The electric-car maker Tesla continued to burn through cash as it posted a loss for the sixth quarter in a row, the company said Wednesday. Yet Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk, once again said the company was on the verge of a decisive upturn.

Mr. Musk asserted that Tesla would make money in the second half of this year — if it could meet its latest production goals for the Model 3, its first mass-market offering.

“I think our understanding of production is improving dramatically, exponentially in fact,” he said on a conference call with analysts. “We’re seeing ways of improving volume,’’ he added, while reducing capital spending “dramatically.”

But Mr. Musk has made bold predictions in the past. Less than a year ago, he hoped to make 20,000 Model 3s a month by the end of 2017. So far, Tesla has not come close to that. On Wednesday, the company said it had produced more than 2,000 a week for three straight weeks before a production halt in mid-April. It said its profitability goals for the second half of the year hinged on making 5,000 a week.