Musk gets nicer, Tesla shares surge 11%

Tesla burned through less cash than expected and beat analysts’ revenue projections, but posted a second-quarter loss larger than Wall Street anticipated.

Yet the biggest surprise during Wednesday’s earnings call was Elon Musk’s extending an olive branch to the same analysts the Tesla Chief Executive slammed a quarter ago for asking “boring, bonehead” questions.

“There’s no excuse for bad man- ners,” he said in his apology, before adding there was a reason: “I got no sleep and had been working 120hour weeks.”

Musk then put his signature optimism on display, saying it was Tesla’s goal “to be profitable and cash-flow positive in every quarter going forward.”

The overall performance pleased investors enough to send Tesla stock up more than 11 percent in extended trading, where it topped out above $330 per share.

Driving the shares higher was a sharp reduction in operating cashflow losses: from nearly $400 million in the first quarter down to just $130 million in the second.

The company ended the quarter with $2.8 billion in cash, compared with $3.5 billion in the prior quarter.

Despite its emphasis on cost controls, analysts remained mixed on whether Tesla would have to return to the securities markets to fund capital-raising plans, which Musk insists the company can avoid.

“At 7,000 cars a week, we believe we can be sustainably profitable,” he said.

After achieving its goal of producing 5,000 Model 3’s a week by the end of June, Tesla said it’s gunning for a weekly production rate of 6,000 by late August.

Tesla’s revenue of $4 billion for the quarter beat Wall Street’s forecast of $3.96 billion, while a loss of $3.06 per share came in greater than the $2.92 loss predicted by analysts.