Elon Musk’s not always been in the news for good reasons, but on this occasion, we’ll hand it to him. Tesla Inc. shares went up by more than 9% on Wednesday following Musk’s rallying cry on the production front of the electric freight truck, the Tesla Semi.
Tesla’s stock closed at a record $1,025.05 and traded as high as $1,027.48, swelling the company’s market cap to $190 billion, pipping rivals Toyota Motor Corp to the title of the world’s most valuable car maker.
Urgent action
Mister Elon previously caused a stir in the media, after he defied lockdown protocols and urged his people to “go all out” and “bring the Tesla Semi to volume production”.
Why the sense of urgency, you would ask? As a response to an electric truck start up, Nikola Corp, going public last week. Don’t get us started on that freakish coincidence (Nikola Tesla).
Ah Elon, you #mothertrucker.
The buzz around Tesla’s semi
We had our first glimpse of a Tesla Semi base model back in November 2017, with a price tag of around $150,000.
But since then, the Semi has flown under the radar with most Tesla-related news hovering around their latest compact SUV, the Model Y, Model 3 sales tanking in China and a long-drawn game of where’s Wally as speculators tried to identify the company’s next U.S and European factories. Talk about decoys, well played Elon.
Tesla has been taking reservations for the truck, requiring $20,000 upfront ($5,000 credit card payment, $15,000 wire transfer).
What do you think? Did Tesla’s news give you a semi?
