Welp, motor industry stalwarts Ford are probably shitting their britches right about now.
According to the stock market, electric car wizards Tesla are now worth more than the 115-year-old automakers.
Tesla’s market cap reached $US47.46 billion ($62.5B) yesterday as Ford’s dipped to $US44.89 billion ($59B). Why the sudden change? Well, Ford reported some rather shitty news while Tesla did the opposite.
Elon Musk‘s venture saw vehicle production and deliveries rise during the first quarter of this year, and faster than analysts expected. Ford, on the other hand, is recalling a number of F-150 pickup trucks, coupled with a 7 percent sales fall last month. That hurts.
Trading at a high of $US291.54, Tesla’s stock has been steadily gaining value since late 2016, a huge rise from $US181 in early December 2016.
While this might sound like rad beans for Musk and his mates, it’s important to put things in perspective. Tesla is still in some rather deep debt and only shipped around 76,000 vehicles last year. Ford dish out millions of cars every year and have that sweet, juicy tenure to fall back on. Their name still means a lot to millions of people around the world.
But it’s fantastic to see the focus shift towards renewable, clean energy on a stage where people take notice. Nothing like assigning a dollar figure to something to get the people riled up, hey.
Here’s hoping the trend continues.
Source: Tech Crunch.
Photo: Getty / Justin Sullivan.
