Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now focusing on the next task: another profitable quarter.

With a profitable quarter now in the books, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is looking to meet the next set of challenges, starting first with making a profit next quarter.

“It will be our aspiration for all quarters going forward,” he told analysts during the company’s earnings call yesterday. He also outlined additional goals for the company moving forward and dismissed negative notions about the company’s first profitable quarter in years.

Musk said the company’s profit didn’t come at the expense of other things, such as cutting back on product development. In fact, he said he’d just approved the prototype for the Model Y and other improvements on the company’s second-generation Roadster. He confirmed the Model Y would be in production in 2020.

“The product I’m genuinely most excited about is the Tesla semi,” he said without providing more insight about the new semi truck.

(Tesla bucks analysts predictions, turns a profit. Click Here for the story.)

He also declined to comment on what kind of qualities he’d like to see in his replacement as chairman, saying that he would only be discussing the financial results during the call. However, his demeanor was a far cry from a few calls ago when he called some questions “stupid” and was generally dismissive.

Dozens of Tesla Model 3 sedans are reportedly being held in this Union Pacific freight depot in Salt Lake City. Musk wants delivery times cut in half.

Musk also was unclear about whether or not the company could meet the 20% margin goal on the Model 3’s $35,000 edition. He said the goal would be that eventually, they would be able to do so, but there was more to learn about producing the Model 3 so that they could get to that point.

The company will likely average closer to the 7,000 Model 3 sedans a week that was the high-water mark last quarter. The capital expenditure necessary to make that a reality, Musk said, was rather small. However, getting to his 10,000-unit goal would require a much larger effort and he wouldn’t put a timetable or dollar amount to when that would happen.

He also noted that he didn’t expect a significant drop off in sales of the Model 3 when the federal tax credits drop in the near future. First, they will begin shipping to Europe in the first quarter of next year, where the demand for midsize vehicles – electric or otherwise – is much larger than the U.S.

Shipment of vehicles to China will begin late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter, which is sooner than Musk had predicted earlier, will help to offset any potential losses for the time being and he expects the any drop to stabilize at about the 5,000-unit mark for U.S. buyers.

(Click Here for Tesla offering a surprise as it prepares for early earnings announcement.)

The company reported net income of $312 million on $6 billion for its automotive business. Perhaps more importantly, it produced a better than 20% margin on the new Model 3, Musk noted.

Tesla's Semi made its debut last November, and Musk said it was the product that excited him the most.

“It was a truly historic quarter for us,” he said during the company’s earnings conference call. “Our total cash increased by $731 million and we had free cash flow (operating cash flow less capex) of $881 million despite less than 10% of that amount coming from key working capital items.”

He noted that the company’s other business, SolarCity, was also profitable during the quarter. In fact, he expected the company’s cash flow position to be strong enough by early next year it may start paying down debt.

Tesla shareholders were clearly excited by the news as the stock closed Thursday at $314.86, a 9.14% jump. However, the analyst community, all of which predicted another money-losing quarter by the EV maker, weren’t nearly as giddy as investors.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch Analyst John Murphy wrote, “… possibly the best quarter TSLA may see in a while … Many of these elements, particularly mix, are peaky in nature, and will likely fade in the future, so the burden of proof remains on TSLA to generate core underlying earnings and cash flow absent peak factors.” Murphy has “sell” rating Tesla.

(To see more about Tesla slumping in Consumer Reports reliability ratings, Click Here.)

Many analysts were still concerned about the possible impact of the tax breaks going away in the months ahead and the amount of capital the company will need to expend to get its China production operation up and running as well as what it’ll need for expanding Model 3 production to 10,000 units weekly and other product development funding.