Tesla overtakes Ford Motor in market value for first time

Tesla shot past Ford Motor Co in market value for the first time and moved close to General Motors, with the electric carmaker winning increasing investor support vis-a-vis carmakers from Detroit.

According to commentators, while GM and Ford could boast of strong profits and healthy balance sheets, Tesla offered something investors loved much more - the potential for dramatic growth.

''Investors want something that is going to go up in orders of magnitude in six months to six years, and Tesla is that story,'' said Karl Brauer, a senior editor at Kelley Blue Book, Bloomberg and AP reported. "Nobody thinks Ford or GM is going to do that."

According to commentators, Tesla chief, Elon Musk had given the lie to conventional wisdom that automakers should be viewed as a stable, reliable investment.

In stark contrast, Musk promoted his California-based company as a dynamic vehicle for growth, despite the risks and challenges ahead of it.

Tesla is poised to benefit from the shift to electric vehicles as part of a broader societal move to cleaner energy, and the advent of automated driving, according to commentators.

 ''Tesla is very vocal in talking about how they are positioned as we move from humans driving cars powered by gasoline to computers driving cars powered by batteries,'' Brauer said.

Tesla had a market value of $49 billion at the close of trading as against Ford's $46 billion.

According to commentators, investors were excited by the prospect of the company selling a cheaper car in the US, the Model 3, which it hoped would have mass market appeal.

"Five years ago no one knew what a Tesla was. Now people want a Tesla. It has usurped BMW as an aspirational car," said Ben Kallo, energy technology analyst at Robert W Baird, BBC reported.

He added that the charisma, or what he described as the "magic dust" surrounding Tesla founder and chief executive Elon Musk, allowed it to attract talented staff as also investors.

"Tesla has more going on in those four walls than we know about," he said.