The company itself has only existed for 17 years, but Tesla has now built up the momentum to close the gap Toyota, and may likely soon become the world’s most valuable automaker. The California-based electric car maker’s stock rallied past the $1,000 per share threshold (closing at $1,025), and continued to trade around that price into Thursday. Looking at market capitalization to discuss value, outlets like Bloomberg point out that Toyota is still slightly higher, with a $210.5 billion valuation.
However, Toyota valuation includes 14.3 percent of shares the company holds as treasury stock. Dial that out of the equation, and Tesla does stand out in front when it comes to sheer market cap.
While Tesla has been building steam for years, the meteoric rise in its market cap came near the end of last year, when the company unveiled its upcoming Cybertruck. Since then, it’s gone on to roll out the Model Y crossover, and CEO Elon Musk noted in a recent company e-mail that it’s time to prepare the Semi for “volume production.”
Tesla’s market cap now stands at $190 billion
Bloomberg also pointed out that Tesla will inevitably pull ahead of Toyota (even including its treasury shares) if the Japanese automaker stays where it currently is in the markets. Their report says, “A rally of about another 11% in Tesla shares could see it claim the crown if Toyota holds steady, with Tesla already up 23% since the beginning of June.”
On Musk’s admittedly brief assertion that the Semi should soon go into production, Wall Street could close Tesla’s gap sooner than most thought. The company is also working to site a new factory for Model Y and Cybertruck production, and ramping up output for the Semi model would help it achieve even greater milestones.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on the automotive industry, though, we will have to see how Tesla’s sales performed throughout the last quarter. This quarter is shaping up to be a rough time for all automakers, but Tesla has pulled back from rough quarters to deliver the sort of growth necessary to rally its stock past $1,000 a share. As the industry rolls through the rest of 2020, time will tell how the EV manufacturer recovers.
