Tesla's Stock Closes At New Record High

On Tuesday, Tesla Inc's TSLA stock reached a new record high, closing the day up 6.98% at $1,079.81 per share. This values the electric automaker at over $200 billion, putting Tesla neck-and-neck with the world's highest-valued car maker, Toyota Motor TM.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic hitting markets this year, Tesla shares have gained 159% in 2020 and CEO Elon Musk expects the company to breakeven this quarter, according to a leaked email.

Tesla's Big Year: Tesla began the year trading around $430 per share. There have been many doubts about Tesla's ability to sell cars, make enough cars to meet demands, and even Tesla's ability to make a profit on each car sold. With the last few quarters showing profitability, Tesla has put many of those fears to rest.

Tesla has also continually developed its Full Self Driving software, which allows them to collect additional revenue on the expensive software unlockable option. As time goes on, the price of Tesla's FSD software will increase, with the next increase set for July 1, raising the price to $8,000.

Musk hopes to have the cars at Level 5 fully autonomous full self-driving by the end of 2020, and to enable a robotaxi feature, pending regulatory approval. This feature would allow owners to send their cars out to work as an autonomous taxi. Owners would benefit by collecting revenue on each ride, and Tesla also plans to collect a portion.

See Also: Tesla's Journey To $1,000 In 2020

Benzinga EV Insight's Take: While the record close may seem sky high, this may only be the beginning when looking at Tesla's potential.

Strictly looking at auto sales would be a mistake. Tesla has shown it can make money via its software options such as $8,000 for Full Self Driving, and a $2,000 software unlocked acceleration boost. Both of these options are easily purchasable by owners via their Tesla application on their smartphone.

Tesla is also involved in the energy sector, one of the most valuable sectors in the market. With solar energy and batteries, Tesla is ready to disrupt traditional energy. The company is also ready to reveal a new battery breakthrough in September that will allow their batteries to last over 1 million miles.

Tesla has designed software, custom silicon computer chips, batteries, cars and green energy solutions. It seems the value of the company may have much room to grow from here.

Photo courtesy of Tesla