Tesla's market cap tops the 9 largest automakers combined — Experts disagree about if that can last

Key Points
  • Tesla's market cap has increased by more than $500 billion in 2020, and is now worth as much as the combined market cap of the nine largest car companies globally.
  • Despite the meteoric growth for Tesla's market value this year, many shareholders and fans of Elon Musk believe there's even more upside for the electric vehicle maker heading into 2021.
  • Some Wall Street analysts are issuing warnings on Tesla, however, signaling that shares in the company may be headed for a decline once it is added to the S&P 500 index on December 21, 2020.
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.