A day after doing the same to Ford, Tesla Motors overtook GM to become the most value valuable car company in the U.S. by market value on Tuesday.
Tesla shares gained more than one per cent on the Nasdaq on Tuesday, changing hands at just over $300 US a share. That gives the company a total value of $52.7 billion.
That’s more than GM’s $49.6 billion valuation. Tesla chief executive Elon Musk says he expects the company to sell 500,000 cars next year. GM, meanwhile, sold more than 20 times that many last year.
“If you look at the different auto companies on paper, it does seem a bit proposterous, where Tesla is at this moment, versus some of the more established auto companies,” Jessica Caldwell, director of industry analysis with automotive research firm Edmunds, said in an interview with CBC’s On The Money on Monday.
“I think Tesla has had a very high market cap for a long time, so I don’t think this comes necessarily as a surprise, but when you compare it to someone like Ford [or GM] who has a wealth of resources, it does seem a little out of whack,” Caldwell said.
The reason for the surge was news on Monday that Tesla sold more than 25,000 vehicles in the first three months of the year. That’s its best quarterly performance ever, and better than what analysts were expecting. It did that with just three base models with hefty price tags, but more mainstream ones are coming.
Next year, the company plans to go from a niche supercar company into a mass market people mover with the launch of the Model 3, a $35,000 base model fully electric car that can drive from Toronto to Ottawa on a single charge.
While the company has been plagued by delays in the past, a recent run of positive performances has seen Tesla shares gain more than 22 per cent in the past year.
That compares with Ford, which has lost 10 per cent in a year, and GM, which is up by just over 14 per cent.
