Elon Musk-led electric car maker Tesla has set a key milestone as the company’s stock hovers above a market cap of $100 billion. With this, the company has now become the first publicly traded car company to reach this milestone.
The valuation is far ahead of other publicly traded car companies in the United States such as General Motors and Ford. The stock of Tesla rose about 5% in after hours trading to follow up a stellar day Tuesday that saw the stock climb more than 7%.
Currently, General Motors’ market cap is around $49 billion while Ford’s is just over $36 billion. Musk currently draws no salary, although he owns around 20% of the company. The company’s stock has rallied since Tesla reported its third-quarter earnings with profit.
The electric car maker is now very close to de-throning Volkswagen as the second most valuable car company in the world which has a valuation of $100.59 billion. Currently, Toyota is the world’s most valuable automaker at $232 billion.
The company has said that it has delivered 112,000 vehicles in the quarter to finish out the year 20219, bringing the total vehicles delivered in 2019 to approximately 367,500 vehicles, which represents a 50 percent jump from 2018.
Tesla has also opened its Shanghai factory ahead of schedule and began deliveries of its Model 3 sedan in China in December 2019. It has also ramped up production there to more than 1,000 vehicles per week. The company is building its fourth factory in Germany.
