Demand woes are already threatening Tesla’s breakneck growth: cars delivered to customers have run below production of late, spurring the company to cut prices. Most promising was a presentation showing manufacturing and battery improvements reducing the cost of a “next gen vehicle” by 50%. A mere $5,000 in absolute gross profit, though, would leave little room for research and development and other operating expenses, which ran to $4,545 per car delivered last quarter. Still, Musk pulled off the seemingly impossible before when ramping up the Model 3, a messy slog he dubbed “production hell” at the time. After an opening presentation focused on the broad viability of transitioning the world to sustainable energy, Musk and fellow executives outlined goals to streamline production, reduce manufacturing costs by half and scale up energy storage products.

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