Tesla is Cash Flow Positive and it's Shipping 200 Electric Cars a Week

For the first time in its short but intensely-scrutinized history, electric automaker Tesla is cash flow positive. So says Elon Musk, renowned CEO and the driving force behind the company.

Musk first made the announcement in a tweet, then on a segment on CNBC. It's certainly good news for the company, as well as the cleantech industry as a whole—it's been a tough year for clean energy and green carmakers, a sector bedraggled by everything from slow Volt sales to the recent SolarCity IPO woes.

Am happy to report that Tesla was narrowly cash flow positive last week. Continued improvement expected through year end.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 4, 2012

And Tesla itself has faced recent allegations that it violated the terms of its $465 million loan from the Department of Energy, which it is already in the process of paying off. Those allegations seem to be pretty baseless, and generally the only stain on an otherwise stellar year. Its Model S sedan won Motor Trend's coveted Car of the Year—the first to ever do so without an internal combustion engine—and demand boomed.

Tesla is now shipping 200 units a week, and is en route to doing 400 by 2013. And while the company is still essentially hocking electric cars as a luxury item for rich eco-consumers, it's continued success will help drive production costs down across the sector. It will help spur innovation in battery tech and familiarize consumers wrap their brains around the notion that good, high-quality electric cars are a new normal.

Because Tesla's ultimate trick will be to introduce a Model E (or whatever); an economical EV that the masses can afford.