Tesla's P/E ratio, 2017 to today
Tesla trades at 444× its last twelve months of GAAP earnings and 188× next year's forecast. The S&P 500 is at about 28×; the median carmaker at 13×; the median megacap technology company at 24×. This page shows how that gap has looked every month since Tesla first had earnings to divide by, and the earnings behind every point.
TSLA $403.89 · trailing EPS $0.91 through 2026-09-30 · forward EPS $2.16 · part of the Musk Bubble Index
- Tesla trailing P/E
- S&P 500 trailing P/E
- Carmakers, 5–12×
- Hot air
| Year end | Price | Trailing EPS | Tesla P/E | S&P 500 P/E | Tesla ÷ S&P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | $20.76 | — | loss | 25× | — |
| 2018 | $22.19 | — | loss | 20× | — |
| 2019 | $27.89 | $-0.32 | loss | 25× | — |
| 2020 | $235.22 | $0.17 | 1,384× | 40× | 34.7× |
| 2021 | $352.26 | $1.03 | 342× | 24× | 14.5× |
| 2022 | $123.18 | $3.23 | 38× | 20× | 1.9× |
| 2023 | $248.48 | $3.11 | 80× | 25× | 3.2× |
| 2024 | $403.84 | $3.65 | 111× | 29× | 3.8× |
| 2025 | $449.72 | $1.50 | 300× | 28× | 10.7× |
| 2026-10 (latest) | $404.22 | $0.91 | 444× | 28× | 16.2× |
Prices are split-adjusted monthly closes. Trailing EPS is the sum of the last four quarters of GAAP diluted earnings per share whose results were public by month end. The S&P 500 multiple is the index's trailing P/E near each year end.
| Company | Mkt cap | Trailing P/E | Forward P/E | P/S |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla | $1.60tn | 444× | 188× | 15.4× |
| Carmakers | ||||
| Toyota | $229bn | 9× | 12× | — |
| General Motors | $70.0bn | 18× | 6× | 0.4× |
| Ford | $47.7bn | loss | 6× | 0.3× |
| Stellantis | $13.6bn | loss | 4× | 0.1× |
| BYD | $81.3bn | 19× | 11× | 0.1× |
| Volkswagen | $38.8bn | 6× | — | 0.1× |
| Megacap technology | ||||
| Apple | $5.02tn | 39× | 36× | 10.7× |
| Microsoft | $3.94tn | 30× | 22× | 11.9× |
| Nvidia | $5.20tn | 27× | 14× | 17.2× |
| Alphabet | $3.97tn | 17× | 21× | 8.9× |
| Amazon | $2.75tn | 20× | 24× | 3.5× |
| Meta | $1.59tn | 21× | 17× | 6.6× |
Medians: carmakers 13.3× trailing; megacaps 24.1× trailing, 21.9× forward. Companies with a trailing loss show no trailing multiple.
| Quarter | Diluted EPS | Trailing 4Q | Reported |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 Q3 | $0.22 | $0.91 | 2026-10-22 |
| 2026 Q2 | $0.32 | $1.08 | 2026-07-22 |
| 2026 Q1 | $0.13 | $1.09 | 2026-04-22 |
| 2025 Q4 | $0.24 | $1.08 | 2026-01-28 |
| 2025 Q3 | $0.39 | $1.50 | 2025-10-22 |
| 2025 Q2 | $0.33 | $1.73 | 2025-07-23 |
| 2025 Q1 | $0.12 | $1.82 | 2025-04-22 |
| 2024 Q4 | $0.66 | $2.04 | 2025-01-29 |
| 2024 Q3 | $0.62 | $3.65 | 2024-10-23 |
| 2024 Q2 | $0.42 | $3.56 | 2024-07-23 |
| 2024 Q1 | $0.34 | $3.92 | 2024-04-23 |
| 2023 Q4 * | $2.27 | $4.31 | 2024-01-24 |
| 2023 Q3 | $0.53 | $3.11 | 2023-10-18 |
| 2023 Q2 | $0.78 | $3.53 | 2023-07-19 |
| 2023 Q1 | $0.73 | $3.40 | 2023-04-19 |
| 2022 Q4 | $1.07 | $3.62 | 2023-01-25 |
| 2022 Q3 | $0.95 | $3.23 | 2022-10-19 |
| 2022 Q2 | $0.65 | $2.76 | 2022-07-20 |
| 2022 Q1 | $0.95 | $2.45 | 2022-04-20 |
| 2021 Q4 | $0.68 | $1.63 | 2022-01-26 |
| 2021 Q3 | $0.48 | $1.03 | 2021-10-20 |
| 2021 Q2 | $0.34 | $0.64 | 2021-07-26 |
| 2021 Q1 | $0.13 | $0.33 | 2021-04-26 |
| 2020 Q4 | $0.08 | $0.21 | 2021-01-27 |
| 2020 Q3 | $0.09 | $0.17 | 2020-10-21 |
| 2020 Q2 | $0.03 | $0.13 | 2020-07-22 |
| 2020 Q1 | $0.01 | $-0.05 | 2020-04-29 |
| 2019 Q4 | $0.04 | $-0.33 | 2020-01-29 |
| 2019 Q3 | $0.05 | $-0.32 | 2019-10-23 |
| 2019 Q2 | $-0.15 | $-0.25 | 2019-07-24 |
| 2019 Q1 | $-0.27 | $-0.57 | 2019-04-24 |
| 2018 Q4 | $0.05 | $-0.80 | 2019-01-30 |
| 2018 Q3 | $0.12 | — | 2018-10-24 |
| 2018 Q2 | $-0.47 | — | 2018-08-01 |
| 2018 Q1 | $-0.50 | — | 2018-05-02 |
* Includes a one-off non-cash tax benefit of about $5.9bn from releasing the valuation allowance on deferred tax assets; without it the quarter was about $0.71. Q2 2026 includes a $0.22 unrealised gain on Tesla's stake in SpaceX. Figures before August 2022 are divided by the cumulative 15-for-1 of the 2020 and 2022 splits. Source: Tesla quarterly update letters and Forms 10-Q/10-K.
A price-to-earnings ratio is the number of years of current profit you are paying for. At 25×, roughly the S&P 500's, you are paying for a quarter-century of today's earnings and betting they grow. At 444× you are paying for 444 years of them, which is not a bet on growth so much as a statement that today's earnings are irrelevant to the price. Nvidia at its most feverish, in 2023, briefly touched 240× trailing — and its earnings then grew six-fold in two years, taking the multiple down to the 20s. Tesla's multiple has sat above 100× for most of six years while its earnings per share fell from $4.30 in 2023 to $0.91 over the last four quarters.
The usual answer is that Tesla is not a car company and should not be valued like one: it is an AI, robotics and energy company whose car business is a stepping stone. The fair-value ladder on the index page takes that argument at its word and values Tesla as the median of the six largest technology companies in the world, on next year's forecast earnings rather than this year's reported ones. The result is $47 a share. The rest of the price is a view on products that have not shipped at scale, on a schedule the promise ledger records.