Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk refused to say Thursday if the company has met the stated production goal of 400 cars per week in a joint interview with SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive on CNBC:
MELISSA LEE: The target for Tesla was to hit 400 cars per week in December. We are in December, have you hit that target?
MUSK: As much as I'd like to disclose that--
LEE: This is fair disclosure, Elon. This is as fair as it gets.
LYNDON RIVE (SOLARCITY): (He's) wearing a green shirt that says SolarCity. [...] I love Tesla, by the way. I own a Tesla myself.
The electric car company received a $465 million federal loan in 2009, and despite a better outlook this month, the company was forced to cut its revenue forecast in September and restructure payments on that federal loan.
Musk is also the chairman of SolarCity Corp., an installer of solar power systems, that had its initial public offering Thursday after the firm lowered the price of the offering earlier this week.
The Tesla CEO said a few times he wanted to speak about the solar company and not the carmaker, despite repeated questions about Tesla.
SolarCity is currently being audited by the Internal Revenue Service; the audit is examining whether the solar company misrepresented the market value of its systems when applying for federal grants.
Musk was a prominent donor to President Obama's reelection campaign.
Full interview: