Electric car maker Tesla Motors, based in Palo Alto, California, and run by billionaire Elon Musk, posted its first ever profit. The news sent the stock surging 24 percent, pushing its market capitalization to $8 billion, higher than Italy’s Fiat. Fiat also owns Chrysler Group.
Tesla announced a first-quarter net income of $11.2 million. Its Model S was recently awarded the highest rating from Consumer Reports magazine, a near-perfect score of 99 out of 100. The Model S starts at $62,400 (around P2.6 million). The Model S was also cited as Motor Trend’s Car of the Year and Automobile’s Automobile of the Year.
Its market value is now also above Peugeot-Citroen’s, but is lower than smaller Japanese car makers such as Mazda and Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru). It is still tiny compared to Ford’s $55 billion, GM’s $44 billion, and Toyota’s $200 billion. Tesla builds the RAV4 electric vehicle for Toyota.
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