Tesla passes BMW to be world’s fourth most valuable car company

Tesla’s market capitalisation is now worth more than BMW’s, meaning it is the fourth most valuable car company in the world.

On Friday, investors valued the German automaker at US$61.2 billion (NZ$84.85 billion) and Tesla at just over US$61.6 billion (NZ$85.5 billion). Only Toyota, Daimler, and Volkswagen are more valuable than Tesla at this point, Electrek reports.

The feat is hard to understand when just looking at the deliveries of both companies. BMW delivered over two million cars last year while Tesla delivered fewer than 80,000 vehicles during the same period.

But it’s clear that Tesla investors are looking ahead of current deliveries and at Tesla’s ambition to ramp up significantly over the next few years to reach an annual production of a million cars in 2020.

Facebook millionaire turned venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya recently suggested the Tesla Model 3 is already stealing sales from BMW’s 3-Series even before they start deliveries.

Investors are also not just looking at Tesla as an automaker anymore, which makes it hard to compare its valuation to other automakers.

Tesla is trying to own the entire energy process from generation to consumption. It wants its customers to not only buy its vehicles, but to also power them with energy generated through its own products (solar arrays), stored in its Powerpacks and Powerwalls, and charged through its level 2 chargers and Superchargers.