Tesla stocks ticked up about 2% in premarket trading Monday following Sunday’s hyped announcement from Elon Musk about Model 3 production.
Production on the vehicle is two weeks ahead of schedule, and the first Model 3 vehicle is expected to roll off the production line this Friday, July 7, as we reported last night.
“Model 3 passed all regulatory requirements for production two weeks ahead of schedule. Expecting to complete SN1 on Friday,” read Musk’s tweet. “SN1” is largely presumed to signify serial number 1 or the first official production Model 3 vehicle.
The Model 3 is an important step for the automaker and futuristic transportation company as it is Musk’s initial stab at entering a wider market. At $35,000, the Model 3 is the first affordable vehicle Tesla is putting out, which will be a test to how well the EV company does in the mainstream auto market.
The company is valued at $59 billion on the market, which is about $7 billion more than General Motors and $15 billion more than Ford, according to CNBC.
The Model 3 stock spike comes amid a string of stock highs for Musk’s company.
The excitement first ignited when shares rose 1.5% after the June 19 Bloomberg story about the potential Tesla plant being built in Shanghai’s Lingang development zone. Shares of Tesla hit all-time intraday highs at $378.88.
Year-to-date, TSLA saw a 73% gain going into June 20, following that announcement.
That record was then dwarfed June 22 when shares reached a new all-time high at $385, spurred by the EV company confirming it is in fact in talks with the Shanghai municipal government to build a Gigafactory and manufacture cars in the city’s tech sector. TSLA popped 1.5% to $382 after the report, before peaking at a record of $385.
Last week, TSLA started big, but dropped a little as was expected coming off last week’s highs. It went into last Monday sailing above the previous $385 mark around $386.50, making for another record, before dipping into the 370s and 360s, ending at $361.61.
At the time of this writing, Tesla shares were at $366.95, with the market closing early for the Independence Day holiday.
