Cars and Drivers

GM Shares Outperform Tesla's This Year

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General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) released its electric vehicle (EV) plans last week, which demonstrated the huge commitment it has to that market. At the same time, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) faced new competition from vehicles announced and released by several major manufacturers. It is rare that any car company outperforms Tesla over any period. However, so far this year, GM’s stock price has gone up more than Tesla’s.

GM’s shares hit $51.53 last week, an all-time high. So far this year, they are 20% higher, compared to a rise of 17.1% in Tesla stock.

GM’s EV announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show included the 2021 Chevrolet Bolt and 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV. In addition, GM said Chevy should introduce four more EVs by 2025. GM also will release the 2022 GMC Hummer EV SUT full-size electric pickup truck. Finally, it gave more details about the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq midsize electric SUV.

While GM means to be a force in the EV market, several of the other largest manufacturers in the world have similar plans. The New York Times reported: “Ford, Volkswagen and other automakers will begin selling several models with greater driving range than an earlier round of Tesla challengers that failed to draw many buyers.”

The primary reason the competition has become so heated derives from estimates that EV sales worldwide may reach 20 million by the end of the decade.

Tesla sold 500,000 cars last year. While that puts it at the head of the EV market, it is not in the top 10 largest car companies in the world by sales. One Wall St. analyst expects Tesla unit sales to double by 2023 and reach 5 million by 2030. However, increased competition makes that forecast a stretch.

The GM share performance versus Tesla has done little to close the market cap gap between the two. Tesla’s is $783 billion and GM’s is $72 billion.


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