Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) recently surpassed Ford Motor (F) in terms of market capitalization.

Tesla now has a market cap of $48 billion, compared with a market cap of $45 billion for Ford.

This is because, in the past five years, Tesla stock gained 755%, versus a 5% decline for Ford.

Investors that had the foresight to buy Tesla shares early on have been richly rewarded. But whether Tesla is a good investment today, is a different question.

Ford has a checkered dividend history—the company slashed its dividend during the Great Recession.

As a result, it is not a member of the Dividend Achievers, a group of 271 stocks with 10+ years of consecutive dividend increases.

You can see the full Dividend Achievers List here.

But, its consistent profitability allows Ford to reward shareholders with a current dividend yield of 5.3%, more than double the average dividend yield in the S&P 500.

Ford also distributes a special dividend each year.

This article will discuss the top three reasons why income investors looking for cheap dividend stocks, should favor Ford over Tesla.

Reason #1: Profitability

Tesla is in high-growth mode. In 2016, revenue increased 17% to $7 billion.

However, as Tesla has grown, its costs have risen in tandem. The company has posted a loss each year for the past decade.

And, its losses have accelerated in recent years.

In 2016, Tesla’s net loss narrowed to $675 million, down from $889 million in 2015. But the loss of $4.68 per share in 2016 was still a bigger loss than the company incurred in 2012-2014.

Source: Tesla SEC Filings

Tesla investors are banking on the company putting up huge growth going forward.

In time, investors envision Tesla becoming a renewable energy powerhouse, that can sell automobiles, and also power homes.

Tesla acquired SolarCity last year, for $2.8 billion.

In 2017, the company started production of battery cells for energy storage products at its Gigafactory 1 facility.