Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares continue to skyrocket, setting a new record. On Thursday, trading closed at $2,238.75 per share. This price is the highest price ever since the company's listing on the stock exchange. Tesla shares are up more than 420%--that's right, 420%--since the beginning of this year. Where have we heard that number before?

From the very beginning, Elon Musk's company has focused on improving Earth's worrisome environmental predicament. He turned his ambitious plan into reality, rendering Tesla's electric vehicles some of the most coveted in the world. The company has become a leader not only in the production of electric vehicles, but also in the production of their software. And soon, as Battery Day nears, we suspect we will learn about game-changing advances in the production of battery cells.

Tesla became the world's most valuable carmaker by market capitalization when it overtook the former leader, Toyota, on July 1. As of August 27, after the close of the market, Tesla has a market cap of $417.22 billion.

Source: Top 25 Automakers by Market Cap

A notable fact is that Tesla sold only 367,200 vehicles in 2019, while Toyota and Volkswagen each sold over 10 million units. In 2020, the California-based company plans to sell 500,000 vehicles, which is less than 5% of Toyota and Volkswagen's annual sales.

Tesla, with incredibly hard work, changed the rules of the game, and now the whole market is in the position of having to adjust. And as we're starting to increasingly see, the company has revolutionized not only the automotive industry but also the oil industry.

Exxon Mobil (NASDAQ: XOM), one of the largest oil companies in the world, like legacy automakers, is also struggling. August 24, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the largest change to the 30-stock benchmark in seven years. Exxon, which had been in the Dow in some form since 1928--almost 100 years--has been removed.

“In removing Exxon from the DJIA, the index provider is clearly being reactive, and indeed accentuating the extremely negative investor sentiment on just about anything tied to oil and gas,” Raymond James ’Pavel Molchanov wrote in a note to clients, reports CNBC.

“This represents a combination of the obviously rough COVID-impacted oil price backdrop but also concerns about the eventual peak in oil demand (which had emerged long before COVID) and ESG-related objections to fossil fuels generally,” he added.

Legacy automakers and big oil will need to adjust their strategy, or will likely learn a very difficult lesson.

© 2020, Eva Fox. All rights reserved.

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Eva Fox holds zero shares of Tesla, Inc., and currently (at the time of this article's publishing) holds zero options or securities in Tesla Inc. and/or its affiliates.