Tesla stocks hit new heights, challenging other US automakers

Global Business

Tesla has been on a tear lately. Its stock is up more than 40 percent year to date and now has a bigger market valuation than U.S. automaker Ford.

CGTN’s Karina Huber reports.

For a moment, it also surpassed General Motors, but its share price retreated, leaving GM at number one.

The company hit these milestones, after reporting it had delivered over 25,000 vehicles in the first quarter of this year. It was higher than anticipated and marks a 69 percent increase from the same period a year ago.

Expectations are now running high it will deliver on its goal to launch the budget-friendly Model 3 sedan by the end of 2017.

“So the model 3 is a game changer for Tesla. It’s important for their investment thesis that they will become profitable by selling a mass market vehicle and reaching over 500,000 units per year in the next couple of years, which would make them profitable,” Efraim Levy, CFRA senior equity analyst said.

E-vehicle sales boomed in 2016. In the U.S. they jumped 37 percent and internationally, sales were up 41 percent with global sales topping 777,000 vehicles.

Tesla is dominant in the luxury e-vehicle market and hopes to hit the mainstream with the Model 3. But it’s also vying to be a leader among driverless cars. On that front, it faces an uphill road.

A new report by Navigant Research puts Tesla at number 12 in that race lagging far behind Ford and the other big U.S. car manufacturers.