With today's near 1% rise to a new record high, Tesla just became the 4th largest (by market cap) automaker in the world - surpassing BMW at over $61 billion.

Tesla passed GM and Ford by market cap in April, and now ranks 4th in the world behind Toyota, Daimler, Volkswagen.

If you look at the different auto companies on paper, it does seem a bit preposterous, where Tesla is at this moment, versus some of the more established auto companies," Jessica Caldwell, director of industry analysis with automotive research firm Edmunds, said in an interview with CBC's On The Money on Monday.

Tesla sold 76,285 cars last year. That compares to over 10 million for GM worldwide, 6.65 million for Ford, and 2.36 million for BMW.

"I think Tesla has had a very high market cap for a long time, so I don't think this comes necessarily as a surprise, but when you compare it to someone like Ford [or GM] who has a wealth of resources, it does seem a little out of whack," Caldwell said.