Original version

BBC World Service Online

The Inquiry

Documentaries

Factual

News

Getting beyond the headlines to explore the forces and ideas shaping the world

The Inquiry gets beyond the headlines to explore the trends, forces and ideas shaping the world.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

The Inquiry: Are shares in Elon Musk’s Tesla vastly overvalued?

Are shares in Elon Musk’s Tesla vastly overvalued?

08/10/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - The Inquiry, Are shares in Elon Musk’s Tesla vastly overvalued?

How has the electric car maker become the most valuable auto company in the world?

Two years ago, the electric car maker, Tesla, was running out of cash.  Now it’s the most valuable auto company in the world.  How did that happen and is it worth the price?

In 2018, the electric car maker, Tesla, was struggling to get the Model 3 electric vehicle off the production line.  Its CEO, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, was working up to 22 hours a day on the factory floor, trying to solve a host of problems on the car he’d bet the company on.  It was close to running out of money.
 
Two years later, the company’s doing better.  It says it will grow 30-40% this year.

No surprise then that Tesla’s share price has gone up. But the amount may surprise you – up eight fold in the last year, to $400 a share.  Making it the most valuable car company in the world.

It’s now worth more than Toyota, Volkswagen and Honda put together.  But yet it still manufactures only a fraction of the cars they make.
 
So are shares in Elon Musk’s Tesla vastly overvalued?  Sumant Bhatia finds out from our expert witnesses, who include a Tesla owner who’s a shareholder and superfan, a fund manager who thinks the shares are in a bubble, an investor with millions of dollars in Tesla and an expert in electric vehicles.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Inquiry

Are shares in Elon Musk’s Tesla vastly overvalued?

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service