This week, a historic moment for the automotive industry was registered, as Tesla surpassed Ford and General Motors in market capitalization, becoming the most valuable carmaker in the United States.
However, this doesn’t come as a surprise, since Elon Musk’s company stock price is up more than 42 percent, compared to the beginning of the year, reaching more than $300 per share. Also, the total value of the company reached $53 billion, according to The Verge.
Still behind some big names in the industry
Despite this change in the top, Tesla is still behind the likes of Toyota and Daimler, but there’s no doubt that their performance will surely attract an image boost!
Of course, the way the carmaker managed to achieve this is still very complicated to answer. Back in 2016, they lost $675 million on $7 billion in revenue, while GM had a total revenue of $166.4 billion and a net income of $9.43 billion, followed by Ford, with $151.8 billion, respectively $4.6 billion.
On a second thought, it’s not that complicated, actually, since it all has to do with the way Elon Musk presents the story of the company, convincing investors that it has the power to change the world and create huge profits in the future. And he’s definitely not lying!
For example, over the past four years, the sales tripled, while both Ford and GM went in a straight line over the same period.
Elon Musk, a great storyteller
“Elon has managed to tell a compelling story in how he’s positioned Tesla,” said Karl Brauer, executive publisher at Kelley Blue Book. “Between the Gigafactory, the solar panel company, and the autonomous technology embedded in every Model S and Model X being produced, Elon can claim to be ahead of traditional automakers on the road to self-driving cars powered by renewable energy.”
Apparently, Tesla is expected to keep growing, due to people’s interest for both electric and self-driving cars, as well as solar panels and standalone energy storage. We know, the interest we’re talking about is still reduced, but it will surely grow in a few years.
The company is planning to release the Model 3 later this year, a more affordable one, to be more specific, as well as increase production, from 76,000 cards to more than 500,000 in 2018. These numbers are truly impressive, but we just have to wait and see if they manage to reach them.
