Tesla Now Worth More Than Seven Other Top Car Companies Combined

Elon Musk's car company Tesla is now worth more than the seven other leading car manufacturers combined.

Yes, that's more than Ford, more than Toyota, more than every other vehicle maker. Pretty impressive stuff, given the relative size of their operations.

While loads of people have been suffering pretty badly throughout the coronavirus pandemic, it's been something of a banner year for the very richest people in the world.

Along with those of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Musk has seen his fortunes swell during this most difficult of times for much of the world.

Without getting too far into whether that is a good thing or not - that's a debate for another day - Tesla's rise has seen it grow to a current market capitalisation of $645 billion (£476bn).

That's a hell of a lot of cash.

This Monday, 21 December, the company joined the prestigious S&P share index, one of Wall Street's most exclusive clubs, as the sixth largest member.

That's because shares rose to a record $645 the previous trading day, Friday 18.

The stock rose so vastly and so quickly because of the prospective move onto the S&P index, and - according to The Guardian - that's down to funds automatically buying up around $90 billion in shares ahead of time.

Tesla became the most valuable car company in the world around six months ago, soaring past Japanese rival Toyota.

At that stage in June, shares in the electric car company were valued at more than $1,100 each, which brought the total value of the company up to $209bn, ahead of Toyota's $205bn.

It's now worth more than Daimler, Honda, BMW, Volkswagen, and - well - everyone.

In fact, it's bigger than the top seven combined.

However, some experts believe that it's all because the shares are overvalued, and Vitali Kalesnik, head of research at Research Affiliates, believes the whole house of cards could topple at some stage.

Talking to CNBC, he said that while Tesla is a 'great company', the stock has 'very strong signs of being overpriced' when sales, production numbers and other aspects are taken into account.

He added: "When we're looking at the types of assumptions that we need to justify these valuations, one would need very, very aggressive assumptions.

"Tesla's current valuation is in the bubble territory."

JP Morgan analyst Ryan Brinkman also agrees with those sentiments.

He said: "Tesla shares are in our view and by virtually every conventional metric not only overvalued, but dramatically so."

Tesla is actually yet to turn over a financial profit for a year, but obviously the markets have confidence in them, and Musk must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: elon musk, Celebrity, Money, US News, Technology, Cars

Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekends he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

@TPWagwim