Elon Musk: The Master of Good PR

CEO Elon Musk said Tesla is 'not trivially' above producing 400 cars per week. That implies the 2013 delivery guidance could be raised, yet again.
By Chris Ciaccia ,

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- Elon Musk has done it again.

The effervescent CEO of

Tesla Motors

(TSLA) - Get Report

said in an interview with

Bloomberg

the company is producing more than 400 cars per week, topping that number by a significant margin. "We're above 400 a week at the current manpower, and not trivially above it," Musk said during an interview at the company's manufacturing plant in Fremont, Calif. He also noted that the company plans to get to producing 800 cars a week by late next year, and noted he's "very confident we'll get there."

Musk declined to further talk about the output, as the company gets set to report quarterly results shortly.

When Tesla reported

first-quarter earnings

in May, the company raised its production delivery target for 2013, saying it will deliver 21,000 units of the popular Model S. That was up from an original estimate of 20,000 units.

Tesla shares were moving higher in Thursday trading, up 2.03% to $124.75.

Musk's comments imply the delivery production rate could be raised yet again when Tesla reports second-quarter results.

Analysts polled by

Thomson Reuters

expect Tesla to lose 16 cents per share on $401.52 million in revenue for the second quarter.

Shares of the electric car maker have been on a tear this year, gaining 268.9% year-to-date, as the company has been the subject of incredible amounts of good press.

Consumer Reports

gave the Model S a 99 rating, naming it the top car the consumer advocate had ever reviewed.

Musk has been able to generate exorbitant amounts of goodwill with his

tweets.

The 42-year-old CEO even went so far to shoot down an

erroneous review

by

The New York Times

using data from the car, successfully turning high-profile negative criticism into a PR coup.

TSLA

data by

YCharts

--

Written by Chris Ciaccia in New York

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