Elon Musk has plenty to be pretty pleased about as of late. He hopped on Twitter recently with a cheeky post about Tesla’s stock value reaching a record high and surpassing that of Ford as of late. The tweet from Musk stated, “Stormy weather in Shortville …” humorously pointing fingers at those short sellers who had doubts in Tesla.
The increase in stock value brings Tesla up to just over $48 billion US, which is a little over $3 billion US over Ford, and places the electronic vehicle (EV) auto manufacturer a bit behind from GM. Tesla’s increase in value was announced shortly after the company released information around global shipments of cars hitting 25,000 units, well over what was estimated by analysts.
Robert W. Baird & Co. analyst, Ben Kallo, has stated that it is unclear what the demand for electric vehicles are, however, it is clear that the public wants Tesla cars. Still, Ford’s overall net income has equaled to $26 billion US over the past five years, while Tesla has lost approximately $2.3 billion US during that period of time. Ford had a revenue of $151.8 billion US in 2016, while Tesla was at $7 billion US. Across America last year, there were 40,697 Tesla cars sold.
Kallo has speculated that Tesla may have bigger plans on the horizon, as Musk is the CEO of SpaceX; with auto maker being viewed as more of a tech organization than a car company. As Model 3 is almost ready to launch, a car that also happens to be the company’s most affordable vehicle on the roster, the CEO believes that Tesla’s yearly production will heighten to about 500,000 units for 2018.
As much as Tesla is riding a high wave right now, it better hold steady as there are a plethora of competition nipping at its heels. It’s no secret; there are auto manufacturers out there currently trying to create electric cars to release as the decade winds down, and grab a piece of that auto and environmentally-friendly ‘pie in the sky. A fine example of this is rival Ford. The company is planning to dish out $4.5 billion US for development around an electronic vehicle fleet. Their plans to release this is 2020.
MSN advises that only time will tell if Tesla has what it takes to dominate a sector of the industry they helped to create.
