Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has admitted that the company still isn’t in a position to build the long-promised, $35,000 Model 3.

While speaking with members of the press shortly after Tesla posted just the third quarterly profit in its history, Musk said the entry-level Model 3 is still roughly six months away.

“If we can produce the $35,000 car today, we would do it. But there is more work to do before we can make $35,000 car, and have it be positive gross margin. We’re probably less than six months from that,” he said.

Musk went on to say that the company’s recent introduction of a Mid-Range Model 3, priced from $46,000, was conceived as a step towards the $35,000 model, Forbes reports.

“We are trying to provide most affordable electric car options that we can. And since we just don’t have the ability to get to the $35,000 car right away, we thought this [the medium range version] might be a way to offer it as an intermediate step.”

To make the base Model 3 a reality, Tesla is focused on cost optimization and improving the yield of its production lines to bring manufacturing costs of the Model 3 to $30,000 or less.

In the third quarter, Tesla delivered 56,065 Model 3s in North America, generating $6.8 billion in revenue and securing $311 million in profits. The company also revealed that it is looking in margins greater than 20 per cent for the Model 3 thanks to the lowered cost of raw materials and by limiting the numbers of hours needed to build the vehicle.