Hyperdrive

The Quest to Replicate Tesla’s Success Keeps EV Mania Alive

Electrification is undeniably the future. But for both startups and traditional car companies, the path will be bumpy.

A load of Tesla cars outside the company's assembly plant in Fremont, California.

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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Tesla has thrilled some investors and jarred others by soaring to a valuation of as much as $649 billion, more than what the world’s seven largest carmakers were collectively worth at the beginning of this year. The company is now comfortably in a category by itself, defying even Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk’s warnings.

“I actually said the stock is too high a long time ago,” Musk said at the start of December. “But they didn’t listen to me.”