Electric car firm Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has become the United States' most valuable car manufacturer, surpassing General Motors (NYSE:GM.), it emerged.
Shares surged up to 3% earlier taking the market cap beyond $51bn (General Motors around $50bn).
Last week, column inches were filled as Tesla overtook Ford to become the second largest US car maker.
So it was only a matter of time...
The move is widely seen as an endorsement of Elon Musk's vision and investor belief that electric cars really will be the way forward for motoring.
Tesla delivered fewer than 80,000 vehicles globally last year compared to GM’s 10 million and its more-affordable Model 3 sedan is scheduled to roll out later this year.
Tesla was boosted earlier as it received its most bullish price forecast from a major Wall Street broker.
Piper Jaffray upgraded the stock to ‘overweight’ – the equivalent of ‘buy’ – from ‘neutral’.
It also increased its price target to US$368 from US$223.
According to FactSet, that’s the highest price target on Wall Street from one of the bigger brokers.