After surpassing BMW last month, Tesla (TSLA) is now becoming more valuable than Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, as it becomes one of the most valuable automakers in terms of market capitalization.
As we reported last month when Tesla’s market capitalization surpassed BMW’s, it’s hard to directly compare Tesla to other automakers because the company is more than an automaker due to its growing energy division.
But most of its revenue currently comes from its automotive business, which mostly makes the company an “automaker”.
It’s also getting into the truck manufacturing business, which makes it somewhat of a good comparison with Daimler, an important player in the space with brands like Freightliner.
After market close today, Tesla’s valuation slightly surpassed Daimler’s on the stock market due to the latter sliding down significantly:
That’s despite Daimler delivering significantly more vehicles than Tesla and being profitable for a long time.
But the German automaker’s profits have been going down and it has recently been warning investors of upcoming hardship due to its declining diesel business.
Last year, the company made several investments to accelerate the electrification of its portfolio.
When Mercedes-Benz announced a $1 billion electric car investment, Tesla CEO Elon Musk joked that it was “missing a zero.”
But earlier in 2017, Daimler also announced that they will spend $11 billion on 10 new electric car models by 2022.
The first new electric vehicle from the company will be the Mercedes-Benz EQC, which should go into production next year.
We could also potentially see another cooperation on electric vehicles between Mercedes-Benz and Tesla, who used to be partners back in the day.
In October, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said that they are open to working with Tesla again and last month, Musk said that Tesla could work with Mercedes-Benz on an electric Sprinter van.
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