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Tesla approaches milestone of world’s most valuable carmaker
- The US-based electric vehicle maker’s shares closed above US$1,000 for the first time this week, raising its capitalisation to more than US$190 billion
- It still has some distance to close to reach Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp, which has a US$210 billion valuation
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The surge in Tesla’s shares so far this month moved Elon Musk’s company even closer to displacing Toyota Motor Corp as the world’s most valuable carmaker.
With a market capitalisation of more than US$190 billion, Tesla still has some distance to close to reach Toyota’s US$210 billion valuation, which includes treasury shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A rally of about another 11 per cent in Tesla shares could see it claim the crown if Toyota holds steady, with Tesla already up 23 per cent since the beginning of June.
Tesla’s valuation comes despite a gulf in the scale of the two carmakers. The Palo Alto, California-based maker of electric vehicles (EVs) produced 103,000 cars in the first quarter, or about 4 per cent of the almost 2.4 million made by Toyota.
Tesla climbed another 9 per cent on Wednesday to close above US$1,000 for the first time as Musk, the company’s chief executive, told employees it was “time to go all out” and put its Semi truck into volume production.
Wedbush Securities touted the “massive” opportunity for Tesla in China, with the company appearing to be on track to reach 100,000 deliveries from its Shanghai factory in the first year.
Tesla became the world’s second-most valuable carmaker in January, when it surpassed Volkswagen. It is now worth more than twice the German rival, which said on Wednesday that it will meet an end-of-summer deadline to start delivering its flagship ID.3 electric car.
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