Tesla's China sales to catch up with US in 5-6 years: CEO

Tesla is limiting expansion into other markets as a result of the lessons learned in China, Musk said. "We shouldn't make that mistake in the future."

Meanwhile, he is also optimistic about China's economy, despite the recent slowdown. "If you look at China's fundamentals over the long term, they are extremely good," Musk said, citing the country's highly educated workforce and high percentage of engineering graduates.

Apart from Tesla, Musk is also the CEO of private rocket firm SpaceX and chairman of solar company Solarcity. He dismissed the possibility that all the companies under his helm would be restructured to follow Google's recent reorganization under conglomerate Alphabet Inc.

He said he enjoys getting involved in the "front line execution" of the companies, but said Tesla will add new brain power to its team, which will "make it easier" for him.