Tesla passes Ford to become US's second-largest carmaker

Tesla is now the second-largest car company in the US by market value, after its stock ended trading an impressive seven per cent up in New York yesterday.

Its closing share price of $298.52 valued the electric carmaker at around $49bn (£39bn), overtaking veteran Ford, which had a market cap of $46bn (£37bn), and closing in on sector stalwart General Motors, valued at $54bn (£43bn).

It had already overtaken global brands such as Peugeot, Fiat Chrysler, Suzuki, Renault, Hyundai and Renault, says Quartz, but remains some way behind leader Toyota, which has interests far beyond cars and a market cap of around $177bn (£142bn).

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Tesla's hefty price tag, despite the fact it is losing "hundreds of millions of dollars every year, is due to it also being considered more than just a car company, adds the site.

"Today's astronomical share price may make sense if Tesla is understood as more than a car company in the same way that Apple is more than a hardware company," Quartz says.

While the company rolls out its more affordable model, the Model 3, later this year, and is shipping more cars than ever - 25,000 in the first quarter, up 70 per cent year-on-year - this pales in comparison to Ford, which sold 6.7 million cars in 2016.

Nevertheless, Tesla also owns a lot of proprietary technology. In addition to electric car engines, it is working on battery technology with applications in the home and for businesses, says the BBC, and it owns SolarCity, a solar power and energy storage company.

Founder Elon Musk has set the company the challenge of "creating a solar-powered transportation fleet, and weaning humanity off fossil fuels".