Tesla beats Toyota to become most valuable car company in the world, briefly
Electric car maker Tesla, owned by Elon Musk, has become the most valuable car company in the world on June 10 after its stocks surged to an all-time high.
Tesla's stock rose by about 7.6% to $1,011.65, helping it to lift its market capitalisation to an intraday peak of almost $189 billion. Tesla's stock surge was in expected lines given its performance in recent months when the carmaker has been rapidly climbing up the ladder to the top.
The surge on June 10 helped Tesla go past Toyota's valuation, for a small period of time, during trading on Wednesday. The Japanese carmaker with a market cap of $182.87 billion, currently remains the most valuable carmaker in the world. But Wednesday was a clear indication that Tesla may not take long before dethroning Toyota to the top.
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Ironically, Toyota had invested around $50 million in Tesla 10 years ago when the company sold its facility in Fremont, California to Elon Musk. Toyota later went to sell its Tesla shares and made profit.
The surge in Tesla's valuation is attributed to Elon Musk's decision to ramp up the production of his Tesla Semi commercial truck. According to Reuters, Musk had sent an email to Tesla employees on this. He did not specify a time frame for ramping up production of the Semi. However he tweeted "Yes" to a question on Twitter about whether the report of the leaked Semi truck production email was accurate.
When Musk unveiled the prototype of the futuristic, battery-powered Semi in 2017, he said the Class 8 truck would go into production by 2019. More recently, he said the Semi would go into volume production by 2021.
Musk's Tuesday message coincides with a surge in the share price of rival clean truck maker Nikola Corp.
Nikola, an electric and fuel cell truck startup, earlier this month began trading on the NASDAQ after it merged with special purpose acquisition company VectoIQ.
Also Read : Nikola may not be next Tesla, but its valuation is more extreme
Shares in Nikola have more than doubled in price over the past week as the company's CEO has used Twitter and interviews to promote plans to launch an electric pickup truck to Tesla's forthcoming Cybertruck.
Nikola shares fell as much as 17% on Wednesday after advancing 122% the prior two days. It’s planning to start delivering a battery-electric semi next year, followed by fuel cell-electric big rigs in 2023.
(With input from agencies)
