Last Wednesday, Tesla Inc. displaced Toyota Motor Corp. as the world’s most valuable automaker, underscoring investor enthusiasm for a company trying to transform an industry that has relied on internal combustion engines for more than 130 years.
Tesla Inc.’s market value also surpassed Exxon Mobil Corp.’s last Tuesday in a sign that investors are increasingly betting on a global energy transition away from fossil fuels.
Exxon is the world’s second biggest energy company after Saudi state-controlled oil giant Aramco went public late last year.
Photo: AP 照片：美聯社
Shares of Tesla, which have more than doubled since the start of the year, climbed as much as 3.5 percent in intraday trading last Wednesday, giving it a market capitalization of US$207.2 billion, surpassing Toyota’s US$201.9 billion.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has ignored or broken many of the established auto industry’s rules and norms in the 10 years since he took Tesla public, selling cars online and assembling vehicles in high-cost California. But while his company’s value has soared, there remains a gulf in the scale of his company and the world’s biggest car manufacturers.
Tesla produced 103,000 vehicles in the first quarter, or about 4 percent of the almost 2.4 million made by Toyota, which built its brand on affordability and reliability backed by innovations in large-scale manufacturing.
Photo: Bloomberg 照片：彭博社
Tesla became the world’s second most valuable automaker in January, when it surpassed Volkswagen AG. It is now worth more than twice the German giant.
After pioneering gas-electric vehicles with the Prius hybrid, Toyota was late to shift to fully electric autos and has wagered heavily on hydrogen fuel cells. The company is now making a series of high-profile investments in electric vehicles (EVs) and self-driving cars. The manufacturer has forecast an 80 percent plunge in profit this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and expects it could take until the first half of next year before the auto market recovers to pre-pandemic levels.
The market for electric vehicles is forecast to increase to 10 percent of global passenger vehicle sales by 2025, 28 percent in 2030 and 58 percent by 2040, according to a May 19 report by BloombergNEF.
Photo: Bloomberg 照片：彭博社
(Bloomberg)
特斯拉上週三取代豐田汽車，成為全球市值最高的汽車製造商，凸顯投資人對一家嘗試為倚賴內燃機超過一百三十年之汽車工業帶來轉型的公司非常有興趣。
特斯拉的市值在上週二也已超過石油巨擘埃克森美孚，此跡象顯示有越來越多投資人押注在淘汰化石燃料的全球能源轉型。
Photo: Bloomberg 照片：彭博社
埃克森美孚是世界第二大能源公司，僅次於去年底上市的沙烏地阿拉伯國有石油巨頭阿美公司。
自今年初以來，特斯拉的股價已翻漲了一倍多。在上週三的盤中交易，特斯拉的股價上漲了三點五個百分點，使其市值達到兩千零七十二億美元，超越了豐田的兩千零十九億美元。
汽車業已建立的許多規則與常態，在特斯拉上市以來的十年間，都被執行長伊隆‧馬斯克置若罔顧或打破了。馬斯克在網路上賣車，並在高成本的美國加州組裝車輛。他的公司雖然市值飛漲，但特斯拉之規模與全球最大的一些汽車製造商相比，仍有很大的落差。
Photo: AFP 照片：法新社
特斯拉在第一季生產了十萬零三千輛車，約為豐田近兩百四十萬輛之生產量的百分之四。豐田的汽車以民眾買得起、性能可靠而著名，其創新技術可被大量製造。
特斯拉在一月份超越大眾汽車，成為市值全球第二之汽車製造商。現在特斯拉的市值是這家德國汽車巨頭的兩倍多。
豐田以Prius混合動力汽車開創了油電複合動力車之先河，卻很慢才轉向純電動車，它先前投入大量資源押注的是氫燃料電池。豐田目前正對電動車及自動駕駛汽車進行一系列引人注目的投資。由於武漢肺炎（新冠病毒病，COVID-19）的影響，豐田預測今年其營收將大減百分之八十，並預計車市要到明年上半年才能夠恢復到疫情爆發前之水準。
Photo:EPA-EFE 照片：歐新社
彭博新能源財經在五月十九日的報告中預測，到了二○二五年，電動車之市場將擴大到佔全球乘用車市場的百分之十，到二○三○年將佔百分之二十八，到了二○四○年，將達到百分之五十八。
(台北時報林俐凱編譯)
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Questions
1. Describe how Tesla differs from traditional auto makers in terms of the types of energy consumed, factory location and sales channels.
2. Where is the battery pack installed in a Tesla electric car? What is the benefit of this placement?
3. Which part(s) can you find in an electric car: battery, exhaust pipe, fuel tank cap?
4. What is the significance of Tesla’s market value surpassing that of Toyota and Exxon?
(Lin Lee-kai, Taipei Times)
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