A mere week after Tesla overtook Ford as the second-most valuable auto manufacturer in the US, the company’s stock has surged past the nation’s top ca
A mere week after Tesla overtook Ford as the second-most valuable auto manufacturer in the US, the company’s stock has surged past the nation’s top car maker. On Monday, Tesla officially closed out the day at $1.7 billion dollars more than General Motors, with a value of $51 billion total. Not a small feat considering that GM is an established company with a 109 year history, while Tesla has only existed since 2003.
It’s important to note that, despite the high stock prices, Tesla is still a much smaller company than either Ford or GM. While GM sold 10 million vehicles last year, Tesla only managed 76,230. Tesla’s also historically been unprofitable due to a combination of massive investments and fairly small sales numbers, whereas GM posted a $9.4 billion profit in 2016.
In many ways, the high market cap on Tesla reflects less confidence in what the company has already accomplished, and more excitement about its future potential. Investors are clearly enthusiastic about the upcoming Model 3 vehicle, the company’s first car intended for the mass market. The company is also placing bets on new products that would bring clean energy to other areas of its customer’s lives, expanding into batteries and solar energy.
Whether Tesla will continue to dominate the stock market in the coming days remains to be seen.
inhabitat.com
