UPDATE: Tesla’s Market Value Tops GM’s

Bullish investors pushed the market capitalization of Tesla Inc. to $51.5 billion on Monday, surpassing that of General Motors Co.

The electric-car company’s shares peaked on Monday morning at $313.73, up 3.7%, before closing at $312.39, up 3.3% for the day. GM’s stock price closed at $33.97, up 26 cents to give the company a market cap of $50.2 billion.

Analysts say enthusiasm for the electric car company, which has never posted a profitable year, is based on emotion rather than actual performance fundamentals. “Tesla engenders optimism, freedom, defiance and a host of other emotions that other companies cannot replicate,” opines Alexander Potter at Piper Jaffray Cos.

GM is expected to post an adjusted profit of more than $6 billion this year. Tesla is projected to lose more than $950 million. Last year Tesla sold fewer than 1% as many vehicles as GM did. But experts say such figures make no difference to Tesla enthusiasts.

Tesla will face a key challenge this year as it begins to ramp up production of its first mass-market EV, the $35,000 Model 3. CEO Elon Musk has predicted the company’s output will zoom from about 80,000 cars last year to 500,000 by the end of 2018—an expansion in volume never before achieved so quickly by any carmaker.