
Tesla Motors Inc. shares rose over Tesla Motors Corp. stock by as much as $2.72, but the auto maker’s chief executive, Elon Musk, said his company has a lot more work to do to make it profitable.
Musk said he is optimistic about the electric-car company’s ability to deliver the Model 3, which will be the company’s first mass-market vehicle.
“Our stock price is probably going to be higher in the next few months,” he said.
Tesla shares are up more than 60% this year, outperforming the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.
Musk’s company is currently building a production line for the Model S sedan, a luxury sedan that starts at about $70,000 and will be Tesla’s next-generation car.
Musk has said the Model X SUV will be a more affordable car and the company is building an assembly line for Model 3.
“We’re not doing a bad job, we’re just not doing it well enough,” Musk said.
He said the company has also invested heavily in the Model Y SUV and has begun building an autonomous test fleet.
Tesla also announced that its stock has surpassed $20,000, breaking the record for the largest stock-market gain in the U.S. Musk is an early investor in startups and tech stocks, which make up nearly 90% of his company’s market value.
He has also spent millions of dollars on private equity, buying up companies like Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc. and SpaceX Inc. He recently told CNBC that the U,S.
economy is “on a path to a full recovery.”