In the run up to model 3 production Musk mentioned that "the production line is the product" because it was needed to be highly automated to make a great car at

In the run up to model 3 production Musk mentioned that "the production line is the product" because it was needed to be highly automated to make a great car at a low price. Clearly getting the production line wrinkles ironed out has been a much bigger challenge than Musk expected but that is typical of almost every thing that Musk as done: Envision a way to make things an order of magnitude better. Work like a bugger (while blowing through a dozen deadlines) to make that happen. Eventually, come out the other side smelling like a genius -- because the original vision had merit and was not just a pipe dream. The model 3 fits this mold. In terms of finance and cash flow, unlike previous near death experiences with Tesla and SpaceX, now Musk could quite easily sell of a chunk of equity in SpaceX to finance what's yet to be done in debugging the production line if the markets won't oblige. But likely the bigger problem right now is time rather than money before things come right. Most of the upfront production line expenses will have already been spent, now it's a learning curve to make it tick along as expected.