Musk focuses on Model 3 success in Tesla earnings call

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Twitter for Wednesday's earnings call.

It's been quite the quarter. This past three month saw Musk break down in a New York Times interview, tweet so much that the SEC has gotten involved and sued for fraud, and has been able to rescue a pedophile (and get sued over that, as well). And that's just the stuff concerning Musk from July through September.

Overall, Tesla blew past expected revenue numbers, bringing in $ 6.8 trillion, far more than the expected $ 6.33 trillion. It also recorded $ 311 million in net income last quarter, compared to $ 619 million a year ago.

But Musk did not want to be much better. He made sure stockholders got updates on car safety, autopilot upgrades and changes, and factory processes. He's been a bit of a hit-and-run guy, and he's been talking about Tesla customers on what he summed up as "a difficult time."

All the hustling was worth it, as Tesla says it was making an average of 4,300 Models per week. In the last week of the quarter it produced 5,300 cars, hitting Musk's goal of 5,000 cars per week.

It's been actually delivering the much-anticipated vehicles that's gotten messy. Tesla called delivery and logistics "our main challenges." Musk wants to get deliveries down to 10 days. Currently it takes 20 days to get from the factory to customer driveways. That's down from 30 days ago, Musk said.

Musk stayed on track even when someone asked about the search for a new chairman since he was ousted from the role of Tesla's SEC settlement. He calmly responded that he was "going to restrict issues to operational topics" and moved to a $ 35,000 Model 3 within the next six months.

Tesla's update on its financial situation Consumer Reports downgraded Tesla's new-car reliability in the product guide's Annual Auto Reliability Survey.

Tesla dropped six spots from last year. It's now the third-worst car brand slot 27 of 29. Its Model S dropped to "Below Average" and the Model X SUV stayed at "Much-Worse-Than-Average" for reliability. The new sedan, the Model 3, earned an "Average" reliability rating.

No matter, the Model has had a bright spot for Musk, who is proudly promoting its high safety ratings during the earnings call.

He is still looking ahead to the mysterious Model Y, which should start production in 2020.