the prevailing assumption that tesla is the most volatile auto stock is belied by data showing just the opposite by matthew a winkleramong the biggest surprises of the past decade was the initial public offering of the palo alto company that outperformed every automaker from detroit to toyota city to wolfsburg and is now the undisputed champion of total return sales growth and longterm shareholder valuethat would be 10yearold tesla and its zeroemission battery electric model s x and 3 vehiclescofounder elon musk may be the mostridiculed and penalized chief executive officer since the securities and exchange commission made him pay a 20 million fine for misleading tweets last year his antics obscure the essential reality that tesla is gaining confidence among customers and investors because they hold the fossilfree future in their hands and find it more thrilling and profitable than the latest iteration of hydrocarbon advt the model 3 now outsells every vehicle from germany or japan in the us luxury entry category and musk last month said his company had received more than 200000 preorders three days after unveiling the cybertruck such assurance is the constant element driving tesla to a record 413 a share this month or a 73 billion valuation that is greater than all but toyota 230 billion and volkswagen 98 billion among 38 automakers across the globe tesla is worth 37 per cent more than general motors and is almost twice the value of ford motor co 37 billion because nothing gets stock pickers more excited than unprecedented growth since the first model s was purchased in 2012 tesla sales have increased 52 times while the rest of the industry has averaged 46 per centon wall street most analysts remain unimpressed jim chanos a frequently cited short seller told hedgeye risk management last month that his kynikos associates are still bears and that tesla is one of our biggest and our best short positions greenlight capital the hedge fund led by david einhorn repeatedly insists teslas wheels are falling off einhorn told bloomberg news in may he will continue his short selling because the electriccar company faces a stream of unending lossestesla earned 186 a share in the third quarter exceeding the most optimistic forecast and the consensus estimate for a 24cent loss advt while tesla bears get the most attention in media reports stories about tesla that reference einhorn are at least 10 times more numerous on the bloomberg terminal than articles on enthusiast cathie wood stock market bets against tesla plummeted to the lowest percentage since the companys ipo in 2010 according to data compiled by bloomberg people who sell tesla using borrowed stocks in an arrangement that lets them buy the shares back at lower prices are becoming scarcesuch tesla shortselling as a percentage of shares traded is down to 92 per cent the ratio was almost 30 per cent in june and higher than that for any company in the sp 500 index a year agoduring the