Tesla's share price surged during Wednesday trading, nearing the $600-per-share mark in the late morning before sliding back to a slightly-more-reasonable $570 by market close. At Wednesday's peak, the electric car manufacturer's share price was up some $45 from where it stood by the end of trading the day prior, representing about an 8 percent surge.

Those numbers are, like the Model S's special high-output driving mode, ludicrous, and they've made Tesla the first US-based automaker to surpass the $100-billion mark for market capitalization. That is, the total value of all outstanding shares. Tesla, already theoretically more valuable than Ford and GM combined, has now surpassed Volkswagen to become the world's second-most-valuable automaker.

