Tesla now most valuable U.S. car company
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This is not your parents' car economy.
As of Tuesday morning, Tesla Motors had surpassed GM on the market—a day after doing the same to Ford—and become the most valuable car company in the United States. Shares are now being sold at just over $300 U.S. and Tesla's total valuation is $52.7 billion.
For a company that is still under 15 years old, overtaking the traditional giants of American automaking is a pretty monumental achievement—if not a wholly surprising one. Tesla's stock, both in a literal sense and perception-wise, has been on fire for quite some time, propelled in part by the growing celebrity of its iconic co-founder Elon Musk.
Over the past year Tesla shares have gone up by 22 per cent. But it was the most recent quarter in particular that resulted in this momentous market surge. Yesterday it was revealed that Tesla sold 25,418 vehicles between during the year's first three months—the company's best-ever performance. It's a stretch that becomes even more impressive when one considers that Tesla is still only catering to a crowd that is willing to splurge for pricey vehicles. Tesla's first mainstream vehicle, the Model 3, is expected to hit markets in 2018.
Greater production and mainstream marketing will come with its own set of challenges once Tesla does reach that point, but in the meantime, it's all good vibes for the electric car company. So much so that Musk couldn't resist a bit of playful teasing to those who have chosen to bet against his success. Yesterday afternoon he fired off a tweet that read: "Stormy weather in Shortville..." For anyone who jumped onto the Tesla shorting bandwagon, Musk got the better of them this time around.