There is just a ton of money looking for a place to invest, and Tesla is certainly telling a higher growth story than any of the existing car companies.
Tesla has been growing revenues 50% on average for the past 10 years.
Most other car makers are roughly flat. This year ICE cars, globally, are in decline.
Tesla will grow 50% on average for at least next 5 years.
Also, there has been a ton of money looking for a place to invest for the past 20 years. And there are plenty companies that are investable. Just recently we had monster IPOs from DoorDash, AirBnb, Snowflake and others.
At the same time there are many more companies that one could invest in but doesn't so it's lazy to attribute "lost of money available" to outsized successes like Tesla or Snowflake.
- Toyota, $272 billion
- Volkswagen Group, $282 billion
And yes, even compared to Ford, Daimler etc. Tesla's revenues are quite small.
Stock price is usually factored as a PE ratio - Price to Earnings.
Price to Sales also exists, but usually only for emerging companies that have just gone public and are growing rapidly.