Elon Musk is nothing if not ambitious, but to suggest that Tesla may one day surpass the likes of General Motors and Volkswagen may go beyond ambition and into the realm of insanity. To be fair, he didn’t exactly say that he thought Tesla would surpass those automotive behemoths, he simply said it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility, and considering how the company’s infrastructure and popularity are going to be getting some major boosts in the years to come, he may very well be right.  

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has always dreamt big, and it looks like his ambitions are only getting more grand. On Friday, the billionaire visionary said that he’s not ruling out Tesla becoming a bigger car company than other auto giants like General Motors, Volkswagen, and Toyota. “Possibly, it’s not out of the question,” Musk said at the Baron Funds investor conference when asked about the company’s growth trajectory. Tesla’s output is far behind its competitors, but the company is aggressively investing in ramping up its production of vehicles. The company and its partners are investing about $5 billion in its giant Nevada-based Gigafactory where the company will produce more lithium ion batteries by 2020 than were produced worldwide in 2013. The factory is essential for Tesla to launch its first mass market car, the Model 3, by 2017. By the latter half of the decade, Tesla aims to build 500,000 cars per year, but long-term Musk said that he thinks that number could reach into the millions.