Cars and Drivers

Tesla's Market Value Is Almost as Much as GM and Ford Combined

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: January 4, 2020 9:10 am

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 11:35 am

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock rose again on the back of an announcement that it had delivered 112,000 cars in the fourth quarter. Deliveries for the full year reached 367,500, up almost 50% from 2018. Its stock price, at $443 a share, gives it a market value of $80 billion, almost the total market values of General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) combined. Each of those companies has annual car unit sales that are multiples of Tesla’s.

One reason for the disparity is that Tesla’s share price is up 114% over that past five years. GM’s is up 2% in the same period, which gives it a market value of $52 billion. Ford’s stock is down 40% in that time, which gives it a market cap of $37 billion. That puts the market value of the two big manufacturers together at $89 billion.

The primary argument for the difference in valuations is that Wall Street views Tesla as among the car companies of the future. In fact, some people say Tesla leads that list. Ford and GM are car companies rooted very deeply in the past. Almost all their cars and trucks are gas driven. They have dealership chains, high product development costs and marketing expenses that are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Each also has to support several brands and a large number of nameplates under those brands. For Ford, this includes Ford and the battered Lincoln. For GM, this includes GMC, Chevy, Buick and the struggling Cadillac. Tesla has to support one brand, with three basic brands: the Model S, Model 3 and Model X. All the cars Americans don’t want to buy are made by huge manufacturers.

While Tesla has an all-electric car lineup, Ford and GM are just entering these markets. Tesla has a semi-autonomous system in its cars, considered more advanced than the GM and Ford systems. Both Ford and GM admit it will take years and billions of dollars to replace their gas fleets with electric vehicles. For example, Ford has just launched its Mustang Mach-E SUV. It will not be available until late this year. And it will be at least another two years before Ford brings mass-market electric vehicles to the U.S. market.

Tesla’s head start may not last over the next several years as the world’s manufacturers try to overtake it. For the time being, however, that is not going to happen.