Anybody who had the foresight (not to mention luck) to invest in Apple before the debut of the iPod is probably now wealthier than they would ever have imagined. Well, now it seems that the debut of Tesla's first proper mass market electric car, the Model S, has had a similar effect on the company's stock, propelling it just recently to an all-time high of $185.83 a share, an increase of 440% over the last year, as reported by BuzzFeed.

The difference between Apple and Tesla is that the kinds of growth which took Apple three decades to achieve only took Tesla a few years and a couple of models, only one of which was priced and produced to be genuinely competitive. That means that if, one year ago, you had plunked down the $96,570 that is the going price of a 2013 Tesla Signature Model, you would have made more than half a million dollars in profit by now, and this is likely to continue to climb. That said, the climb in value is probably about due to even off, as this increase was based on the strength of initial sales of the Model S.

Many of those investing in the company are the same people who are buying the cars themselves, and these people include quite a few Silicone Valley types. But unlike so many of the other companies which attract high tech money, Tesla does actually build something and sell it to the public, making the stock less risky of a proposition. This is all well and good, but it should probably be remembered that electric cars are still unproven in the long term, and an inability to adapt in the face of possible future changes in the green automotive market could, as well as increased competition from leading OEMs, can still tank the company.