The plan was to sell so many Model 3s that higher volume would make up for smaller profit margins — assuming the car can be sold at a net profit at all. According to Musk’s forward guidance to investors, the Model 3 was supposed to be selling 400,000 to 500,000 cars a year by the end of 2018. Sales volume so far hasn’t reached half that rate, but the company has spent billions of dollars to scale up factories, retail stores, service centers and car-charging networks.

Source: Los Angeles Times June 04, 2019 18:06 UTC