After years of burning through gigantic piles of cash Tesla may be on its way to profitability. In a series of emails obtained by CNBC, CEO Elon Musk reportedly reached out to employees over the weekend in a plea to “ignore all distractions” and focus on the weekend to close out the fiscal quarter, potentially placing Tesla in the black for the first time in the company’s history.
During Tesla’s last quarterly earnings call, Musk noted that the company expected to be profitable by the end of Q3. In emails sent to employees last week by the CEO, it’s clear just how close Tesla is to achieving profitability, albeit a dollar figure isn’t noted. However, the automaker believes that a single weekend could make-or-break its goal.
“We are very close to achieving profitability and proving the naysayers wrong, but to be certain, we must execute really well tomorrow (Sunday),” read one of the emails sent by Musk on Sunday, the last day of the fiscal quarter. “If we go all out tomorrow, we will achieve an epic victory beyond all expectations.”
Tesla recently accepted volunteers from the community of ambitious Model 3 owners to push out its vehicles and streamline deliveries. After admitting that “production hell” was lightening up, logistical concerns were now on the horizon. The automaker claims to have begun to build its own car carriers to ship more vehicles to its customers, as well as offered a special delivery event in its home state of California earlier this month. Both events hint at Tesla pushing towards accelerating deliveries in what seems like an attempt to make its goal of profitability.
Tesla hasn’t publicly announced any financial information regarding its end-of-quarter push, and it most likely won’t until its next quarterly earnings call. Musk also hasn’t been overzealous with hyping the news on Twitter, something which recently earned both the CEO and the company individual fines of $20 million with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as a need to police the CEO’s Tesla-related Tweets.
Should Tesla post a profit, the automaker will show that its early investment into electrification is paying off in a big way. Meanwhile, other big-name manufacturers are beginning to follow on Tesla’s coattails, sinking funds into their own electric projects after seeing just how many Americans are buying the Model 3.