center tweeted that no more tickets were available to watch the launch from designated viewing points. Tesla’s revenue was $3.3bn, up from $2.3bn in the same quarter the previous year.