A man drives his Tesla car as the Starship SN8 of SpaceX is seen behind, days before a test launch of the company's new super heavy-lift Starship rocket from their facilities in this small town of Boca Chita, Texas, December 4, 2020.
Gene Blevins | Reuters
Tesla's market capitalization has increased by more than $500 billion in 2020, and the company is now worth about as much as that of the nine largest car companies globally, despite selling a small fraction of the volume of cars that they do.
Those automakers include Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, GM, Ford, Honda, Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot. Overall, Tesla expects to sell at least 500,000 electric vehicles this year worldwide, making up less than 1% of total vehicle sales. By way of comparison, Cox Automotive forecasts that total car sales in the U.S. alone should reach at least 14.3 million in 2020, down from 17 million or more in each of the past five years.