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By BBC

Tesla has become the world’s most valuable carmaker, overtaking Japan’s Toyota, after its stock hit a record high.

Shares in the electric carmaker touched USD1,134 (Sh120,861) on Wednesday morning before falling back, leaving it with a market value of USD209.47bn (sh22.32 trillion).

That is roughly $4bn (Sh426.32 billion) more than Toyota’s current stock market value.

However, Toyota sold around 30 times more cars last year and its revenues were more than 10 times higher.

Shares in Tesla have surged since the start of 2020 as investors have begun to feel more confident about the future of electric vehicles.

That is despite its founder Elon Musk having wiped $14bn (sh1.492 trillion) off Tesla’s value in May after tweeting that its share price was too high.

After years of losses, the Californian firm has also delivered three profitable quarters in a row and maintained that momentum during the first three months of 2020 despite the coronavirus outbreak.

Toyota, however, remains a far larger business in terms of sales.

The Japanese company sold 10.46 million vehicles in the year to March and posted revenues of 30.2 trillion yen (Sh2.99 trillion).

Tesla ended 2019 with sales of just Sh2.62 bn, having delivered 367,200 vehicles last year.

However, investors are excited by the US firm’s potential, believing it could dominate the future electric car market.

Analysts at the stockbroker Jefferies said the firm remained “significantly ahead of peers in product range, capacity and technology”.

In a reflection of that, the firm is also now worth around three times the combined value of US rivals General Motors and Ford.

Mr. Musk has said Tesla will deliver at least 500,000 vehicles in 2020, a forecast the company has not changed despite the coronavirus pandemic.