Australian auto electrical equipment giant Tritium, which makes chargers for electric vehicles, primes to benefit from President Joe Biden's push for EVs in the U.S. with a new $7.5 billion fast charger plant in Lebanon, Tenn.
The move comes at a time when Biden wants to make charging electric vehicles quick and easy all over America.
The new facility is expected to create over 500 jobs in the region over the next five years, the company said in a statement. Tritium also said it expects to build six production lines to produce 30,000 of its fast chargers a year.
Tritium's chargers will "use American parts, American iron, American steel," and will be installed by union workers, Biden said as reported by Reuters.
Biden also announced that this week, the White House will roll out a state-by-state allocation of $5 billion in funding for electric vehicle chargers.
Senior administration officials are expected to share more details about these state allocations and guidance for the bipartisan infrastructure bill's National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program later on Thursday evening.
The NEVI program will provide nearly $5 billion over five years to help states create a network of EV charging stations along designated alternative fuel corridors on the Interstate Highway System.
In November, Biden committed billions of dollars in his giant bipartisan infrastructure deal to pay for the installation of electric vehicle chargers across the country. And on Nov. 15, Biden signed the $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law paving the way for new money to be invested in transportation, utilities and broadband.
News of EVs had dominated the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, a sign that the excitement around EVs continues to build, even if the shift in sales is still barely noticeable.
Car companies like General Motors (GM), Ford (F), and Stellantis (STLA) are also pouring money into the development of electric vehicles and battery factories, while EV giant Tesla (TSLA) plans to produce 1.5 million vehicles this year.
Biden Extends his Hand to Elon Musk
While still waiting for a photo between Elon Musk and Joe Biden, who managed for the first time to publicly pronounce the word Tesla after having studiously ignoring the company and its whimsical CEO for months.
“Since 2021, companies have announced investments totaling more than $200 billion in domestic manufacturing here in America," Biden said in a speech about U.S. auto manufacturing on Tuesday.
"From iconic companies like GM and Ford building out new electric vehicle production to Tesla — our nation’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer — to innovative younger companies like Rivian building electric trucks or Proterra building electric buses,” Biden said. “We’re seeing the beginning of an American manufacturing comeback.”
Musk, an active presence on social media, had not yet reacted to the mention at the time of this writing, but it is to be expected that he will probably do so in the coming days or even hours.
The acknowledgment of Tesla by the Biden administration comes after protests from Musk that he was not invited by the White House to discuss the president's signature $1.75 trillion Build Back Better legislation, while the bosses of Ford and General Motors were.
Musk had taken particular umbrage at a post by Biden saying that “companies like GM and Ford are building more electric vehicles here at home than ever before.”
Tesla is by far the leading manufacturer of electric vehicles in the United States, producing 1.91 million vehicles since 2009. GM, however, has barely produced even one electric car on American soil since September.
More than 33,000 people have signed a petition on change.org, asking Biden to acknowledge Tesla’s electric-vehicle leadership. The petitioners have accused the president of ignoring Tesla, a nonunion company, in favor of the traditional Detroit automakers, which are unionized.
The administration’s perceived neglect has irked some in Musk’s huge fan base of over 72 million followers on Twitter, as well as Musk himself. “For reasons unknown,” Musk tweeted Sunday, referring to the president, “@potus is unable to say the word ‘Tesla.'”
But, Biden changed that.
Ford, GM Recycle Iconic Cars to Catch Up with Tesla
Major auto companies are going all-electric while reimagining their most beloved brands as environmentally friendly.
Last month, Chrysler, the nearly 100-year-old, venerated American car brand, introduced its first electric vehicle and its parent company Stellantis said it would go full battery-electric by 2028, joining a growing list of major auto companies.
Ford's Mustang defined a generation and is currently the longest-produced Ford car nameplate. Named after a World War II fighter plane, the Mustang was unveiled by Henry Ford II on April 17, 1964 at the World's Fair in New York.
Hard to say what McQueen would think of the electric version, but the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E can save you money.
The Mach-E and the Toyota (TOYOF) Rav4 were test subjects in a study by the IHS Markit, Atlas Public Policy and The Wall Street Journal that showed electric vehicles cost less to fill up than their gas-powered counterparts.
The study concluded that over time, the average EV owner saves more money than a gas-fueled driver due to lower fuel and maintenance costs.
Here are more of the top electric vehicle stocks to watch this week:
Tesla
Tesla is not done with the regulators regarding its whimsical boss's famous September 2018 tweet about wanting to take the electric-vehicle manufacturer out of the stock market. Tesla believed that this affair was in the rear-view mirror after it reached a $40 million agreement a month and a half after the tweet. In fact, the Austin company still has to bite its fingers. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission subpoenaed Tesla in November, requesting information related to the settlement, which mandated that the company vet Elon Musk's tweets on information that could weigh on the stock.
Back in October, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration confirmed the appointment of Mary Cummings as a special adviser for safety. By all standards, it was a non-news event – except for one small fact: It caught the ire and fury of Tesla's Elon Musk. In the past six months, NHTSA has publicly called out Tesla on at least four safety and performance issues. And it has issued one official safety recall that has forced the Austin electric-vehicle maker to recall 54,000 vehicles over its self-driving feature that allows cars to perform a “rolling stop.”
That followed a request from the agency for more information from Tesla in relation to its investigation into 580,000 Tesla vehicles over “Passenger Play,” which gave Tesla passengers the ability to play games on the cars' infotainment systems while the cars were in motion.
TheStreet Quant Ratings rates Tesla as a Hold with a rating score of C+.
Ford
Ford shares extended declines Monday after the carmaker said it will halt production at eight North American factories, including one that produces the F-150 pickup, for at least the next week amid the ongoing shortage in semiconductor supplies. The moves followed less than a day after the company missed Street forecasts for its fourth-quarter earnings while cautioning that supply chain disruptions and surging input costs would linger in the new year.
Ford also warned customers in late January that it would stop taking retail orders for the Maverick amid a production backlog for the newly-unveiled hybrid pickup. The shutdowns will likely test investor patience for Ford's plans to deepen its investment in electric vehicle production and double its current output by 2023 as it takes on both market leader Tesla and larger OEM rival General Motors.
TheStreet Quant Ratings rates Ford as a Buy with a rating score of B.
General Motors
General Motors shares slumped lower Tuesday after analysts at Morgan Stanley cut their rating and price target on the carmaker, citing doubts over its near-term effort to ramp up electric vehicle production. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas cut his rating on General Motors to "equal-weight", while reducing his price target by $20 to $55 per share, noting its EV shift will likely produce a negative compound annual growth rate, in terms of overall revenues, between now and the end of the decade.
Jonas added that GM's near-term outlook, which includes a 2022 profit forecast of around $14 billion capital spending of around $10 billion a year for the next several years, has led to the "most significant estimates reduction we have made for GM since the start of Covid in early 2020 ... our revised EPS of $6.64 per share is approximately 11% lower than our previous forecast." GM stock has declined in each session since reporting earnings on Feb. 1.
TheStreet Quant Ratings rates General Motors as a Buy with a rating score of B.
Rivian
Electric vehicle maker Rivian said its chief operating officer, Rod Copes, has left the company. Separately, it reported production figures in line with lowered guidance it offered last month. The Amazon-backed (AMZN) company said in emailed comments that “Rod began a phased retirement from Rivian several months ago, affording the team continuity as we moved toward production ramp.” Copes’ “duties have been absorbed by our leadership team,” the company added.
In a recent statement, Rivian said it had produced 1,015 vehicles by the end of 2021. It said it had delivered 920. And, the company's shares briefly dipped below their November initial public offering price. That came after Amazon announced that it will buy electric delivery vans from Stellantis, bypassing Rivian, its original electric-vehicle purchase partner. Amazon has ordered 100,000 Rivian vans to be delivered by 2030, and it owns a 20% stake in the company. The agreement with Stellantis doesn't represent a slight toward Rivian, Amazon said.
TheStreet Quant Ratings does not have a rating for Rivian.
Nio
Nio (NIO) struggles in a way that all but one electric vehicle companies do. It's not Tesla and that means that it has a long way to go to meet expectations even if it has a high market cap (about $39 billion as of the morning of Feb. 1). Tesla has set a high bar. But, Nio delivered 9,652 vehicles in January, marking a 33.6% year-over-year increase led by the company's ES6 five-seater high-performance smart electric SUV. The majority of sales in the month came from the ES6 and the company's EC6 electric coup SUV, which saw 2,874 deliveries.
To help push adoption, Nio says it has been accelerating the deployment of its power network. As of Jan. 31, the Shanghai-based company has built 836 power swap stations, 3,766 power chargers, and 3,656 destination chargers. Nio is gearing up to make a run at the U.S. market and is reportedly hiring a local team of experts in the country, a media report said. If Nio has ambitions to enter the U.S., the world's second-largest EV market, it will have to play catch up to Tesla and Ford.
TheStreet Quant Ratings rates Nio as a Sell with a rating score of D.
Lucid
Lucid has a market cap of nearly $70 billion and essentially no sales. Electric vehicles bring a valuation premium that's substantial and Lucid gets an awful lot of benefit of the doubt from investors. It may not need to reach the millions of vehicles sold by traditional automakers to justify its current valuation, but it's currently trading at a much higher premium per car it has actually sold than Tesla.
Lucid has achieved its valuation without recognizing any revenue from selling vehicles. It did begin delivering vehicles in October, but the numbers were in the dozens, or maybe even the hundreds. Lucid does have plans to ramp up its production, and CEO Peter Rawlinson seemed excited about the interest in the company's first vehicle, Lucid Air. It's worth noting that Lucid requires a $3,000 deposit to reserve a Lucid Air. That's a much bigger commitment than the $100 Tesla asks for when people reserve a Cybertruck.
