I think this is Elon Musk defining a "problem" which he knows he can solve successfully. By defining the problem as "can we sell 20k cars/year", he'll be able to point in 6 months that "yes, we did sell 20k cars, and in only 6 months".
The big open question (which Tesla doesn't want to set as the benchmark for success) is selling a mass-market car (the next one). I'm confident Tesla can do a 50-100k unit/yr high end product ($40-100k) on its own, eventually, but building a $20k car and shipping hundreds of thousands is a different matter.
The big open question (which Tesla doesn't want to set as the benchmark for success) is selling a mass-market car (the next one). I'm confident Tesla can do a 50-100k unit/yr high end product ($40-100k) on its own, eventually, but building a $20k car and shipping hundreds of thousands is a different matter.