Tesla: Elon Musk Is Now The World’s Wealthiest Person
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now the wealthiest person in the world, with a personal fortune of $185 billion (£136 billion). It’s the first time the controversial electric car innovator has topped global rankings…
Elon Musk’s Fortune
For most of us, 2020 was probably the worst year in living memory. Not so for Elon Musk, who’s now the wealthiest person alive; largely thanks to the booming EV segment over the course of the year. He’s now worth the equivalent of £136 billion, overtaking Amazon boss Jeff Bezos. Bezos himself had possessed the title since 2017. Musk has had little to say about the accomplishment. When promoted by a Tesla fan club on Twitter, he simply said ‘how strange’ followed by ‘well, back to work”. The colourful, albeit controversial, CEO possess a 20% stake in Tesla and has benefited enormously from the company’s surging share price; which analysts, and even himself, have criticised.
Tesla’s share price reached $700 billion on Wednesday, having sat at $115 at the start of 2020. For perspective, that means the company’s stock is more valuable than that of Volkswagen, Toyota, GM and Ford. This comes at a time when the EV segment is growing rapidly all over the world. Tesla itself produced just shy of 500,000 vehicles in 2020, despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In automotive terms, the figure is still small fry; but it was good enough to tantalise Wall Street.
Model 3 Performs in the UK
Tesla’s Model 3 was the best-selling car in the UK for the month of December. According to figure released by the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), 5798 registrations were recorded over the course of the month; giving it a 1,000 advantage over the second most popular car – the Volkswagen Golf. It also outperformed the enormously popular Ford Fiesta by 2,000 registrations. The Model 3 was also nearly twice as possible as Volkswagen’s new flagship EV, the ID.3 hatchback.
Overall, Tesla’s sales figures in 2020 (499,550) were up from 367,500 in 2019 – itself a 50% increase over 2018 sales. This performance, combined with Tesla’s (real or imagined) technological lead over the competition, is largely why Tesla stock has risen so rapidly. But critics believe its share price is substantially inflated and, ultimately, could collapse at any moment. For now though, Elon Musk is the world’s wealthiest person. Overall, the ten wealthiest people in the world increased their fortunes by $400bn (£296bn) over the course of 2020.
Staying Electric: 90% Of EV Drivers To Commit To Battery Power – https://autoserveclub.co.uk/blog/staying-electric-90-of-ev-drivers-to-commit-to-battery-power/
UK Car Firms Have Three Years To Source EV Batteries – https://autoserve.co.uk/motoring-news/uk-car-firms-have-three-years-to-source-ev-batteries/
