Tesla: To infinity and beyond

Business Daily

BBC

Business

4.4 • 816 Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2020

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tesla's share price has tripled in the last six months - can anyone stop it, or even make sense of it?

Ed Butler speaks to Craig Irwin, stock analyst at Roth Capital in New York, who is perplexed by the latest crazy surge in Tesla's valuation, even though he wouldn't particularly describe himself as a Tesla bear. David Bailey, professor of business economics at Birmingham Business School in the UK, says that the optimism is being driven by a growing perception that the electric vehicle revolution may finally be upon us.

But one industry veteran remains hugely sceptical. Bob Lutz has served on the board of all three of America's giant carmakers, and pours scorn on the idea that we will all be driving electric anytime soon.

Producer: Edwin Lane

(Picture: Tesla Roadster launched into orbit by one of Elon Musk's SpaceX rockets; Credit: SpaceX via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello there. Ed Butler with you here in London. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. Today we are
0:07.3	asking, why is Tesla car company's share price going through the roof? What the heck is going on with Tesla stock?
0:16.3	Nobody can explain it. It's driven purely by psychology or almost mass psychosis. Could this be a starter
0:25.3	gun launching an electric car revolution? There's a sense that with battery costs coming down,
0:31.7	range improving, there will be a tipping point in the early to mid-2020. So we are just kind of getting to the point where
0:38.5	it's really going to take off. That's all coming up in Business Daily from the BBC.
0:46.5	Last week really did see some pretty giddy stock trading for the world's best known electric
0:52.3	carmaker.
0:57.0	Tesla continuing that, well, Strong Start doesn't even really put it in perspective.
1:01.0	The stock price up 114% since the beginning of the year.
1:05.4	Tesla's market cap, now up to $162 billion in market cap, up about $80 billion within the last couple of weeks.
1:13.3	The real buzz in the markets smells a bit like Musk.
1:16.5	Yeah.
1:17.4	Yeah, Tesla getting all the attention yesterday.
1:20.7	Tesla now shares today hitting an all-time high.
1:23.3	You're looking at the very start of what's going to happen with Tesla.
1:26.1	This could be one of the largest companies in the whole world.
1:28.1	You know, this is getting crazy, right?
1:29.5	Tesla stock, Sornka, has $900 a share.
1:31.9	Elon Musk getting richer faster than any other billionaire.
1:35.3	Elon Musk is laughing all the way to the bank.
1:37.6	Can the valuation be justified?
	...

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