We could argue for weeks about the aesthetics or design philosophy of Tesla, both outside and inside. But there is one thing that is absolutely real. The company run by Elon Musk has shaken the entire automotive industry and has accelerated the adoption of electric mobility.
With the Tesla Model S They demonstrated at the beginning of the last decade that a luxury vehicle could be manufactured, which would compete face to face with other brands, even if it was 100% electric. This was in 2012, when nobody imagined that it would be possible to achieve it. With the Tesla Model 3 It showed that an attractive electric car can be produced on a large scale, with good value for money, with a lot of autonomy, good space, and interesting for different regions.
That is why making comparisons between Tesla and other major players in the auto industry is commonplace. “Tesla versus Volkswagen”, “Tesla versus Ford”, “Tesla versus Lucid” or “Tesla versus General Motors”. Although it is normal to do so, Elon Musk has revealed that the company’s battle is with a rival much larger and more difficult to overcome.
Let us remember again: Tesla is not a car manufacturing company.. It is hardware and software. They are not limited to the manufacture of vehicles, and dedicate an immense amount of resources in other areas. In addition, the company’s mission is to accelerate the transition to renewable energy. This objective is not limited to the electrification of the automotive fleet.
So it should come as no surprise that Tesla’s main competitor, for Elon Musk, is not another car company, it’s aramco, one of the largest oil companies, of Saudi origin, in the world. It is also one of the largest in the world from a market capitalization point of view. They are also the owners of 69% of SABICone of the world’s leading manufacturers of chemicals, fertilizers, plastics and metals.
For Elon Musk, when Tesla manages to overtake Aramco in market value, that will be the day when “we will know that the future will be good for the Earth”. He has commented on it – as usual – on Twitter, responding to another person.
For Elon Musk, Tesla has to beat oil companies as proof that there is much more value in renewable energy production
The day that Tesla exceeds in market capitalization aramco and other oil companies, we will understand that the market sees the generation and use of products based on renewable energies as more valuable. That will be a consequence of a change of general philosophy in the world.
Considering, furthermore, that much of the auto industry is accelerating its efforts to electrify its cars, they are not necessarily Tesla’s competitors. It is a position that may change in the future, when all vehicles are electric. But at the moment, all companies are on a similar journey of transformation.
At the time of publishing this text, aramco has a market capitalization of $2.4 trillion. While Tesla is located in the $786 billion, although it has reached a billion. There is still a long way to go.
A large part of the automotive industry and the power generation industry is turning to renewables. Largely pressured by regulators who have had to impose deadlines for its transformation. So a future where Tesla has a larger market capitalization than Aramco is perhaps not so far-fetched.