[brianfitz]

Simply targeting the higher end market doesn't tell you anything about the margins of the business. You need to know the size of each segment of the market and then what can be done to increase margins in each segment. For Tesla, they can't simply stay in the higher end of the market as they need to get greater economies of scale with more volume. Like with the Model 3, they want to move down-market so that they can make the business model work in the long term. As it stands, they only serve the high end of the market and lose money on each car they sell.

[CardenB]

IIRC Tesla's margins are typically higher than competitors. They only lose money on each car because the R&D budget is wrapped into that. They lose money because they're investing into scale.

[Meegul]

IIRC from a shareholders call, a Model S has margins from 20-30% percent, even after R&D is taken out. Tesla's losses have primarily stemmed from capital expenditures.