Tesla signaled in its report that it could cut prices further. Musk told investors that he believes Tesla could technically even sell its cars for"zero profit" and that the company could instead make money in the future through its autonomous software.
"We've taken the view that pushing for higher volumes and a larger fleet is the right choice here versus a lower volume and higher margin," Musk said during the call."However, we expect our vehicles over time will be able to generate significant profit through autonomy. So we do believe we're like laying the groundwork here, and then it's better to ship a large number of cars at a lower margin and subsequently harvest that margin in the future as we perfect autonomy.