Tesla overtakes Ford in market capitalisation
Tesla on Monday became the second-largest US car maker in terms of market capitalisation, displacing Ford, whose sales lagged amid concerns about the ability of the US market to keep growing.
Tesla said it delivered 25,000 of its high-tech vehicles in the January-March period — a 69% surge compared to the first three months of 2016 — indicating it was on its way to meeting its goal of 50,000 deliveries by mid-2017.
Investors still rewarded the company on Monday, with stock movements reshuffling the hierarchy among US carmakers. At market close, Tesla was up 7.3% to $298.52 for a market capitalisation of $48.63 billion.
Ford, which at one point was down 3%, had a market cap of $45.47 billion. At its low, GM fell 4.4%, but maintained a market cap above $50.9 billion. That decision was not taken on a single day. Initially, it was only a thought. A lot of discussions happened: Is it good or bad? If we have to do it, what (are the) ramifications? So it was not as if somebody decided and went about doing it overnight. Secondly, even if it were to be done, we were very clear that the final call will have to be taken by the government because it is a policy decision and not in RBI’s purview. If such a decision is taken, then how do we implement it? (What are the) backward linkages, forward linkages? All such debating and preparation gave us the confidence to go ahead. These two decisions were in parallel. The normal practice in currency management is to periodically have a plan. In 2014, we had come to a conclusion that we need higher denomination notes. So, on that basis, we had recommended ₹5,000 and ₹10,000 notes given the pace of inflation which we had and which we had projected. Currency is an area where nothing can be done overnight. Any decision that you take, to implement it, it will be about 8 months to a year. Then the government had I don’t think we didn’t plan well. We planned everything. Every reaction was fully foreseen. There was no nasty surprise for us. Everything had been well identified, and debated. Several instructions were given by us. About 20 (notifications) were relaxing rules. These were also pre-planned. If at all, there were one or two without planning. The rest were planned. The remaining 30 were instructions to banks. That we could not have given upfront, it would have let the cat out of the bag. In hindsight, if there’s anything I would have done differently… may be the quantum of ₹500 notes production. We may have decided differently. The consultations started in January. The introduction of ₹2,000 was a decision irrespective of demonetisation.