For years, Toyota has been the most valuable automobile company on Earth.
Until now.
The most valuable auto company today is Elon Musk's Tesla Motors.
Toyota, valued at $203 billion, is still firmly in control of second place.
Tesla’s stock jumped to a new record high on Wednesday, giving the electric vehicle maker a valuation of more than $208 billion, which means that it is now the most valuable car company on the planet.
Tesla is also now worth more than many of its rivals combined, such as Fiat Chrysler ($20 billion), Ford ($24 billion), Ferrari ($32 billion), General Motors ($36 billion), BMW ($41 billion), Honda ($46 billion) and Volkswagen ($74 billion).
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10 comments:
It is said that Tesla's value is in it's battery technology not it's vehicles.
That said, I see Tesla's every day , there are at least three in my area of 200 homes, plus a Chevy Bolt or two and numerous hybrids.
The times they are a changing.
TB
Indeed, Trailblazer. I saw a photo online of an early VW Beetle. There was neat lettering on the door listing what it didn't have, i.e. power disc brakes, radial tires, power steering, airbags, air conditioning, anti-skid braking, traction control, fuel injection, power door locks, on and on and on. That was my very first car. I could fix just about everything on it with the tools in my dad's garage. No computers. The only intelligence in that car, for better or worse, was the driver. I did, at one point, put on these new tires - radials - in place of the old bias-ply and I was floored at how much better it handled. The perfect car for a young guy in Ottawa. The battery was under the back seat, out of the cold winter winds. It even had a 'gas heater' under the left front fender. When it worked it was amazing. It was rumoured, however, to have a tendency to blow up and turn the car into a cinder every once in a while. Once you figured out how to steer it on ice you were pretty confident it would get you wherever you were headed. I even found a wonderful VW repairman in Ottawa, Frank Forrster, who had his original VW mechanic's certificate, with the eagle and swastika of the time it was awarded, in a discrete wall in his office. When I took my car in for some problem, Frank would fix it for the price he quoted at the outset but, when I arrived to collect it, Frank would always - always - show me all the other things he spotted that he had fixed for free. Memories, great memories. Sometimes people leave comments that let me recall things forgotten for years. Thanks, TB.
Certainly if you look at the current rate of production of Teslas, it's a ridiculous valuation. In real life Tesla is still far smaller than any of the bigs.
But it is producing a LOT more cars than it was just a few years ago and there is no obvious reason to expect that momentum to stop. Consider that current Tesla sales volume is based on only a couple of models, which don't come close to filling all demand niches. We can expect more models. And that battery technology is continuing to get cheaper, and in general the cost curve for electric cars still has a good deal of room before it flattens out, unlike gas cars which are a very mature technology.
At a certain point, battery cars are going to hit that "finally as cheap or cheaper than gasoline cars" tipping point, and Tesla will be able to challenge markets like "cheap family hatchback". That valuation is not as silly as it looks.
We are witnessing change, PLG. Why else would VW decide to switch production entirely to EVs?
Stock market success is basically a casino-like game of musical chairs and today's valuations are often based on investors hope for the future rather than current results. (Much of that hope is based on angling for a (short term) good stock-market-play rather than holding the stock until actual profitability. I love what Tesla did with the power grid in Australia but Musk's megalomaniac behavior belies his investor's confidence.
Bezos, Buffet, Gates etc etc are not nearly as rich as we think they are.
In fact if we rose to claim most their wealth in one swell foop it would disappear like dandelion puffs on a late summer day - it is all part of a greed based system that feeds on hubris and we will either end it or go extinct.
I follow the car indusry closely, and have for almost 60 years. It's my real hobby and unapologetically so. What you lot are commenting on about Tesla is the usual man-in-the-street haven't got much clue chatter. Nothing to do with product, a lot to do with the stock market. Nor, I must say, is the comment about the state of South Australia's execrable electricity grid and lack of system planning much use - my day job was as an electric utility engineer. The battery Tesla delivered has enough capacity to run the system for about a minute - it's there for voltage support, not to supply energy.
There is a new EV pickup truck startup called Nikola. Original, eh? It's worth $34 billion and hasn't even got a running prototype, yet has announced five models. Now there's a Ponzi scheme for you. The stock market aces are on it like sh*t on a blanket. A pile of non-bright folk are going to lose their shirts.
VW is going EV because of EU directives, not because they want to. And their introductory models are rife with software problems. Next to the Brits, the Germans are in close second place when it comes to useless electrical problems, have been for years. I wouldn't buy a German car these days, had five in the past ending in 1994. Japanese for me.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2020/06/nikolas-valuation-seems-crazy/
BM
We shall see, BM. The world has changed mightily since we first took the wheel.
I'm sure EU directives have something to do with it, but VW are going electric as hard as they are to a fair extent because the "clean diesel" schtick blew up on them big time and it's the only way to salvage their reputation.
The thing is though, the world is going to move towards more electric cars. Because of consumer demand, improving technology, and government mandates (themselves responding to the ongoing increase in popular insistence on measures to combat climate change). And, although as a Nissan Leaf owner I am loath to say this, outside of China Tesla remains the only car company that really takes electric cars seriously. Maybe VW, I'll be a believer when I start seeing a bunch of models in showrooms. For most manufacturers, up to now electric cars have been a loss leader produced for PR purposes and so they'll have a pool of people who know how to make one, just in case they need to get real about it. Even Nissan--they sell all the Leafs they make, there's always a wait, but they don't make more and they don't advertise them.
All the manufacturers are starting to shift, but slowly--they're still mainly invested in their ICE car lines, they're still invested in their close ties with fossil fuel companies, they still have executives who don't take new things seriously. But Tesla is a pure electric car company; they get better at electric cars or they die. Nobody's going to say "But should we bet the company on this?"--the company IS a bet on this. So as the mandates for X% zero-emission and the subsidies and the carbon taxes and the demand shifts come along, as electric cars start to move from "early adopters" to "mass market", Tesla will be the first mover that's already ready to move from selling to early adopters to selling mass market. The bigs will start getting serious, but Tesla will be there in front of them. Rather than Tesla fighting on the big companies' turf, which they have been doing a pretty good job of so far, it will be the old car companies fighting on their turf.
Short of some massive financial meltdown I don't see any way Tesla is going to not eat a bunch of companies' lunches. Although some Chinese companies might join them.
EV's wont happen overnight.
We will likely see a hybrid EV mix for some time.
It will still be a huge step forward in emission control.
Think back to the 1970' when many said.
Those Datsun B210's wont be around long; friggin rice burners!!
I'm guessing that in about ten years most V8's will have Alberta license plates.
TB
If "Brand Felt" of Messissaga, Ontario can call itself environmentally friendly why not VW?
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