You can reserve Tesla’s low-cost Model 3 starting March 31

Tesla, which is investing heavily in new vehicles and battery technology to drive the market for electric cars, reported a fourth quarter loss of $320 million (roughly Rs. 2,183 crores) on revenue of $1.2 billion (roughly Rs. 8,189 crores).

Tesla’s weaknesses include its deteriorating net income, generally high debt management risk, disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow and generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself.

Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) which has been a hot subject of negative commentary from Wall Street over the past month, took off more than 10% in afterhours trading on Wednesday, as investors overlooked below par earnings and celebrated a strong future outlook from Tesla.

“Cash is king”, Mr Wheeler said.

Musk later noted that the company expects the first versions of the Model 3 that are delivered to be “relatively highly optioned versions”. It further announced capital expenditure of $1.5 billion to start cell production at the Gigafactory, production of Model 3, 300 new Supercharging sites, and 80 new retail locations.

“The last several months have been quite excruciating I’d say, a lot of late nights and weekends, but I’d say we’re through the woods a bit at this point”, Musk said. Analysts had expected it to post a small profit of $3.89 million. However, the company’s stock is still down more than 30 percent since the beginning of the year.

Musk also hinted at something than keen-eyed Tesla fans already knew – the first Model 3s sold will likely cost more than the car’s $35,000 base price.

Tesla’s fourth auto, the Model 3, will be revealed on 31 March, chief executive Elon Musk told shareholders on the company’s quarterly earnings call. For the full year, Tesla’s revenue rose 26 percent to $4 billion.

By that time, GM has said it will already be selling its Chevrolet Bolt, at a similar price with a range of 200 miles (322 km) between charges.

“Q1 operating expenses should increase just slightly from Q4 as we sharpen our focus on expense management”, said Tesla.