Their gross profit per car is about 28% (i.e. about $25,000 per car).
The company lost money because it is spending everything it makes on new factories (Gigafactory, etc.) and developing new models (X, 3).

The Tesla is a car which feels like it was teleported from 10 years in the future.

Start with a few facts rather than opinions pulled from the nether regions:
Coal accounted for 35% of electricity production in the US in 2014. This is down from 50% in 2005.
http://www.eia.gov/electricity...

Thermodynamics:
Efficiency: Large power plants (such as coal powered plants) are very efficient. Internal combustion engines are very inefficient.
"According to a range of studies doing a ‘well to wheels’ analysis, an electric car leads to significantly less carbon dioxide pollution from electricity than the CO2 pollution from the oil of a conventional car with an internal combustion engine.[1][2][3] In some areas, like many on the West Coast that rely largely on wind or hydro power, the emissions are significantly lower for EVs. And that's today. As we retire more coal plants and bring cleaner sources of power online, the emissions from electric vehicle charging drop even further. Additionally, in some areas, night-time charging will increase the opportunity to take advantage of wind power -- another way to reduce emissions."
[1] Union of Concerned Scientists. “State of Charge: Electric Vehicles’ Global Warming Emissions and Fuel-Cost Savings Across the United States.” April, 2012. http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/d...
[2] MIT Energy Initiative. "The Electrification of the Transportation System." April, 2010.
[3] Electric Power Research Institute and Natural Resources Defense Council. "Environmental Assessment of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles." 2007. Cited February 16, 2011.
I charge my electric car from solar panels... YMMV

"No, not at all. Sea levels have risen about 120m over the past 20000 years; they can only rise about another 50-60m. Unpleasant, to be sure, but no threat to farmland. If anything, there was more arable land during the Cretaceous, due to warmer and wetter conditions."

Depends on how you define "unpleasant". If you are one of the 80%+ of people on earth who will find their house under water, it is highly "unpleasant"... others may enjoy their new beachfront property.

There have been publication and experiments over hundreds of years forecasting (or advocating) a utopia where people work less and get paid more. These would work except they all require a strong socialist state and severely curtailed capitalism. There are some countries which have come close to this utopia with strong worker rights and supports. I think many of the Scandinavian countries are in this category.
The key is having workers capture increases in productivity. Currently in the US (and many other places), almost all of the benefits of increases in productivity go to the capitalists who then drive down wages and increase profits. A socialist system creates a more equal distribution of the benefits of productivity by enforcing minimum wages, taxing profits and supporting worker with direct subsidy when there is not enough work available.

Irony is dead.

There are some efficiencies of scale but not a factor of two.
Not quite...
The cost of residential (less than 10kw) is $5.47 /w
Larger systems (more than 10kw) drop the price to $4.92 /w

https://www.californiasolarsta...

Maintenance?
Service?
PV solar doesn't require either... it just works.

Where I live, the time of use differential is 14 cents. I could save $1.40 a day with this battery. $511 a year for an investment of $3500... good return.

Distributed solar generation is more efficient than central generations because you don't have distribution losses and don't have to have the high capacity power distribution network.

You don't have to have a string inverter. You can use microinverters such as Enphase.
Cost 250w panel=$200 plus 250w microinverter=$150 total $350. This is below the limit for requiring a building permit where I live ($500).
Just add them one at a time.

5 cents is low. Most time of use differentials are much higher. In my area, it is 14 cents. At that rate, it works out to $1.40 a day.
This is $511 a year return on a $3500 investment... pretty good return.

The battery is good for two things:
1. Backup power for power outages.
2. Time shifting energy use to take advantage of time of use metering. (You can charge the battery at night at cheap rates and use the power during the day when grid power is expensive.) This can also shift your solar production (9am to 3pm) to match time of use demands (1pm to 7pm).
It's not going to get you through a long, cold, dark winter but it can reduce your cost of power.
Everyone always complains that "the sun doesn't shine at night". Well, all power sources have time constraints... nuclear works best when it runs 100% all of the time... coal is also difficult to quickly ramp up and down to meet changes in power demands. That's why electricity is so cheap at night. This battery can quickly shift from storage to production to match demand and take advantage of the daily changes in power demand (and cost).

Your Guardian reference states 2.1% fall in 2014 and predicts 2.5% fall for 2015.
That looks like a reduction especially considering that their use has been rising rapidly for many years.

China has been burning less coal for the past few years, not more. They have figured out that their terrible air pollution in cities is caused by coal and they are investing heavily in solar and wind. They are shutting down old, inefficient coal plants (about 1000 of them, so far).