But analysts say the market will be the ultimate battleground. In July Musk tweeted out that Telsa production line had manufactured 7,000 in seven days. Steve Armstrong, Ford’s president of its European, Middle East and Africa responded on Twitter with 7000 cars, circa 4 hours. Ford Team.
Tesla and Ford are in a war of words, but analysts say the market will be the ultimate battleground. The market wasn’t particularly impressed with Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) Q2 production numbers, and neither was rival Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F).
Tesla and Ford’s verbal feud started when Musk told the Wall Street Journal that Tesla’s factory has good energy compared to Ford’s factories.
“Go to Ford,” Musk said. “It looks like a morgue.”
Ford vice president of communications Mark Truby initially responded to Musk via Twitter, bashing the tent-like structure of the new Model 3 production line Tesla recently added.
“No doubt the vibe is funky in that ‘makeshift tent,’ but it’s not bad either across the street at the #FordRouge plant where a high quality, high-tech F-150 rolls off the line every 53 seconds like clockwork,” Truby said. He has since deleted the tweet.
Ford and its investors are likely frustrated with the fact that, despite Tesla’s modest size and production, the market has assigned a tremendous premium to its stock based on Tesla’s impressive growth. Tesla’s market capitalization is $56.8 billion, $13 billion larger than Ford’s. In addition, TSLA stock is up 24.2% in the past three years, while Ford stock is down 26.2% in that time.
Read: JP Morgan predicts Tesla shares will plunge more than 40% before the end of the year
Tesla sold just over 22,000 vehicles this quarter. That’s a little more than 1 per cent of Ford’s 1.7 million in sales this quarter and a little less than 1 per cent of General Motors’ 2.3 million.
Being able to meet their production goals has long been an issue for Tesla, which saw a record loss of $336 million this quarter as it ramps up production on its Model 3.
Tesla currently sells the most fully electric cars in the U.S. out of any car company. But traditional companies like Ford and GM have their own electric car lines and a proven ability to scale, so Tesla will have to keep hitting production goals, like it did this quarter, to maintain its position.
Is Tesla worth more than GM?
Tesla is currently the most valuable American car company, worth $53.5 billion at market close today — about $3 billion more than General Motors. … That’s a little more than 1 percent of Ford’s 1.7 million in sales this quarter and a little less than 1 percent of General Motors’ 2.3 million.
Despite its current $650 billion worth, Tesla is in trouble financially. First, it took almost ten years to turn a profit and ended 2017 with a $675 million quarterly loss.
Musk has brushed off Teslas money issues by both being flippant by telling investors to buy stock in Ford and bidding his time.
He has said that Tesla will turn a big profit by the end of 2018 and with his record of pulling off the seemingly impossible on a consistent basis, shareholders are willing to hang on, for the moment. But unless things turn around, Musk may find himself and his company in dire straights.
