With a market capitalization of over $200 billion, Toyota leads the automotive sector, far ahead of the German firm VAG, which produces slightly more vehicles (10.8 million, compared to 10.7 million for Toyota) but whose market value is just over $90 billion. VAG was number 2 until the beginning of December 2019. At that time, Tesla's stock price was $336, which represented a capitalization of $60 billion.

Lee Iaccoca, who died last July, became a legend in the US auto industry in 1978, when he turned around Chrysler (with a billion dollar boost from the government...) at the time it was in the throes of collapse. What would he think of dissolving his company in a merger with several international companies in a context of globalization?

On August 15, Harry Markopolos, a well-known whistleblower, predicted the imminent end of General Electric in a report entitled "General Electric, a bigger fraud than Enron". The paper caused quite a stir but seemed to be just a few circles in the water.

With a delay announced in February, the firm published in June its final accounts 2018, including a restatement on the accounts 2016 and 2017. No significant change on the latter, the net earnings per share down from $ 9.03 to $ 8.98 for 2017.