Tesla Gains 5% as Investors Pick Up Good Vibrations

The Beach Boys should be the official band of Tesla Motors (TSLA). The upstart automaker’s shares are feeling the good vibrations this morning, as its stock has jumped 5.3% to $170.36.

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Why the advance? Why not? On Friday Quartz reported that Tesla’s Model S is outselling other luxury sports cars in California:

If you've visited California lately and there seem to be a lot of Tesla Model S's on the road, it's not your imagination. Californians are snapping up the luxury electric sports sedan like organic dry-farmed tomatoes, according to sales figures. In June Tesla outsold Buick, Cadillac, Chrysler, Fiat, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mitsubishi, Porsche and Volvo.

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The numbers compiled by Polk for the California New Car Dealers Association also report that Tesla grabbed 12% of the luxury sports category in the first half of 2013, beating the Audi A6 and Lexus GS.

Tesla sold 4,714 Model S's in the first half of the year with 1,097 of those registered in June. Among other cars the Model S has outsold in California, the US's largest and trend-setting automotive market, are the Audi A4, the Mercedes M Class, the BMW X5 and various compact cars and sport utility vehicles.

Gigaom, meanwhile, looks at the threat Tesla poses to the auto industry:

It's funny, electric car company Tesla has been building its business for a decade now, but it's just in recent months that the auto industry seems to be taking Tesla's innovations as an actual threat to their businesses. That's because it's only been in 2013 that Tesla has shown how it can make a small profit and use its popular electric car to compete with competitors in the auto biz. But reacting to a threat when it's finally arrived, versus skating to where the puck is going isn't necessarily the best way to run a business. The tech industry is littered with late-movers like Blockbuster or Kodak.

Bloomberg reports that Toyota (TM) is offering discounts for its all-electric RAV4, which is powered by a–wait for it–Tesla battery and motor: