Elon Musk, co-founder and chief executive of Tesla Motors Inc., declined to confirm that the maker of electric cars will be able to meet its initial delivery target for Model S sedans this year.
Tesla, which began building the luxury cars in June in Fremont, Calif., will deliver 20,000 of the sedans next year and achieve a gross margin of more than 20 percent, Musk said Friday in a Bloomberg Television interview on “In the Loop with Betty Liu.”
The company in July said it was confident of delivering 5,000 Model S cars this year. Musk wouldn’t comment on that goal Friday, saying that “I need to be very hesitant about talking about any near-term metrics for Tesla.”
The automaker, which counts Daimler AG and Toyota Motor Corp. as customers and investors, has set a goal of becoming profitable by as early as next year from sales of the Model S and Model X sport-utility vehicle due in late 2013.
