Elon Musk: Asking Buyers To Pay For Cars Early To Make Tesla Profitable Was 'Overzealous'

"As soon as I found out, I put an immediate stop to it. That is now how Tesla operates," he told Bloomberg News, whose editor-at-large Cory Johnson obtained that email, sent in March.

The email, sent by Tesla sales staff, urged customers who had reserved cars but not yet made their payments to do so. It said, in part:

Tesla is right on the cusp of profitability this quarter for the first time in 10 years since the company started. This is a huge company milestone that will not only be great for the company, but also for our customers.

In order for Tesla to be able to count your Model S for the quarter, we simply need to receive payment.

Receiving payments ahead of schedule may have made Tesla profitable for the quarter — and given its stock price a significant bump — but it could leave the electric car company weak for the next quarter, since payments that would have been made in the coming months were made ahead of schedule.

Musk told Bloomberg the profitability for the quarter was a "clear, clean victory," that was not "juiced."