Tesla posted record revenues of $2.7 billion in the first quarter of 2017, thanks to record auto deliveries. But the company ultimately lost $330 million in the quarter. The market, however, seems forgiving of these losses, showing only a 2.5-percent drop at the time of this writing. The electric vehicle company’s letter to investors primarily focused on the development and impending production of the Model 3, and investors seem to be willing to wait to see how the more modestly priced electric vehicle turns out.

The investor letter noted that Tesla is on track to begin production of the Model 3 in July, after which the company expects to churn out “5,000 vehicles per week at some point in 2017, and... 10,000 vehicles per week at some point in 2018.”

The letter also noted that Tesla foresaw some branding issues with the Model 3. “One of our challenges will be to eliminate any misperception about the differences between Model S and Model 3,” the letter noted. “We have seen a belief among some that Model 3 is the newest and more advanced generation of Model S. This is not correct. Model S will always have more range, more acceleration, more power, more passenger cargo room, more displays (two), and more customization choices, and Model S, X, and 3 will all have equivalent Autopilot functionality. We will continue to clearly communicate these distinctions to avoid any misperceptions.”

On the call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk elaborated that the name “Model 3” was not meant to imply that the car would be a “version three” Tesla, but only a sort of play on orthography to look like “Model E,” which Tesla tried to name the car before apparently receiving a threat of a lawsuit from Ford, which owns the "Model E" trademark. “I thought we were being all clever by calling it Model 3,” Musk said. “But actually the joke’s on me. It’s an error for which I take full responsibility.”

The CEO didn’t seem too worried about the confusion, however. He noted that “It’s just a question of correcting that misconception, which I’m confident we’ll be able to do in the next few weeks.”

Musk said that, despite being a lesser product than the Model S, the Model 3 should still be an easy sell. The CEO claimed that some estimates showed that “Demand at the Model 3 price point appeared to be somewhere between 30 and 70 times higher than the Model S price point.”

Tesla’s other businesses, and the future

Telsa’s letter to investors also highlighted the service component of the business. The company plans to add 100 retail, delivery, and service locations around the world, as well as 100 mobile repair trucks in Q2 to reduce the overhead costs of servicing the vehicles. In addition, Tesla plans to “at least double the number of Superchargers and Destination Charging connectors globally to more than 10,000 and 15,000, respectively,” the investor letter noted.

Tesla said it deployed 150 MW of solar panels in Q1 under the newly acquired SolarCity business, and the company plans on starting production of its new solar roof tiles in Q2 at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California. “Shortly thereafter, production will transition to Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, New York,” Tesla's letter said.

The company also deployed 60 MWh of energy storage in Q1 (think PowerPacks and Powerwalls). On that front, Musk said that he expects “really dramatic increases in stationary storage” quarter over quarter for the near future.

Earlier this quarter, Tesla also announced that it would be revealing a semi truck in September 2017 and a pickup in 18 to 24 months. When asked if he’s sure a semi could be powered by electricity adequately, Musk responded, “I’m highly confident that all transport will go electric with the ironic exception of rockets.”

On the call today, the CEO then gave a few hints to the engineering of that truck. He said, “most of that semi is made out of Model 3 parts, made of a bunch of Model 3 motors.” When asked why Tesla wanted to start on a semi before a pickup, Tesla Chief Technical Officer JB Straubel replied, “a disproportionate amount of petroleum is actually burned by a small number of trucks.”

Musk also briefly talked about the Model Y, a future vehicle that Tesla has disclosed little about. Today Musk said the Model Y would come in “sometime in 2020 or, aspirationally, sometime in 2019.” He went on to add that the car would be built on a different platform than the Model 3, taking advantage of new technologies. As an example of the changes that would characterize the Y, Musk offered: “The wiring harness on Model S is about 3km, on the Model 3 it’s about 1.5km in length. The wiring harness on the Model Y will be 100m.”