Update: this morning Elon tweeted a series of tweets to explain why he cut off the two analysts, his basic point being, “The 2 questioners I ignored on the Q1 call are sell-side analysts who represent a short seller thesis, not investors. The reason the Bernstein question about CapEx was boneheaded was that it had already been answered in the headline of the Q1 newsletter he received beforehand, along with details in the body of the letter. Reason RBC question about Model 3 demand is absurd is that Tesla has roughly half a million reservations, despite no advertising & no cars in showrooms. Even after reaching 5k/week production, it would take 2 years just to satisfy existing demand even if new sales dropped to 0.”
On Wednesday Tesla reported Q1 2018 earnings and re-affirmed that Model 3 production is on track to ramp to 5000 cars/week in about 2 months. Tesla said they are also on track to become profitable and cash flow positive in Q3 and Q4 this year. Overall, Tesla looks like they’re in great shape and on a cusp a very important turning point, specifically becoming a consistently profitable company.
However, the conference call turned awkward and bizarre as Elon cut of two analysts and refused to answer their questions since they were “dry” and “boring”. Elon then proceeded to take a series of questions from a YouTuber who was originally scheduled to ask one question. In a matter of minutes, the stock dropped over 10 points.
