Stocks / TSLA
What If You Had Invested in Tesla 10 Years Ago?
Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) with real monthly prices, dividends reinvested, through November 2026.
TSLA $343.69 ▼ -10.77% last close, Nov 05, 2026
If you had invested $1,000 in TSLA in November 2016, today it would be worth
$27,219
Same $1,000 in the S&P 500 (SPY): $3,895
If you had put $500 a month into TSLA since November 2016, your $60,500 would be worth today
$416,667
Same plan in the S&P 500 (SPY): $128,888
More options in the What If calculator.
TSLA live price chart
TSLA returns by period
| Period | Total return | Per year | $1,000 became | SPY per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | -20.1% | -20.1% | $799 | +8.4% |
| 3 years | +43.2% | +12.7% | $1,432 | +18.5% |
| 5 years | -9.9% | -2.1% | $901 | +11.5% |
| 10 years | +2621.9% | +39.2% | $27,219 | +14.6% |
| Since 2010 | +21533.4% | +38.8% | $216,334 | — |
TSLA year by year
Best full year: 2020 (+743.4%). Worst: 2022 (-65.0%).
| Year | TSLA | SPY | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (so far) | -23.6% | +8.3% | |
| 2025 | +11.4% | +17.7% | |
| 2024 | +62.5% | +24.9% | |
| 2023 | +101.7% | +26.2% | |
| 2022 | -65.0% | -18.2% | Rising rates, competition and worries about its CEO's attention cut the stock by about two thirds. |
| 2021 | +49.8% | +28.7% | |
| 2020 | +743.4% | +18.3% | Tesla turned consistently profitable, joined the S&P 500 and its stock rose about eightfold in the year. |
| 2019 | +25.7% | +31.2% | |
| 2018 | +6.9% | -4.6% | |
| 2017 | +45.7% | +21.7% | |
| 2016 | -11.0% | +12.0% | |
| 2015 | +7.9% | +1.2% | |
| 2014 | +47.8% | +13.5% | |
| 2013 | +344.1% | +32.3% | |
| 2012 | +18.6% | +16.0% | |
| 2011 | +7.2% | +1.9% |
TSLA: all at once or every month?
Take $12,000: all of it on day one, or $1,000 a month for a year. Across every starting month since 2010 (186 of them), the lump sum was ahead after 12 months in 120 (65%). The lump sum usually won, but roughly one start in 3 favored spreading it out. The best case for monthly investing was a start in March 2022, when it finished the year 61% ahead.
Worst drop
TSLA's worst fall in this history was -67.7%, a loss of more than half, from November 2021 to December 2022. Getting back to the old high took until December 2024: 24 months from the bottom and 3.1 years from the peak. $1,000 invested at that peak shrank to about $323 at the low.
Stock splits
- August 2020: 5-for-1
- August 2022: 3-for-1
One share bought before 2020 is 15 shares today.
About Tesla
| Company | Tesla, Inc. |
| Listed | June 2010 (Nasdaq) |
| Sector | Consumer discretionary |
| Dividend | None |
Tesla makes electric cars, batteries and solar products. Its stock is priced far more on expectations about future growth, self-driving and robotics than on current car sales, which makes it one of the most volatile large companies in the market.
Tesla went public in 2010 at $17 a share. After a 5-for-1 split in 2020 and a 3-for-1 split in 2022, that is about $1.13 in today's shares.
The stock has had several drops of 50% or more, including about 65% in 2022. Results for Tesla depend more on the start date than for almost any other stock on this site.
Why it moves so much
Tesla's market value has often been larger than several traditional car makers combined, even though it sells far fewer cars. Investors are paying for expectations: self-driving software, robotaxis, energy storage and robots. When confidence in those plans rises, the stock can double; when it falls, the stock can lose half. Its CEO, Elon Musk, is also unusually central to the story, which adds its own swings.
Joining the S&P 500
Tesla was added to the S&P 500 in December 2020, one of the largest additions in the index's history. Index funds had to buy billions of dollars of the stock at once, which helped fuel that year's huge rally. Since then, everyone holding an S&P 500 fund has owned Tesla, at times as one of the ten largest holdings.
Questions about TSLA
How much would $10,000 invested in TSLA 15 years ago be worth today?
About $1,574,609 with dividends reinvested, invested at the November 2011 close: 15646.1% in total, or 40.1% a year.
Does TSLA pay a dividend?
No. TSLA has never paid a dividend, so all of its return is the price.
Did TSLA beat the S&P 500?
Yes. Over the last 10 years it was ahead by 24.6 percentage points a year: +39.2% a year for TSLA against +14.6% for SPY, dividends reinvested. It also fell harder at its worst (-67.7% against -23.9% for SPY over the same history).