Not Even a Market Selloff Can Slow Tesla Down

Roben Farzad, my old buddy from BusinessWeek, takes a look at Tesla’s (TSLA) amazing rise:

REUTERS

And just like that, Tesla Motors sports a $20 billion market value.

That's a mind-boggling milestone for a 10-year-old car marker currently targeting delivery of just 21,000 luxury sedans this year. While Tesla has one percent of Ford's (F) U.S. monthly sales, the electric car company already has nearly a third of Ford's $64 billion market capitalization. Investors value Tesla at roughly 41 percent of GM's (GM) $48 billion market value. Indeed, Tesla is now worth more than Suzuki Motor Corp., Mazda Motor Corp., and Fiat SpA, the majority owner of Chrysler Group LLC, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Tesla shares, which are up 390 percent this year, change hands at an otherworldly 260 times estimated 2013 earnings, versus 10 for General Motors and 11 for Ford.

Investor’s Business Daily notes that the number of charging stations for electric cars is set to increase exponentially:

The number of fast-charging stations for electric vehicles will soar to nearly 200,000 worldwide by 2020, up from just 1,800 or so last year, says research firm IHS Automotive.

Japan is home to half of today’s fast-charging stations, and it will continue to utilize CHAdeMO technology, says IHS Automotive. Japan began deploying CHAdeMO, roughly translated as “charge for moving,” in 2009.

Germany is set on using CCS (combined charging system), while Tesla Motors is pushing its proprietary Supercharger system in the U.S., and has made adding more such stations a priority

By one measure, Tesla’s volatility has increased, even as its stock price has surged. Its 120-day volatility, which measures its price swings during the past six months of trading, has increased to 77 today, up from 37 on March 28. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) has a 120-day volatility of 12.

Even a broad-market selloff hasn’t been able to slow Tesla down. Its shares have gained 0.6% to $165.31, while GM has dropped 3.6% to $33.65 and Ford has fallen 3.2% to $15.89. Toyota Motor (TM) has dropped 0.9% to $124.08.