Tesla surpasses BMW to become the 4th most valuable car company in the world

Over the past few months, Tesla’s valuation surged past Ford and GM but following another surge over the past 2 weeks, Tesla’s market capitalization is now worth more than BMW’s.

It is now the 4th most valuable car company in the world.

The feat is hard to understand when just looking at the deliveries of both companies. BMW delivered over 2 million cars last year while Tesla delivered fewer than 80,000 vehicles during the same period.

Yet, as of today, investors value the German automaker at $61.2 billion and Tesla at just over $61.6 billion (at least briefly intraday today with a new all-time high of $376).

Only Toyota, Daimler, and Volkswagen are more valuable than Tesla at this point.

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 1 million cars in 2020.

Despite Tesla’s current small size, maybe BMW should worry. Facebook millionaire turned venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya recently suggested that the Model 3 is already stealing sales from the 3-Series even before they start deliveries:

As we previously reported, investors are also not only looking 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.

Therefore, if you want to make a comparison, it’s closer to an automaker who also owns an oil company and everything in between, like the refineries and gas stations.

In the context that the entire automotive industry is moving from internal combustion engines to electric motors, it’s a very strategic position to take.