Tesla boss Elon Musk (L) walks with Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong during the ground-breaking ceremony for a Tesla factory in Shanghai on January 7, 2019. - Musk presided over the ground-breaking for a Shanghai factory that will allow the electric-car manufacturer to dodge the China-US tariff crossfire and sell directly to the world's biggest market for 'green' vehicles.

With Tesla set to release first-quarter results late Wednesday, investors want to know how much demand remains for its Model 3 electric sedans and whether they can be delivered profitably. Institutional investors are also wondering if Tesla will raise capital soon, as the company is still fighting to become a mainstream carmaker with a foothold in China, the world's largest market for electric vehicles today.

Among some of its recent challenges, sales of Tesla's Model 3 lagged behind analysts' expectations in the first three months of 2019, just as the company had to pay off around $1 billion in bond obligations and other deferred debts. To rein in spending, Tesla slowed production of its older Model S and X vehicles, laid off thousands of employees and closed what it said were underperforming stores.

In October 2018, Tesla said its gross margins on the Model 3 were "more than 20%." But in the first quarter of this year, it dropped prices on the electric sedans, in part to make them accessible to buyers in the U.S., but especially in China. One of the big questions with Wednesday's report will be how those price changes have affected margins.

CEO Elon Musk urged employees from all divisions to volunteer to deliver cars to customers before the end of the quarter, indicating that Tesla is still struggling with what the CEO called "delivery and logistics hell" in late 2018.

But the company also showed some forward motion during the quarter. It unveiled its long-anticipated Model Y crossover SUV and introduced a new V3 Supercharger to let Tesla drivers power up their cars a bit faster. It also delivered over-the-air software updates to cars, including Dog Mode and Sentry Mode, which delighted drivers.

Tesla is expected to post a loss of 69 cents per share on revenue of $5.2 billion, according to a consensus of analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.