With the torrid growth in Tesla shares lately, the company is now the most valuable automaker in the United States. Tesla is worth $93 billion, General Motors $50 billion and Ford a middling $37 billion.
In 2018, Tesla had about $18 billion in sales and lost about a billion dollars. In 2018, General Motors made about $8 billion on revenues of $147 billion. Ford had sales of approximately $152 billion and made almost $5 billion.
What does this tell you about what investors think? They will pay, dearly, for future growth. Tesla looks like it has the dominant position in a huge new market. Ford and GM look like their fortunes are tied to a market that may just disappear, and to investors, that makes all the difference.
Sources:
Ford: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/37996/000003799619000012/f1231201810-k.htm