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>>> Tesla Stock Vs. BYD Stock: Booming China EV Giant Takes Aim At Tesla
Investor's Business Daily
ED CARSON
08/07/2022
https://www.investors.com/news/tesla-stock-vs-byd-stock-comparing-ev-stocks-tsla-byddf/?src=A00220
Tesla (TSLA) and BYD Co. (BYDDF) are both fast-growing EV giants. While a lot of attention falls on startups such as Rivian Automotive (RIVN), Lucid (LCID), Nio (NIO), Xpeng (XPEV) and Li Auto (LI), as well as traditional automakers pushing into EVs, such as General Motors (GM) and Ford Motor (F), Tesla and BYD are setting the pace.
BYD reported yet another month of blowout sales of 162,350 vehicles, more than tripling vs. a year earlier. The China giant recently reported skyrocketing first-half preliminary profit.
Tesla reported better-than-expected earnings July 20. Shareholders OK'd a 3-for-stock split on Aug. 4.
While they are the two largest EV makers, Tesla and BYD haven't competed much head-to-head. But the BYD Seal is taking on the Tesla Model 3. The Seal officially went on sale on July 29, with deliveries starting this month.
The EV giant is poised to begin a massive international expansion, launching throughout Asia, Europe and more.
Both stocks are rebounding, though both fell below key levels on Aug. 5. Which is a better bet? Let's take a look at Tesla vs. BYD — and Tesla stock vs. BYD stock.
Tesla Vs. BYD Sales
Tesla reported Q2 deliveries at 254,695, slightly below views for about 256,000. That was down nearly 18% vs. Q1's record 310,048 but up 26.5% vs. Q2 2021.
Tesla produced 258,580 vehicles in Q2 vs. 305,407 in Q1. Tesla said June was a record month for production.
Blame Shanghai lockdowns for the declines. Tesla Shanghai was shut down for most of April, then was on limited production until early June.
In Q2, BYD sold 355,021 NEVs, surging 256% from a year earlier and jumping 24% vs. Q1's 286,329. Less than 3,000 were exported, though overseas sales are expected to climb.
So BYD didn't just overtake Tesla, it raced past the U.S. giant by just over 100,000 vehicles, seizing the EV crown. Of course, Tesla still leads in all-electric vehicles, but BYD's passenger EV sales did swell to 180,296 in Q2, significantly narrowing the gap.
Even as Tesla output rebounds, BYD is likely to maintain its overall sales lead in Q3 and beyond, given its slew of new models, factories and markets.
On Aug. 3, BYD reported record July sales of 162,350 electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, up 222% vs. a year earlier and 21% from June's 134,036. BYD's sales include 162,214 passenger vehicles. Of those, BYD sold 80,991 passenger EVs and 81,223 plug-in hybrids.
Tesla Vs. BYD Expansion
Tesla recently began Model Y deliveries from its plants near Berlin, Germany, and Austin, Texas. But production has been unusually low to start.
Ongoing capacity increases to the Tesla Shanghai facility, also will boost production going forward. The Model Y production upgrades have reportedly ended with the Model 3 line now paused for improvements. In the short run, this likely limited Tesla Shanghai's production. The China Passenger Car Association estimated that Tesla China's wholesale sales, including exports, fell to just 30,000 in July.
Analysts had expected Tesla to deliver 1.5 million EVs in 2022, though Shanghai's Covid shutdown and lengthy limited production may curb that.
At Tesla's annual shareholder meeting on Aug. 4, Musk expects production to surge in the second half of 2022, reaching a 2 million vehicle run rate by year-end.
Despite big expansion plans, Tesla is slashing hundreds if not thousands of jobs. Elon Musk, fearing a recession, had warned in early June that he wanted to cut 10% of jobs. He later clarified that he meant salaried positions, though some hourly production workers also have been affected.
BYD also is adding significant EV capacity, along with several new or expanded battery plants.
That includes a new commercial vehicle and parts project, after diverting some production capacity to ramp up plug-in hybrid output.
In the first half of the year, BYD sold 641,350 NEVs, already beating 2021's full-year total of 593,745. The auto giant plans to sell at least 1.5 million new energy vehicles in 2022, or up to 2 million if supply issues ease.
Tesla, targeting the luxury and affordable luxury markets, has far higher selling prices than BYD.
BYD's average selling prices are much lower, with the majority of its EVs and hybrids selling for $15,000-$34,000, though some vehicles top $40,000.
The China EV giant does plan to move upscale significantly. It will unveil a high-end brand in the third quarter and show off its first model before year-end. The brand will target the luxury market of 800,000 ($119,520) to 1.5 million yuan vehicles, a BYD exec said in May, who added that the first model will be an off-road SUV. A second model could be large sedan.
BYD's Danza unit, 10% owned by Mercedes-Benz, will begin deliveries in August of a minivan in EV and PHEV variants. It starts at just under $50,000, with some variants going up to $69,000. A Danza SUV will be unveiled later this year.
BYD Vs. Tesla: Tesla Electric Vehicles
Tesla produces four electric vehicles: the luxury Model S sedan and Model X SUV as well as the Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover. The vast majority are the Model 3 and Model Y.
Tesla has long touted the Roadster, Semi and Cybertruck as future vehicles. But those have been pushed back multiple times. Musk said on the Q2 earnings call that the Cybertruck is on track for mid-2023. But Cybertruck prices and specs — which were ambitious even compared to other Tesla vehicles — will likely be different than the initial claims back in 2019, Musk said a few weeks later.
That suggests Tesla will go three years — or more — before launching a new vehicle since the Model Y in spring 2020. Also, the Cybertruck likely will largely serve the U.S. market. So Tesla may not have a new vehicle for most of the world until 2024 or later.
Musk recently said Tesla is not working on a $25,000 vehicle, a goal he had touted for years. Even now, such a model would run into dozens of existing rivals, mostly from Chinese EV makers such as BYD.
BYD Vs. Tesla: BYD EVs Big And Small
BYD has a slew of models, some with electric and hybrid versions. The automaker is rolling out several new EV-only and hybrid-only models in the next several months, along with notable revamps or longer ranges for key models.
The Seal sedan, officially launched on July 29, is BYD's first clear head-to-head competition vs. Tesla. The BYD Seal is a Model 3 rival, with roughly equal range and faster acceleration — and $10,000 cheaper. The Seal starts at 212,800 RMB ($31,130) vs. 279,900 RMB ($41,950) for a base made-in-China Model 3.
Deliveries start in August.
BYD said Seal preorders had topped 60,000 since they opened on May 20. Other reports said Seal preorders had topped more than 110,000 by late June.
A successful Seal launch would not only further boost rapid sales growth, but could burnish BYD's brand as it expands into new markets.
On the low end, a BYD Seagull hatchback will soon launch with a price tag around $12,000.
In a few months, BYD will unveil the Seal Lion, an all-electric SUV that could take on the Tesla Model Y with a much-cheaper price.
The Denza D9 minivan will begin deliveries in August.
BYD also is one of the biggest makers of electric buses, with plants in the U.S. and many other countries besides China. BYD also makes EV delivery trucks, big rigs, garbage trucks and more.
BYD makes buses, big rigs and other heavy vehicles for the U.S. market at its Lancaster, Calif., plant. Also at Lancaster, BYD will assemble the next generation of Nuro self-driving delivery vehicles, using Blade batteries.
Tesla Stock Vs. BYD Stock: EV Markets
Tesla is a truly global EV giant, with major sales in North America, Europe and China. It has notable business in Korea and some other Asian markets. It has four plants, starting with Fremont, Calif., and Shanghai, joined by the Austin, Texas, and Berlin-area plants. Tesla already exports to Europe, mostly from the Shanghai plant.
As the Berlin plant ramps up over time, the Shanghai plant will export far fewer Model Ys to Europe, though Model 3 shipments will likely continue.
Elon Musk, in a May 31 interview released in late June, said the Berlin and Austin factories are losing billions of dollars due to low production.
While Tesla capacity is set to soar, it has no major new markets to enter or any new vehicles in the near future.
However, there's new progress on a big tax-and-spending bill in Congress that would extend U.S. EV tax credits, a boon for Tesla, which is no longer eligible under the current program. However, there are some income and vehicle price caps that could significantly impact Tesla vehicles' eligibility. A requirement for a high and rising share of battery materials from the U.S. or countries with U.S. free-trade deals also could complicate matters.
BYD's auto plants are in China, with virtually all its sales there. BYD easily tops Tesla in local China sales, even just in EVs.
That means BYD has a lot of markets to expand into.
BYD in the coming weeks will begin deliveries of the Yuan Plus, branded in most overseas markets as the Atto 3, in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and more.
The EV giant has announced plans to enter Japan with the Atto 3 in early 2023, the Dolphin/Atto 2 mid-year and Seal/Atto 4 in late 2023.
BYD will announce its entry into Thailand as well on Aug. 8. Several of these markets are right-hand-drive countries, like the U.K.
BYD also reportedly is eyeing a move into South Korea, which would mean taking on Hyundai and its Ioniq EVs.
BYD signaled a significant European expansion as well, announcing on Aug. 1 that it will begin deliveries in Sweden and Germany in Q4. BYD began selling the Tang SUV in Norway, in late 2021.
The first BYD vehicles will reach Israel this quarter.
It is shipping various EVs and hybrids to much of Latin America, with plans to be in 45 Brazilian markets by year-end.
America isn't officially in BYD's sights in terms of personal EVs. Tariffs on China-made autos make exports to the U.S. cost prohibitive. BYD does make some EV buses here, with a lot of extra space at its Lancaster, Calif., site outside Los Angeles.
EV 'Freak-Out' Moment Looms Over Lithium, Rare Earths
Tesla Vs. BYD Batteries
Tesla doesn't mass produce battery cells. The Sparks, Nevada, gigafactory is a joint venture with Panasonic, which makes the cells. In China and increasingly in the U.S., Tesla buys off-the-shelf batteries from CATL.
It's increasingly shifting to lithium iron phosphate batteries. LFPs have some cost advantages, which have grown because they don't require any cobalt or nickel, unlike lithium-ion batteries.
Tesla has long led in getting more out of its batteries, though the high-end Lucid Air has higher battery efficiency than Tesla.
Tesla is developing its own 4680 battery cells in a pilot program. The 4680 batteries don't involve new chemistry. The larger form factor offers the potential for cost savings, but on the Q2 earnings call Musk said several technical challenges remain.
That could affect the timetable for the Cybertruck as well as other vehicles such as the Semi and Roadster.
BYD batteries, by contrast, are truly in house. The BYD Blade batteries, a specialized LFP battery, are seen as among the safest available for EVs.
BYD will supply batteries to Tesla, a senior BYD executive recently told state-owned TV, though that interview was later deleted. So far Tesla has not confirmed any deal, which has been rumored for months. A Tesla deal would be a major validation for BYD as a battery supplier to third-party automakers.
The made-in-China Ford Mustang Mach-E uses BYD batteries. GM will use BYD batteries in a made-in-China Cadillac. Toyota (TM) is expected to use BYD Blade batteries in an upcoming small EV for the Chinese market. BYD may be actively involved in Toyota's wider EV push in the coming years.
BYD and Tesla are on the forefront of automakers trying to lock up supplies of lithium and other key battery raw materials. Musk has discussed Tesla getting involved in lithium mining, but hasn't done so.
BYD is involved in lithium mining projects already. It's reportedly struck a deal to buy six lithium mines in Africa, according to local media. That could provide enough lithium to satisfy its battery needs for a decade.
Tesla Beyond EVs
Tesla and BYD are more than just EV makers.
Tesla has solar and battery storage businesses, but both are just a small part of total revenue.
Tesla also generates revenue via its Supercharger network. It's starting to open its Supercharger network to non-Tesla vehicles in parts of Europe, where third-party charging stations are common. In the U.S., the Supercharger network is still a big moat for Tesla, but the automaker may open up some stations to attract new subsidies.
Tesla's self-driving efforts have been a key revenue driver and brand builder. If Tesla is able to create a cheap, vision-only system that is fully autonomous everywhere and anywhere, the payoff will be enormous. But for now, even FSD Beta is a Level 2 driver-assist system.
AI chief Andrej Karpathy, who oversaw Autopilot, left the EV giant on July 13. Karpathy had been on a months-long sabbatical, raising speculation that he was on his way out.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has expanded an Autopilot probe multiple times. The investigation began in 2021 with a look at Autopilot-related crashes into stationary emergency vehicles. The NHTSA is also looking into "phantom braking," when Tesla vehicles suddenly brake while on Autopilot.
The California DMV accused the EV giant of misleading customers about Autopilot and FSD, the Los Angeles Times reported late on Aug. 5. But if the state DMV wins its action, it'll likely only require Tesla to modify its advertising and marketing.
Musk has said Tesla is putting a lot of effort on developing the Tesla Bot, or Optimus. On June 2, Musk tweeted that "we may have an Optimus prototype working" by the next Tesla AI Day on Sept. 30. Most experts say general purpose humanoid robots are decades away.
BYD Semiconductor, Solar And More
In addition to making its own batteries, BYD makes its own chips, which has helped it rapidly expand over the past year while the industry had to idle production. In late January, the automaker won approval to list its BYD Semiconductor spinoff on the Shenzhen ChiNext market.
The company also has solar and energy storage businesses.
BYD has several partnerships related to autonomous driving. BYD has said it will adopt Nvidia's Drive system for autonomous driving. The follows a self-driving partnership with Baidu (BIDU), a leader in autonomous-driving technology. Nvidia (NVDA) and Baidu have long been autonomous-driving partners.
But BYD also says it will use chips from local Horizon Robotics in some 2023 models. That follows a driver-assist joint venture with Momenta, a Chinese autonomous-driving startup. BYD also has taken a stake in Lidar supplier RoboSense.
BYD is starting work on its own in-house chip for smart driving, local media reported in mid-July.
Tesla Stock Vs. BYD Fundamentals
Tesla earnings more than tripled to $6.78 a share in 2021, vs. $2.24 a share in 2020 and just 3 cents in 2019.
Tesla earnings rose 57% in Q2 while revenue grew 42%, both topping views. That came despite significant challenges, notably the lengthy Shanghai production shutdown and slow return. Earnings and revenue fell vs. Q1.
BYD earnings declined in 2021. Capital spending last year exceeded capex from 2018-20 combined, with huge outlays for new auto, battery and chip plants. EV and PHEV production capacity has surged in recent months and continues to increase. That is spurring massive revenue and profit gains this year and beyond.
On July 14, BYD said it expects first-half net profit up 139%-207% vs. a year earlier in local currency terms to 2.8 billion-3.6 billion yuan ($533 million). Excluding non-recurring gains and losses, profit likely skyrocketed 578%-795%.
Analysts see profitability and margins improving further in the second half, as BYD expands production and moves upscale.
Tesla Stock Vs. BYD Stock Technicals
Tesla stock is down 12.4% so far this year as of Aug. 4, according to MarketSmith analysis, but a big improvement from just a few weeks ago. BYD stock is up 12.1%, trying to hold recent levels.
Since the end of 2019, Tesla is up a massive 945%. BYD has surged 657%.
Tesla has a price-to-earnings ratio of 91, still high but down in the past year due to strong earnings and a declining share price. BYD's P-E is well into the triple digits. High P-E stocks generally have struggled as interest rates have risen over the last several months.
TSLA stock hit a record 1,243.49 in November. Shares approached those levels in April, but then sold off hard. On May 24, shares tumbled to an 11-month intraday low of 620.57, down just over 50% from its record high.
On July 21, TSLA surged following earnings, blasting above short-term levels after clearing the 50-day line a few days earlier. Shares continued to move higher, reclaiming their 200-day line.
On Aug. 4, Tesla investors OK'd a 3-for-1 stock split at the annual shareholder meeting, a long-expected move. The split will take place on Aug. 25.
Tesla stock tumbled on Friday, back below the 200-day line and down modestly for the week.
TSLA stock is far from a 1,208.10 buy point. Ideally, shares would consolidate, offering a handle or aggressive entry.
BYD stock hit a nine-month low on March 15, but rebounded back above its 50-day and 10-week lines in early April. Shares surged above its 200-day line in late May.
Shares broke out past a 39.81 buy point in late June. Shares fell back below the buy point on July 11, as China stocks sold off.
BYD dived July 12 on rumors that Warren Buffett would sell some of his longtime stake. Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) bought 225 million H-shares in BYD in September 2008 and has held onto them. It's BYD's No. 4 shareholder, with a 7.73% stake. There's still no clarity on Buffett's BYD holdings.
BYD stock gapped up July 14 on the preliminary earnings. Shares are currently below a rising 50-day line.
Shares are on track to form a new base next to the deep consolidation, but needs another week. A move above the July 29 high of 39.35 would offer an aggressive entry.
Tesla Stock Market Cap
In terms of market cap, Tesla stock vs. BYD stock is no contest. Tesla is worth $903 billion and eyeing a return to a trillion-dollar valuation. That's leagues above BYD's $100.3tsl billion.
BYD's market cap exceeds that of Rivian stock and Lucid stock combined. It's also comfortably above the valuations of GM and Ford.
An S&P 500 giant, Tesla stock has an array of institutional sponsorship, including many IBD-style mutual funds and other A+ funds. TSLA stock remains a major holding across Ark Invest's ETFs.
BYD stock has far-less big sponsorship, though Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) has been a notable investor for years. Cathie Wood's Ark Invest also owns a small stake. Very few stocks can boast both Buffett and Wood as investors.
BYD stock is listed in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and only trades over the counter in the U.S. That also means the BYDDF stock chart shows a lot of minigaps.
Tesla Stock Vs. BYD Stock
In many ways BYD is what Tesla claims or aspires to be. BYD makes its own batteries and chips, as well as many other key parts. It's selling its batteries to other automakers, including Tesla itself soon. Musk has long touted a goal of a $25,000 Tesla. BYD already sells many EVs at or below $25,000, and at a profit. Musk has mulled getting involved in lithium mining. BYD already is.
BYD's EV and PHEV unit sales have passed Tesla's unit sales, with the automaker is accelerating production and just moving toward more-upscale offerings. For now, Tesla sells far more pure electrics than BYD, and at much-higher price points. Both are reporting booming earnings.
BYD has many big markets in which to expand, including several in the next few weeks and months.
Both EV giants are delivering far more vehicles than rivals, while growth prospects are strong.
Tesla stock and BYD stock were among the biggest EV winners in 2021. BYD is consolidating after hitting record highs in late June, with a possible aggressive entry. TSLA stock is still down for the year, but is rebounding back above some key levels.
So, Tesla stock vs. BYD stock? Investors should keep their eyes on them.
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>>> Canoo (GOEV) gets the Walmart seal of approval
Motley Fool
7-12-22
https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/07/12/pepsis-earnings-were-strong-but-this-ev-stock-is-t/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article
But posting the biggest gains on Tuesday morning was Canoo (GOEV 66.08%). The electric vehicle specialist got great news from a huge customer that boosted the stock price by more than 75% in premarket trading.
Walmart (WMT 0.31%) announced that it would buy 4,500 of Canoo's electric delivery vehicles. The retailer intends to use the vehicles for last-mile deliveries as it continues to build out its e-commerce business. Walmart will have the option to buy up to 10,000 units.
Canoo and Walmart don't expect the Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle (LDV) to show up on highways until next year. However, advance deliveries are expected in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that should help Walmart and Canoo finalize the details in their collaboration.
Canoo touted several elements of its LDV, including easy handling, ample cargo space, modular design, and sustainability. For Walmart, the move helps it in its goals to reach zero-emissions status by 2040.
EV companies are competing fiercely for business, so getting a big-name buyer like Walmart is a point in Canoo's favor. Yet even with today's gain, the stock is still down sharply from where it traded during the past couple of years, so investors want to see even more wins before they'll have full confidence in Canoo's future.
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BYD - >>> 13 years after investing in an obscure Chinese automaker, Warren Buffett’s BYD bet is paying off big
Fortune
BY REY MASHAYEKHI
March 2, 2021
https://fortune.com/2021/03/02/warren-buffett-investments-berkshire-hathaway-byd/
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway invested $232 million in Chinese automaker BYD in 2008—a stake that has since swelled to around $6 billion.
This weekend brought the release of Berkshire Hathaway’s 2020 earnings report, which gave the investing world yet another opportunity to track the performance of the Oracle of Omaha himself, Warren Buffett. And though the prodigious 90-year-old investor’s holding company predictably felt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on its bottom line, the report shed light on how one of Buffett’s boldest bets to date is paying huge dividends.
Thirteen years ago, on the advice of his famously skeptical lieutenant, Charlie Munger, Buffett made a $232 million investment in a relatively unknown Chinese car company called BYD. As Munger told Fortune in a 2009 cover story, he was enthralled by the vision of BYD’s founder—a chemist-turned-entrepreneur named Wang Chuanfu, who had built one of the world’s largest manufacturers of rechargeable cell phone batteries before pivoting into the automotive sector.
“This guy is a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch—something like Edison in solving technical problems, and something like Welch in getting done what he needs to do,” Munger said of Wang. “I have never seen anything like it.”
By parlaying BYD’s rechargeable battery technology into a fast-growing carmaking operation, Wang had gained a foothold in the fledgling electric vehicle (EV) market—building longer-lasting batteries and cheaper vehicles than American and Japanese manufacturers were managing to do at the time. In BYD, Buffett and Munger believed they had found a company with a shot at one day becoming the largest player in a global automobile market that was inevitably going electric.
In late 2008, Berkshire Hathaway ponied up the aforementioned $232 million for a roughly 10% stake in BYD. As Buffett recalled, Berkshire initially tried to buy 25% of the company, but Wang refused to release more than 10% of BYD’s stock. “This was a man who didn’t want to sell his company,” he told Fortune. “That was a good sign.”
It has proved to be money well spent. As the EV market has exploded in China, BYD has developed into a major player in the world’s largest car market; it sold more than 130,000 electric passenger vehicles last year as it competes for market share with rival EV makers like Wuling, NIO, and, of course, Tesla.
As BYD has grown, so has the value of Berkshire Hathaway’s investment. By late 2018, 10 years after cutting that $232 million check, Berkshire’s stake in the company had swollen to roughly $1.6 billion. Since then, that figure has climbed exponentially amid the Chinese EV market’s rapid expansion and a remarkable fourfold increase in BYD’s Hong Kong–traded shares last year: Berkshire Hathaway’s 8.2% stake in the automaker held a market value of $5.9 billion at the end of 2020, per Buffett’s letter to Berkshire shareholders on Saturday.
That means that BYD was Buffett’s eighth-largest holding by market value at the end of last year, and makes it a more valuable investment for the Oracle of Omaha than his stake in that grand old name of American carmaking, General Motors. (Berkshire’s 3.7% stake in GM was valued at $2.2 billion as of Dec. 31.) Of course, GM is only just accelerating its push into the realm of electric vehicles, whereas BYD has been bracing for an EV-motored future for the past decade and a half—a vision that is now bearing fruit for Buffett, Munger, and their own investors at Berkshire Hathaway.
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>>> Warren Buffett–backed BYD surpasses Tesla in global EV sales a decade after Elon Musk doubted the Chinese company’s technology
Fortune
BY GRADY MCGREGOR
July 6, 2022
https://fortune.com/2022/07/06/warren-buffett-byd-tesla-ev-sales-elon-musk-doubt-technology/
BYD, the Chinese electric vehicle firm partly owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, became the world’s largest electric vehicle maker in the first half of 2022, wrestling the title from Elon Musk's EV giant Tesla in another sign of the Chinese automaker's resilience in the face of COVID-inflicted disruptions that plagued its rivals this year.
BYD sold 641,350 new electric vehicles in the first half of this year, compared to Tesla's 564,743, company filings show. Sales at BYD are also growing at a faster pace than at its American counterpart. In the first six months of 2022, BYD sold 486,771 more cars than it did in the first half of 2021, representing an increase of 315%. Tesla, meanwhile, sold 178,693 more vehicles in the first half of this year compared to last, a 46% year-on-year bump.
However, the companies' sales don't represent an apples-to-apples comparison. Many of BYD's car sales are plug-in hybrids and use gasoline engines to supplement battery power. Tesla, on the other hand, exclusively sells fully electric cars. China counts both types of vehicles as "zero-emission."
BYD's stock price in Hong Kong has barely budged since the firm released the sales figures earlier this week. But investors have been high on BYD since the start of this year despite the bear market in the U.S. and a challenging environment in China. BYD's stock price has risen nearly 25% since the start of this year. In that same timeframe, Tesla's stock price in New York has dropped 42%.
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway was an early backer of BYD, pouring $232 million into the company in 2008. Now worth $7.7 billion, the investment is one of Berkshire's most lucrative bets.
Musk, meanwhile, was an early doubter of BYD. “Have you seen their car?” the Tesla CEO told Bloomberg News in 2011. “I don’t think they have a great product.”
Tesla has attributed its sluggish growth early this year to COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai that disrupted production at its gigafactory near the city. "We [lost] a lot of important days of production. And there are sort of upstream supplier challenges where a lot of suppliers also lost many days of production," Musk said in a quarterly earnings call in May.
Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush, recently estimated that Tesla produced 70,000 fewer cars this year due to the lockdown in Shanghai. On the earnings call, Musk also promised that Tesla's Shanghai plant would "come back with a vengeance." After two months of being closed or operating at reduced capacity, Telsa's gigafactory returned to full capacity in early June.
But Tesla's comeback has not arrived fast enough to catch up with BYD's spring surge.
Unlike Tesla, BYD was "totally resilient from the Shanghai City lockdown and [the] sector's supply-chain disruption," Citi analysts wrote in May. BYD's main production base is in China's southern province of Guangdong, a region that did not face lockdowns as severe as the one in Shanghai.
The Citi analysts also said that BYD's supply chain is "vertically integrated," meaning it produces more parts in-house and is less dependent on outside suppliers than its rivals, helping shield the company from supply-chain disruptions. BYD's supply-chain success may be helping turn its competitors into potential customers. BYD plans to sell batteries to Tesla "very soon," Lian Yubo, BYD's executive vice president, told Chinese media last month. Tesla has not confirmed the statement.
BYD's insulation from the Shanghai lockdown helped it leapfrog rivals to become the second largest automaker of any kind this June. It now ranks behind only FAW-Volkswagen in terms of monthly car sales. In January, BYD was China's seventh largest automaker by sales.
BYD's recent tear has also defied a government probe into alleged pollution at its factories in Changsha, China that threatens to tarnish the company's environmental accolades.
“The story of BYD’s resilience throughout lockdowns and the chip shortage outweighed [the probe],” Bridget McCarthy, market research analyst and head of China operations at Boston-based hedge fund Snow Bull Capital recently told Fortune.
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>>> What's Going To Happen To The Millions Of Electric Car Batteries After Their Lifespans End?
MSN.com
by Nor'Adila Hepburn
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/whats-going-to-happen-to-the-millions-of-electric-car-batteries-after-their-lifespans-end/ar-AAYFSEm?li=BBnb7Kz
While driving electric vehicles is a step towards a greener future, the car batteries that power them are not as sustainable. Though the battery is at the heart of any EV, most are made from lithium-ion and have a limited lifespan that starts to degrade from the first time you charge them. So what happens when they reach capacity?
The cycle of charging and discharging causes them lose energy and power. The more charge cycles a battery goes through, the faster it will degrade. Once batteries reach 70 or 80% of their capacity, which happens around either 5 to 8 years or after 100,000 miles of driving, they have to be replaced, according to Science Direct.
Due to electric vehicles' rising popularity, it goes without saying that their battery waste will become a major issue. Experts estimate that 12 million tons of batteries will be thrown away by 2030, The Guardian reported. The conundrum that manufacturers and consumers have is that although they can be recycled, there are not enough facilities to handle them. To date, there are only four lithium-ion recycling centers in the United States (via WCNC). However, this number must grow exponentially in the next few years as Industry experts predict there will be 85 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030 (via Science Direct).
Recycling Is Complex
Recycling car batteries is an arduous and dangerous process that involves splitting them apart to extract the metals inside. To do it, recyclers typically utilize two techniques: pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy, Science reported. Pyrometallurgy, the preferred method, shreds the battery down and then a burning process takes the metal out. With hydrometallurgy, the battery is submerged in acid to separate the metal. With either method, there is a risk of toxic fume emissions or an outright explosion (via Science).
There are other issues too. Unlike other compact batteries, EV batteries weigh about 960 pounds, according to Wired. If you are an EV manufacturer, finding proper transportation and storage could prove a logistical nightmare. They are also a fire hazard if and when stored together. A report by the Environmental Protection Agency found that between 2013 and 2020, more than 240 lithium-ion battery fires broke out across 64 municipal waste facilities.
And that's not all. If these batteries find their way to landfills, harmful toxins such as lead and nickel can contaminate soil and groundwater supplies (via AZO Clean Tech).
Companies Are Giving EV Batteries A Second-Life
companies and EVs
Outside of recycling, old EV batteries can be repurposed as a renewable energy source for homes and businesses. Even if they have a reduced storage capacity, they can be reused to store wind and solar energy, according to Innovative News Network. This can extend their life cycle by another seven to 10 years.
A good example of this is Toyota's initiative to sustainably power Yellowstone Park. The car company equipped the landmark with solar panels powered by batteries that once belonged in Camry Hybrids, replacing diesel generators (via Toyota).
Toyota was not the only one, however. A Spanish company ran an experiment where it converted used lithiom-ion batteries into second-life batteries with great success. In particular, it proved the ability to use recycled electric vehicle batteries to help power one of the local electricity plants in the case that there is a temporary shut down (via Enel).
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>>> Elon Musk Is Furious
Tesla CEO is angry at federal move that he says benefits premium electric vehicle maker's rivals.
6-17-22
The Street
by LUC OLINGA
https://www.thestreet.com/technology/elon-musk-is-furious?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO
Elon Musk is angry.
His detractors will see a lack of fair play, while his fans will give him reason.
Before getting to the reason for his anger, it should be noted that for more than a decade, from 2003 to almost 2013, the billionaire and Tesla (TSLA) pushed hard for the adoption of electric vehicles despite mockery from rivals and skepticism from financial markets and consumers.
Musk and Tesla had, however, found an ear at the White House in the person of Barack Obama, newly elected in 2008. Obama set an ambitious goal of putting 1 million advanced technology vehicles on the road by 2015 - which would reduce dependence on foreign oil and lead to a reduction in oil consumption of about 750 million barrels through 2030.
Obama proposed to transform the existing $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles into a rebate that will be available to all consumers immediately at the point of sale. Tesla, which was one of the few vehicle manufacturers to develop only vehicles, took full advantage of this aid.
But that tax credit was to start disappearing once the automaker had sold its 200,000th qualifying. The credit was first to be reduced to $3,750, then to half again, and finally the aid was to disappear over a period of time.
Tesla sold its 200,000th vehicle in 2018, and the credit fully expired at the end of 2019.
It's a 'Big Deal'
But for many of the Austin, TX-based company's competitors, the tax credit still applies in full. This is the case, for example, of the Ford Mustang Mach-E (F) - Get Ford Motor Company Report model, the F-150 Lightning pickup/truck, the electric version of the best-selling F-150, the Lucid Air sedan from Lucid Group (LCID) - Get Lucid Group Inc. Report, the Mercedes-Benz EV EQS (DDAIF) , the Porsche Taycan (VLKAF) , R1T pickups and R1S SUVs from Rivian (RIVN) - Get Rivian Automotive Inc. Report and the Volkswagen ID.4.
You can find the list of brands and vehicles that still benefit from this tax credit here.
This credit gives a competitive edge to all these brands as the battle intensifies in the electric vehicle market between automakers, says Musk. And conversely, this substantial aid disadvantages Tesla, says its CEO.
"Tesla is at a competitive disadvantage with respect to tax credits," Musk said during a recent interview with the Tesla fan club Tesla owners Silicon Valley. "That is quite significant when you're talking about like, say a $40,000 car and a $7,500 tax credit. That's like almost a 20% difference. So big deal."
The serial entrepreneur did not stop there.
"So Tesla is successful currently in spite of our competitors having materially greater tax advantages, in spite of it not because of it."
"If you eliminated all EV tax credits, Tesla's position will improve immediately."
To show that he was angry at this federal tax credit that he considers unfair, Musk renewed his criticisms on the social network Twitter.
"Buyers of competing electric cars receive a $7500 tax credit, but Tesla does not," the billionaire repeated, thereby making his company a victim.
Tesla Is Not Alone
"Truly absurd that government would actually subsidize cars that are not even being manufactured in the US with $7500 tax credit & wouldn't support Tesla (which completely manufacturers in the US)," commented a Musk fan. "Government supports Ford, whereas Ford is producing few of their cars in Mexico."
"Yeah, it’s crazy," Musk replied. "Model 3 has the most US content of any car made today."
What Musk fails to say is that Tesla isn't the only major automaker no longer benefiting from this federal tax credit. General Motors (GM) is also in the same situation. Electric vehicle buyers interested in the Chevy Bolt and Chevy Bolt EUV will receive nothing.
In general, vehicles benefiting from this federal tax credit must be battery-electric or plug-in hybrids and purchased-- not leased -- as new vehicles.
It is based on battery capacity beyond a standardized minimum, so some plug-in vehicles qualify for lesser amounts.
Aside from the federal tax credit, there are other state-level incentives for electric vehicle buyers.
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Renewable diesel - >>> Bunge prepares for renewable diesel demand
World-Grain.com
05.23.2022
By Susan Reidy
https://www.world-grain.com/articles/16940-bunge-prepares-for-renewable-diesel-demand
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, US — With the renewable diesel market expected to soar, Bunge is positioning itself to be at the forefront of feedstock supply and innovation.
“We're the largest global oilseed crusher,” said Greg Heckman, Bunge chief executive officer and director during a May 18 presentation during the BMO Capital Markets Global Farm to Market Conference in New York. “We need to lead like an industry leader and have the origination and the distribution capabilities to support that and then really lean into our platforms around specialty fats and oils, our growing plant proteins business and then, of course, renewable feedstocks.
Heckman said he’s glad the company did the heavy lifting early on, especially given world events the last two years. The beginning of Bunge’s turnaround started three years ago with a trade war, then African swine fever, the COVID-19 pandemic and now the war in Ukraine and inflation.
“I think it says something about the resilience of the global footprint of Bunge and we’ve put in place from an operating model and a team to be able to perform in all of those while continuing to improve the asset base,” he said. “There's no doubt the cycles will always go up and down in these industries, but what we're going to make sure is that we can perform as well or better than anyone regardless of the cycle.”
Bunge’s future projects span all four platforms, Heckman said. With demand expected to increase for renewable diesel, Bunge will add crush on both soy and softseeds. It’s also working on improving origination and the distribution of meals and oils.
“There’s going to be a lot of dislocation as the oil markets adjusts to renewable diesel demand in the US,” Heckman said. “And being basic in all oils is shifting those global flows. That'll be a real opportunity for us.”
As the largest global oilseed crusher, Bunge has had the benefit of talking with all the energy companies.
“The one thing that is absolutely certain is that they see renewable feedstocks and vegetable oil as one of the levers that they can pull in the transition to a lower carbon business over the next 10 to 15 years in liquid fuels,” Heckman said. “They’re making investments in assets, and it’s gaining momentum.”
Heckman said the more Bunge learns about it, the more respect it has for renewable diesel.
“We’re excited to have a great partner like Chevron,” he said. “It’s really opened our eyes to have that kind of partnership.”
The joint venture, which closed at the beginning of May, aims to establish a reliable supply chain from farmer to fueling station.
“We're excited about where that relationship can go and things that we'll begin to look to do maybe other places in the globe,” Heckman said.
Another exciting aspect of renewable feedstocks, he said, is that it’s not even clear what all the products and services are going to be.
“We’re doing things now on CoverCress and developing that. I think we’re going to see a number of other things where this demand is going to be in place and sustained, and long-lived capital will be willing to go to work,” Heckman said. “Part of the demand will be solved by seed technology, some of it by expanding current industry.”
It’s going to take a little bit of everything to meet the feedstock demands for vegetable oil.
“We’re going to add capacity in soy. There will be softseed capacity added. Cover crops will be developed,” Heckman said. “Some of the existing seeds will probably be technology-changed to be able to grow softseeds in different areas. You may see some of the existing seeds at higher percent oil.”
Oil is going to have a higher percent of the crush, and North America is not going to be an exporter, he said.
“There's no one silver bullet, but there will be investment, and there will be innovation,” Heckman said. “And the price signals will be there, and the market will do its work.”
When asked about the war in Ukraine and its impact on the agriculture cycle, Heckman said a big crop is needed in North America this year along with another large crop in South America next year.
“I think we need two good cycles to start to alleviate some of the pressure,” he said. “I think the market is sending the signal to the farmer. Historically, if you look, farmers have responded with production, and we’ll start to curb some demand and we’ll pull stocks out. So the market is starting to do its work there.”
Bunge has more than 1,100 employees in the region, and all of its facilities are shut down. But, where it can, the company is trying to run a little bit and supply vegetable oil for humanitarians, supply wheat to flour millers to create bread for humanitarian efforts and trying to open up some of the export lanes.
“It’s a trickle, probably less than 10%,” he said. “That dislocation, until it is solved, definitely makes a tighter global situation.”
Sunflower oil has probably been the biggest shock, and now feed grains and wheat as well, Heckman said.
“It will elongate the tightness, the cycle of volatility and elevated prices,” he said. “We can’t predict when Ukraine will come back online.”
When it does, the company will have to assess the condition of the infrastructure. There’s definitely been damage to roadways, railways and bridges, but not too much damage yet in ports, he said.
“There will be a period of time to get it back up to seed in the investments and just untangling-getting the mines out of the ports and untangling the logjam of all the vessels that are there,” Heckman said. “So it's many months to get it back to not full capacity once we can assess that, and then there’ll be investment.”
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Geotab telematics - >>> Generac (GNRC) Launches EV Charging Solution for Utilities
Zacks Equity Research
May 16, 2022
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/generac-gnrc-launches-ev-charging-155903142.html
Generac Power Systems’ GNRC subsidiary, Generac Grid, rolled out electric-vehicle charging solutions for utilities and EV owners.
The company’s EV charging solutions, including Geotab telematics, are now accessible worldwide.
The utility-focused product is powered by Geotab telematics technologies to empower EV owners of most makes and models to take control of their car charging. It also provides utilities with vital monitoring data supplied directly from a Geotab GO device that is installed in the vehicle's onboard diagnostic port.
Through its telematics solutions, Geotab provides secure and reliable data acquired from electric vehicles. According to Generac Grid Services, EVs are a critical distributed energy resource to shift load to capture low-carbon, clean energy and manage peak demand, which will play a key factor in decarbonizing the transportation sector.
Generac Grid Services is using its comprehensive utility program design experience (including Geotab telematics offerings) to deliver a variety of solutions to the utilities to aid them at every stage of their EV strategy rollouts, like monitoring to behavioral response, smart charging, and advanced vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-grid solutions.
The charging data can be used by monitoring programs to help with grid planning and rate design. In contrast, behavioral programs can use charging data insights combined with strategic consumer messaging and incentives to impact long-term charging habits.
Further, EV drivers can avail financial incentives by enrolling in various utility schemes that leverage data streaming from the Geotab GO gadget. Data from Geotab GO can provide information regarding rate structures, utility system planning, regulatory requirements, and the verification of participation in smart-charging programs and events added Generac.
Generac Grid Services maintains agreements with EV charging station manufacturers to offer new smart charging options in addition to supplying vehicle-side data through Geotab telematics systems.
For example, Generac Grid Services ensures that the signal is received by Concerto (Generac's real-time energy-balancing platform) by sending a signal directly to EV chargers instructing them to start or stop charging, and it also works with charger manufacturers. By combining both solution types, Generac supplies programming that supports major charging station providers and more than 220 EV models from all class sizes (including light to heavy-duty electric cars).
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>>> ETFs for the Driverless Car Revolution
Investopedia
By J.B. MAVERICK
May 04, 2022
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/etfs-mutual-funds/050216/3-etfs-take-advantage-driverless-car-revolution-carz-arkq.asp?utm_campaign=quote-yahoo&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=referral
Investors seeking exposure to the driverless car revolution now have the option of buying into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) specifically dedicated to driverless cars, electric vehicles, and other innovations in the automobile industry.
Among this class of ETFs are KraneShares Electric Vehicles and Future Mobility ETF (KARS), which debuted in January of 2018; InnovationShares NextGen Vehicle and Technology ETF (EKAR); which debuted in February 2018, and Global X Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF (DRIV), which debuted in April 2018. Prior to the introduction of these specific ETFs, there were no ETFs directly related to self-driving cars and electric vehicles, and only one ETF was focused on the automobile industry.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Investors seeking exposure to the driverless car revolution now have the option of buying into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) specifically dedicated to driverless cars, electric vehicles, and other innovations in the automobile industry.
KraneShares Electric Vehicles and Future Mobility ETF, InnovationShares NextGen Vehicle and Technology ETF, and Global X Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF are ETFs that are invested in driverless cars, electric vehicles, and other innovations in the automobile industry.
People looking to invest in driverless cars also have the option of adding ETFs to their portfolio that are focused on the automobile industry and related technological innovations, including First Trust's Global Auto Index Fund or Industrial Innovation ETF by ARK Invest.
KraneShares Electric Vehicles and Future Mobility ETF (KARS)
The KraneShares Electric Vehicles and Future Mobility ETF (KARS) had $245 million in net assets as of Q2 2022 and a 0.70% expense ratio.1 The fund tracks the performance of Solactive Electric Vehicles and Future Mobility Index, which includes global companies involved with new transportation methods. These companies focus on electric vehicles or their components, technologies related to autonomous driving, shared mobility, lithium and copper production, hydrogen fuel cell manufacturing, and other innovations in the sector.
Ideanomics NextGen Vehicle and Technology ETF (EKAR)
The Ideanomics NextGen Vehicle and Technology ETF (EKAR) is made up of global stocks related to electric autonomous, or self-driving, vehicles. The fund invests in companies that fall into four categories within the sector: battery producers, original equipment manufacturers, suppliers, and producers of semiconductors and software. The ETF held a relatively small $9.2 million in net assets as of Q2 2022 and had an expense ratio of 0.65%.2
Global X Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF (DRIV)
The Global X Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF (DRIV) seeks to correspond to the Solactive Autonomous and Electric Vehicles Index. The fund invests in companies that are involved in the development and manufacturing of software and hardware for driverless vehicles, and companies that produce electric vehicles and their components, such as lithium and cobalt. As of Q2 2022, the fund had $1.1 billion in net assets and a 0.68% expense ratio.3
Related Exchange Traded Fund Options
People looking to invest in driverless cars also have the option of adding ETFs to their portfolio that are focused on the automobile industry and related technological innovations.
First Trust's Global Auto Index Fund (CARZ) was launched in 2011, and until 2018, it was the only ETF related to the automobile industry. As of Q2 2022, the fund had $62 million in net assets with an expense ratio of 0.62%.4 The ETF tracks the NASDAQ OMX Global Auto Index, which includes nearly all of the major automobile manufacturers worldwide. Holdings include Honda Motor Company (HMC), General Motors (GM), Toyota Motor Corporation (TM), and Tesla Inc. (TSLA).
Another more broad investment option related to driverless cars is the Industrial Innovation ETF by ARK Invest (ARKQ), which launched in 2014 and had reached $1.37 billion in net assets as of Q2 022.5 ARKQ has a 0.75% expense ratio. This is an actively managed fund that invests in companies identified as being likely to benefit from technological advancements—including those related to electric and autonomous vehicles. Software and IT services companies, semiconductor firms, and automobile companies combine to account for about 80% of the portfolio assets.
ETF investors may also wish to consider a fund like the First Trust Clean Edge Green Energy Index Fund (QCLN). Launched by First Trust in 2007, the ETF focuses on companies involved in providing clean alternative energy. While there's no direct connection to driverless cars, there is some significant overlap between companies involved in developing driverless cars and those involved in clean energy. This fund, which tracks the NASDAQ Clean Edge Green Energy Index composed of U.S.-listed firms engaged in developing clean energy, had $2 billion in net assets as of Q2 2022 and a 0.58% expense ratio.6 Semiconductor firms, which are likely to be essential in creating driverless car technology, account for about a third of the portfolio holdings.
Another indirect to invest in the growth of electric vehicles is to invest in ETFs that track lithium or related stocks. Lithium is a mined element that is a critical component of rechargeable batteries.
Which Companies Make All-Electric Vehicles?
While Tesla Motors may be the most popular electric car company, many traditional automakers have started selling all-electric vehicles such as GM, Toyota, Hyundai, Ford, and Kia, among others.
What Is the Difference Between an All-Electric and Hybrid Vehicle?
An all-electric vehicle runs on batteries alone, which are most typically recharged by plugging the vehicle in. A hybrid-electric vehicle, on the other hand, has a gasoline-powered engine along with a small electric motor. The electric motor is recharged by the car's braking system and is put to use to increase overall gas mileage.
What Percentage of Vehicles in the U.S. Are Electric?
As of 2021, fewer than 1% of the country’s 250 million vehicles are electric. The Biden Administration, however, has set a goal to increase this figure to at least 50% by the year 2050.7
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Optimus robot - >>> Tesla CEO Elon Musk: 'People do not realize the magnitude of the Optimus robot program'
Yahoo Finance
by Brian Sozzi
April 21, 2022
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-tesla-optimus-robot-102430216.html
Elon Musk is clearly bullish on Tesla (TSLA), the potential of Twitter (TWTR), and the Optimus robot.
"I was surprised that people do not realize the magnitude of the Optimus robot program," the Tesla CEO said on the company's earnings call late Wednesday. "The importance of Optimus will become apparent in the coming years. Those who are insightful or who listen carefully will understand that Optimus ultimately will be worth more than the car business and worth more than full self-driving, that’s my firm belief."
Tesla first revealed the Optimus robot — also known as Tesla Bot — at an artificial intelligence-focused event in August 2021. The robot, 5-foot 8 inches and 125 pounds, is designed to perform repetitive or mundane tasks that humans hate (or can't be hired to do in a tight labor market).
Wall Street analysts generally don't believe Optimus will be a financial needle mover in the medium-term given they aren't being produced at scale.
"I would say no, but time will tell," Wells Fargo auto analyst Colin Langan told Yahoo Finance when asked about the robot impact. "He has proven the markets wrong before."
In theory, the Optimus program has potential to help Tesla lower operating costs in its facilities —it's just a matter if Musk can make enough robots.
In the meantime, what the Street is believing on Tesla is that could be on its way to another strong year of making electric vehicles profitably.
Shares of Tesla rose 7% in pre-market trading as Tesla pummeled Wall Street estimates for sales, margins, and earnings. The stock was the number one trending ticker on the Yahoo Finance platform.
Here's how Tesla performed versus Street estimates:
Revenue: $18.8 billion versus $17.9 billion expected
Adjusted earnings per share: $3.22 versus $2.27 expected
Musk noted that despite COVID-19 related shutdowns at its key Shanghai manufacturing plant recently, Tesla production has come back with a "vengeance." He added that will aid in Tesla potentially delivering 60% more cars this year compared to 2021, ahead of many analyst estimates.
"Taking a step back, with the supply chain issues still a lingering overhang on the auto space and logistical issues globally, we believe these 'Cinderella-like' delivery numbers in a brutal supply chain backdrop speaks to an EV demand trajectory that looks quite robust for Tesla heading into the rest of 2022," Wedbush Managing Director Dan Ives said.
Ives has a $1,400 price target on the stock. At current levels, Ives' price target assumes 33% upside over the next 12-months.
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>>> Big data from cars is a ‘multibillion’ dollar opportunity: Narrative CEO
Yahoo Finance
by Pras Subramanian
April 21, 2022
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/narrative-ceo-big-data-from-cars-is-a-multibillion-dollar-opportunity-182532343.html
At the New York Auto Show this week, car fans, journalists, and industry watchers were treated to a feast for the eyes, with all the new car designs and plush interiors on display.
Under the skin of these cars, however, is a different beast — and it’s not the engine. It’s all the data these cars generate.
McKinsey estimates a car produces around 25 gigabytes of data per hour, which is an astounding amount. And this data is worth big money.
“The car has really turned into a modern computer and one that many people use as often as their regular computers,” Narrative CEO Nick Jordan says in an interview with Yahoo Finance from the floor of the New York Auto Show. Narrative is a data commerce platform that helps companies buy and sell data from each other, and helps optimize the data’s value. Jordan likes to say data is the “new oil.”
“[The automakers are] evolving their business to think of it as a data collection mechanism and then figuring out ways to use that data, everything from the direct monetization of the data, to providing better in-car experiences, and then even working with partners like insurance companies to build a— you know, a more vibrant ecosystem,” Jordan says.
The data itself is worth something, but it can be worth a lot more if the automakers know how to exploit it. Jordan says it's a combination of collecting the data, and commercializing it to get to real value.
“In the earlier stages, where [the automakers] have a limited number of sensors, they're doing limited data collection, it's probably about $100 over the lifetime of a car,” Jordan says. “As they get better, estimates go up to about $700 over the lifetime of a car, and so if you're selling tens of millions of cars, you know, it's a multibillion opportunity and industry for them.”
Of course some companies are doing data collection better versus the traditional automakers. Jordan says Tesla (TSLA) is one of them.
“Look at how Tesla upgrades people,” Jordan says when referring to new driving modes like Full Self Driving or Ludicrous mode. “Part of that is actually based on the driving behaviors of the people in the car to know that their specific driving patterns may lend itself to someone that wants to drive faster, or have more horsepower on a moment's notice.”
Which brings us to subscriptions. Believe it or not, cars now and in the future may ask you whether you’d like to, say, have navigation services that you can pay on a monthly basis and cancel anytime. This may come in handy for someone who won't be driving for an extended period of time.
This is already happening right now, with Cadillac (GM) offering its Supercruise driver assist technology as a subscription service. Tesla is doing the same with Full Self Driving.
“Adobe (ADBE) has done this famously,” Jordan says when discussing a Adobe’s Photoshop software that went for full upfront pricing to a subscription service. Jordan believes this is where automakers can learn something from big tech’s subscription pricing model.
“What's interesting is, well, that's obviously more valuable for Adobe,” Jordan says. “Their customers actually love it because now they can turn it on and turn it off based on when they're actually going to use the product.”
There is a dark side to big data — and that is privacy and exploitation of data that users may consider their property. Here is where the automakers must tread carefully, Jordan says.
“I think the first rule there is 'do no harm,'” Jordan says. “Make it apparent to the customers what data is being collected and how it's being used, and ultimately adding value for the customer, right? If you can give them something they want that is dependent on the data, then that becomes a symbiotic relationship versus, you know, one entity taking something from the other entity.”
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>>> S&P Dow Jones Indices Launches Index Tracking Commodities Used In Electric Vehicle Production
Yahoo Finance
March 30, 2022
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/p-dow-jones-indices-launches-140000666.html
LONDON, March 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Dow Jones Indices ("S&P DJI"), the world's leading index provider, today announced the launch of the S&P GSCI Electric Vehicle Metals. This new futures-based index measures the performance of tradeable metals used in the production of electric vehicles and weights them according to their relative usage in a representative electric vehicle. S&P DJI has collaborated with S&P Global Commodity Insights to leverage and incorporate a representative set of metal usage data in the electric vehicles sector.
"We are excited to bring together the data and insights of two S&P Global divisions to launch an innovative index that tracks the performance trends of key metals such as cobalt, copper, aluminum, nickel and iron ore that are essential in the production of electric vehicles," said Fiona Boal, Global Head of Commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "As global financial markets, investors and consumers alike increasingly embrace the use of greener technologies, there is high demand for certain types of commodities, particularly in the metals sector, that support the market's path towards energy transition. Through our indices, S&P DJI can offer valuable insights to clients and investors as they develop thematic and targeted investment strategies to reflect this transition."
Indeed, the S&P GSCI Electric Vehicle Metals leverages S&P Global Commodity Insights' data to help determine its constituents and production weights and ensure that the index broadly reflects the relative metal usage in a representative electric vehicle. An important and unique index feature is its flexibility in reweighting, adding or removing constituents at regular intervals to ensure that it can adapt to rapid changes in electric vehicles technology, as well as the launch and adoption of new metals futures contracts.
The S&P GSCI Electric Vehicle Metals is part of the S&P GSCI family of indices. The S&P GSCI is the first major investable commodity index and measures the most liquid commodity futures, which provides diversification with low correlations to other asset classes.
To learn more about the S&P GSCI Electric Vehicle Metals, please visit
https://www.indexologyblog.com/2022/03/29/going-electric-introducing-the-sp-gsci-electric-vehicle-metals/ and for more information about the S&P GSCI index series and their methodologies, please visit
https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/
ABOUT S&P DOW JONES INDICES
S&P Dow Jones Indices is the largest global resource for essential index-based concepts, data and research, and home to iconic financial market indicators, such as the S&P 500® and the Dow Jones Industrial Average®. More assets are invested in products based on our indices than products based on indices from any other provider in the world. Since Charles Dow invented the first index in 1884, S&P DJI has been innovating and developing indices across the spectrum of asset classes helping to define the way investors measure and trade the markets.
S&P Dow Jones Indices is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI), which provides essential intelligence for individuals, companies, and governments to make decisions with confidence. For more information, visit https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/.
ABOUT S&P GLOBAL COMMODITY INSIGHTS
At S&P Global Commodity Insights, our complete view of global energy and commodities markets enables our customers to make decisions with conviction and create long-term, sustainable value.
We're a trusted connector that brings together thought leaders, market participants, governments, and regulators to co-create solutions that lead to progress. Vital to navigating Energy Transition, S&P Global Commodity Insights' coverage includes oil and gas, power, chemicals, metals, agriculture and shipping.
S&P Global Commodity Insights is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI). S&P Global is the world's foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. With every one of our offerings, we help many of the world's leading organizations navigate the economic landscape so they can plan for tomorrow, today.
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>> 3 ‘Strong Buy’ Electric Vehicle Stocks With Triple-Digit Upside Potential
TipRanks
March 31, 2022
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/3-strong-buy-electric-vehicle-172235846.html
Electric vehicles (EVs) are clearly the next big thing in the automotive industry, and they are supported by both social and political pressures toward ‘green’ technologies. For drivers, they offer a wide range of advantages over gasoline-powered cars: improvements in performance, fewer moving parts to wear out, quieter operations, easier integration into wireless networks.
There are drawbacks, too. For now, EV battery range can match gasoline engines – but only at a higher cost for an already expensive vehicle. On average, EVs cost about $10,000 more than gasoline-powered vehicles, putting them in the price range of an entry-level luxury car. And while they can be plugged into a standard outlet to charge at home – so-called Level 1 charging – that can take up to 40 hours. A specialized Level 2 charger can be purchased for your driveway – but it will cost another $2,000 and still take 8 hours to charge the car.
These are only some of the issues confronting car buyers. Also entering the equation are the rising cost of gasoline and diesel fuels, tax subsidies for EV buyers, and the increasing social cachet of owning an EV. Finally, it’s clear that the Biden Administration has the political will to push policies – especially an expanded public charging network – that will promote EVs and make them more convenient to own and operate.
And now we get to EV stocks. Most of the electric car companies (the exception is Tesla) are still in the speculative stage, while others only just beginning to ramp up production. A majority of these EV stocks are showing depressed share prices in the current environment. But step back and take a broader look: Wall Street’s analysts still have faith in the EV market, and its associated battery industry, and while these stocks may be down, they are showing strong upside potential.
We’re going to take a look at three stocks in the EV universe, two vehicle makers and a battery company. According to the TipRanks database, these stocks hold ‘Strong Buy’ ratings from the Street’s analysts, and boast triple-digit upside potential for the coming year. Let’s find out just why these stocks may double or more in the months to come.
NIO Inc. (NIO)
First up is NIO, a leader in China’s EV sector. Even after its stock has fallen 33% this year, NIO still commands a market cap of nearly $100 billion. NIO was founded in 2014, and began its vehicle deliveries, with the seven-seater ES8 model, during mid-2018. Over the next three and half years, the company followed up with five additional models. The last of these, the smart electric sedan ET5, was launched in December 2021 and has yet to commence deliveries. The company is benefitting from the Chinese government policy of actively promoting electric vehicles, and increased its total deliveries last year by 109% year-over-year, to reach an impressive 91,429.
NIO has released delivery figures for the first two months of 2022, and showing a total of 15,783 for January and February. This puts the company on track to exceed its 2021 figure by 3.5%. While the past of deliveries may be slowing, it is important to note here that in both 2020 and 2021, NIO boasted sequential increases in deliveries every quarter.
In addition to rising deliveries, NIO has also showed rising revenues, with seven sequential quarterly gains in a row. The 4Q21 top line, at $1.55 billion, was a company record, and up approximately 50% year-over-year.
Edison Yu, of Deutsche Bank, writes of this automaker: “NIO has cultivated an aspirational premium brand, underpinned by a leading service infrastructure that no domestic automaker has been able to match, in our view. While volumes have stagnated over the past few quarters due to operational bottlenecks, we think deliveries are on track to increase from 10k/month to 25k exiting the year which will shift the narrative away from supply constraints to product cycle."
"Critical to this, NIO's ET7 and ET5 are set to be the most desired cars in the China market this year, potentially representing category defining products for what many see as an increasingly competitive market… Ultimately, we think the value of all this is worth significantly more than current share price, no matter where the stock is listed,” the analyst added.
Yu’s comments support his Buy rating on the stock, and his $50 price target implies an upside of 151% by year’s end. (To watch Yu’s track record, click here)
It’s clear from the analyst consensus that Wall Street is in broad agreement on NIO's quality. The stock has 18 recent reviews, breaking down to 16 Buys and 2 Holds, for a Strong Buy consensus rating. Shares are priced at $20.90, and their $44.73 average target implies an upside of 113% for the next 12 months. (See NIO stock forecast on TipRanks)
GreenPower Motor (GP)
Next up, GreenPower Motor, is an American EV company, and one with a very different niche than NIO above. Where the Chinese company focuses on the consumer market, GreenPower is working on commercial vehicles, particularly transit busses and light trucks suited for urban ‘last mile’ niches and other short-range transport and delivery tasks.
GreenPower’s most popular vehicles are its line of EV Star light trucks and vans, all based on a single chassis, and its BEAST all-electric school busses. In the most recent reported quarter, Q3 of fiscal year 2022, ending December 31, the company reported deliveries of 15 EV Star-line vehicles and 8 BEASTs. The customers included two school districts in California and the Vancouver International Airport, among others.
Also during the fiscal Q3, GreenPower reported total revenues exceeding $5.3 million. This was up more than 121% year-over-year. The company’s gross profits rose from 21.5% in Q2 to reach 27.8%. In another important metric, GreenPower reported having $28.6 million worth of inventory at the end of December. This number included $10.7 million finished vehicles as well as $17.9 million in ‘work in progress’ and ‘production supplies.’
Looking forward, GreenPower continues to develop customers and line up future business. Early in March, the company signed an agreement with Workhorse, and electric ‘last mile’ delivery vehicle provider, for a four-year commitment to build up to 1,500 EV Star cab and chassis, suitable for conversion as Class 4 commercial step vans. Production will start in July of this year. Also this month, GreenPower launched a new vehicle, a Type A school bus called the Nano BEAST, which will feature an all-electric drive with a 150 mile range per charge.
GreenPower’s recent updates have attracted notice from B. Riley analyst Christopher Southern: "In our view, Green Power appears to be on the cusp of the step-change in revenue that we have been waiting for. We continue to like Green Power's positioning in the medium- and heavy-duty vehicle market."
Southern goes on to point out the potential of the Workhorse deal, saying: “We believe the agreement makes sense for both companies, given the lack of end market overlap and chassis issues Workhorse has had... This agreement meaningfully strengthens near and mid-term deployment visibility."
These comments back up Souther’s Buy rating on GP stock, and his $15 price target suggests that it has an upside of 112% by year’s end. (To watch Souther’s track record, click here)
Overall, the Strong Buy consensus rating on GP shares is based on 4 unanimously positive analyst reviews. The company’s stock is trading for $6.88, and its $15.74 average price target represents a robust 128% one-year upside potential. (See GP stock forecast on TipRanks)
Enovix (ENVX)
Now let’s change our focus, and turn to a high-tech battery company. EVs present a unique set of challenges for battery makers. While all cars need a battery, the demands that EVs make require a battery with far higher power and charging capacity that traditional automotive batteries – after all, it will have to store the energy to run the vehicle independently. This is where Enovix makes its entry.
Enovix is a battery company, pioneering smaller, lighter-weight batteries based on silicon anode technology, 3D architecture, and an anti-swelling constraint built-in to the design. All of this adds up to a battery cell that offers advantages in weight, safety, and energy density. Enovix’s battery technology is under development for a wide range of applications, including wearable technology, portable computers and tablets, and, at the larger end of the scale, electric vehicles.
With this stock, we move away from production companies and into the more speculative realm, as Enovix has not yet begun commercial production of its products. In a major milestone, however, the company announced on March 3 that it had begun making deliveries of qualification cells to customers from its factory. These deliveries, while not of final production designs, do demonstrate the capability of the production line, and the company’s ability to deliver working battery cells that meet customer specifications. The next step involves customer evaluation of the delivered battery cells and audits of the Enovix production lines.
5-star analyst Gus Richard of Northland Securities does not shy away from Enovix, even though the company has yet to generate revenues, and one reason is its potential for the EV market.
“We believe that ENVX's battery technology has a lot to offer auto OEMs, particularly US and European auto manufacturers. The Company has demonstrated technology and commercial validation in the consumer electronics market versus next-generation battery competitors that are still developing their technology…. We would expect ENVX to engage with one or two auto OEMs for an EV battery and would expect a partnership and more likely a licensing agreement,” Richard opined.
In line with his upbeat outlook on the company, Richard rates the stock an Outperform (i.e. Buy), and gives it a $35 price target, implying it has room to run 144% over the coming year. (To watch Richard’s track record, click here.)
Richard is bullish, but he is no outlier on this stock. Enovix has picked up 5 positive analyst reviews in recent weeks, for a unanimous Strong Buy consensus rating. The shares are selling for $14.34 and their $39.80 average price target indicates potential for ~178% upside in the next 12 months.
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>>> Cepton, Inc. (CPTN) provides lidar-based solutions for automotive, smart cities, smart spaces, and smart industrial applications in the United States, Japan, and internationally. The company offers auto grade lidar sensors, including Vista-X, a compact lidar solution with a range of up to 200m for long-range applications in ADAS L2+/L3, AV L4/L5, and suitable for smart infrastructure applications; Vista-T, a lidar solution with a range of up to 300m for ultra-long-range applications in ADAS L2+/L3 and AV L4/L5; and Nova, an ultra-small form factor lidar solution with a range of up to 30m for near-range applications in ADAS L2+/L3, AV L4/L5, and suitable for smart infrastructure applications. It also provides industrial grade lidar sensors, such as Vista-P, a compact lidar solution with a range of up to 200m for long-range applications in ADAS L2+/L3, AV L4/L5, and smart infrastructure applications; and Sora-P, an ultra-high scan rate, compact, and quasi line-scanning lidar solution that delivers high-fidelity profiling of objects moving at high speeds for free flow tolling and other industrial applications. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.
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>>> Tesla leading auto world's 'biggest transformation since the 1950s': Wedbush's Ives
Yahoo Finance
by Dani Romero
January 12, 2022
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-leads-the-biggest-transformation-to-the-auto-industry-since-the-1950-s-dan-ives-says-114718961.html
Tesla (TSLA) strong rally this week points to more gains ahead, according to Wedbush, with the U.S. electric vehicle maker primed to transform the auto industry after ending 2021 on a strong note.
Better-than expected fourth quarter delivery figures spurred investors to remain bullish on Tesla's stock, while the electric vehicle (EV) maker’s new Gigafactory in Austin, Texas preps for production this month.
“We're seeing, it's a $5 trillion market opportunity in terms of EV and it's the biggest transformation to the auto industry since the 1950s," Dan Ives, Wedbush’s senior equity analyst, told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday.
However, Tesla's bull case going forward "continues to be expanding supply,” he added. “Based on all of our work in and around Austin, we think starting next week we're going to get into the early stages of what I believe are cars rolling off the plant,” Ives said.
While there’s been no formal announcement of the Austin factory opening, all eyes are there and on Berlin, opportunities some analysts view could expand capacity for the EV manufacturer. Wall Street is expecting an update on the company’s conference call later on this month.
“When you look at Austin in particular, it's been very smooth in terms of the build out,” Ives said.
“Hiring has been very strong over the last few months, and that's why Musk has made such a bet on Austin in terms of that being really the golden jewel of the ecosystem,” the analyst added.
Tesla walks a 'tight rope'
Meanwhile, Tesla’s sales numbers for December in China showed another record month of deliveries. The data confirm that almost half of Tesla’s record year of production and deliveries came from GigaFactory Shanghai.
Tesla sold 70,847 China-made vehicles in December, the highest monthly rate since it started manufacturing in Shanghai in 2019, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed on Tuesday. Only 245 units were exported to other markets.
The automaker, which has been able to surmount supply chain woes experienced by rivals to post record quarterly deliveries, has seen a changing tide in China after recent backlash over the company’s showroom in China’s Xinjiang– a region at the center of U.S. genocide allegations.
Like other analysts, Ives believes China remains a growth opportunity for Tesla, expecting China to be “over 40% of deliveries for Tesla in 2022.”
China’s EV market is dominated by domestic brands, including BYD and Wuling – a local marque that’s part of General Motors (GM). According to Shanghai-based consultancy Automobility, Tesla is only the foreign brand in the top 10.
“It's a tight rope in terms of China,” Ives said. “But if you look at what's happening right now, the China growth story is actually accelerating for Tesla 2022, and that we believe is worth about $500 per share of the story. It's something we believe is underestimated by the Street.”
Wedbush maintains an “outperform” rating on the stock, with a $1,400 price target and bull price target of $1,800.
And while more competitors jump into the EV space, Ives argued it's “not a zero sum game” for Tesla.
“Ford's gonna be successful at GM, Lucid, VW in Europe and of course, NIO in China, but overall in EV land is Tesla's world," the analyst explained. "Everyone else is paying rent at this point and that's what we're seeing" in the near term, Ives added.
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>>> Solid Power, a Competitor to EV Battery Maker QuantumScape, Goes Public
Barron's
By Al Root
Dec. 9, 2021
https://www.barrons.com/articles/solid-power-stock-price-ipo-ticker-sldp-51638992711?siteid=yhoof2
It’s not just QuantumScape anymore. Investors have another newly minted, well-capitalized, solid-state electric-vehicle battery technology company to consider buying.
Shareholders of Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corp III (ticker: DCRC), a special purpose acquisition company, have approved a merger with EV solid-state battery technology start-up Solid Power . That means the latter is now a publicly traded company with more than $500 million in fresh capital on its balance sheet.
Now that the merger is done, Decarbonization’s stock symbol changed to SLDP on Thursday morning. Holders of Decarbonization stock don’t need to do anything. New investors looking for exposure to new EV battery technology will need to use the new name and stock symbol.
Solid Power stock is down about 0.9% in Thursday trading. Shares, however, are still up almost 19% for the week. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average are down about 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively.
SPAC shareholders have the right to redeem their shares for $10 instead of agreeing to the merger. That’s one reason the cash received on merger can fluctuate.
The merger brings roughly $540 million in cash onto Solid Power’s books. It was approved with 99%-plus of shareholders voting in favor, but some did redeem their shares, even though Decarbonization stock was at about $12 before the vote. Redeemers essentially swapped $12 for $10.
“Solid state,” for EV batteries, refers to how the battery’s electric charge is facilitated. In traditional lithium-ion batteries, that facilitator is a liquid. Solid Power is one of a handful of start-ups trying to disrupt the tradition lithium-ion EV battery industry by creating a lithium-ion battery without a liquid electrolyte inside the battery cell.
Existing battery players, such as China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (300750.China)—better known as CATL—also invest in solid-state batteries.
Solid-state batteries promise lower costs, faster charging, better safety, and longer battery life. Yet they haven’t been made at automotive scale, and solid-state battery packs typically operate under high pressure to stop defects from forming that degrade battery performance, making them harder to produce than lithium-ion ones.
Solid-state development is a race to see who can make a technology that is robust enough for cars first. Several partnerships have formed in that race. QuantumScape (QS) is part owned by Volkswagen (VOW3.Germany). Solid Power is aligned with Ford Motor (F) and BMW (BMW.Germany).
Solid Power is also partnering with SK Innovation (096770.Korea) to manufacture Solid Power-designed battery cells. Solid Power doesn’t plan to build large battery plants. It hopes to essentially license its technology to existing industry players and earn royalties. It’s an asset-light strategy that means Solid Power has enough cash to make it to profitability—if everything goes as planned.
Solid Power is still years away from seeing significant sales. The company projects about $1 billion in sales by 2027. Investors will have to watch milestones between now and then to judge company performance. “Our plan is to kick off the sample validation phase next year,” CEO Doug Campbell tells Barron’s, referring to sending battery cells to partners that demonstrate the technology works and can be made.
After that initial validation, investors can look for production to scale up and then more samples sent for testing to automotive partners.
The development road is long and unmapped, but the potential rewards for reaching the end of that road are large.
Decarbonization shares were up about 15% from just after the merger announcement in mid-June through Wednesday. The S&P and Dow were up about 8% and 3%, respectively, over the same span. QuantumScape stock dropped about 3% over that period.
Solid Power stock is valued at about $2.2 billion based on roughly 184 million fully diluted shares outstanding, now that the merger is done. QuantumScape stock is valued at roughly $11 billion based on its fully diluted share count.
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>>> EV maker Lucid gets SEC subpoena on $24-billion blank-check deal
Reuters
December 6, 2021
By Nivedita Balu
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/electric-car-maker-lucid-receives-112719438.html
(Reuters) -The U.S. securities regulator has asked Lucid Group Inc for documents related to an investigation into its blank-check deal, joining a growing list of companies that have come under scrutiny for their merger with shell entities.
Shares of the luxury electric-car maker fell as much as 19.5% on Monday after it disclosed it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Dec. 3.
"The investigation appears to concern the business combination between the Company (Churchill Capital Corp. IV) and Atieva Inc and certain projections and statements," Lucid said in a regulatory filing https://bit.ly/32TtoSE.
Lucid's deal with veteran dealmaker Michael Klein's blank-check firm earlier this year gave the combined company a pro-forma equity value of $24 billion, making it one of the biggest deals with Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs).
The SEC declined to comment on its action against Lucid.
Market listing via SPAC route has become popular among electric-vehicle (EV) makers that have a vision but no prototype in an already capital intensive industry.
"The problem is a lot of these companies that have taken this approach are not far enough along to really be considered a viable company," Sam Abuelsamid, auto analyst at Guidehouse Insights, said.
Shares in other EV startups that went public through SPAC deals, including Canoo Inc and Faraday Future Inc and Fisker Inc , also took a hit on Monday.
Fisker said it was not under investigation for its SPAC merger last year. Canoo, Ree Automotive and Faraday could not be reached for a comment.
As EV makers rush to beef up production and try to catch up with Tesla Inc, many have come under scrutiny by federal agencies and regulators.
Nikola is working with regulators to pay a penalty and settle a charge against founder Trevor Milton, while Lordstown Motors is being investigated for vehicle pre-orders and its SPAC merger.
"Ever since the statements made by Nikola's founder and former CEO resulted in three federal criminal fraud charges, new EV manufacturers were bound to face greater scrutiny," CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson said.
Meanwhile, the SEC has opened an investigation into Tesla following a whistleblower complaint on fire risks associated with solar panel system defects.
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>>> 7 EV Stocks Set to Soar as the Infrastructure Bill Passes
Investor Place
by Chris MacDonald
November 24, 2021
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-ev-stocks-set-soar-155344187.html
These recent weeks have been very bullish for investors looking at infrastructure stocks. On Nov. 5, the U.S. government passed the much-discussed infrastructure bill. While there appears to be a few wrinkles to iron out before the funding is able to go where it needs to go, this is big news. As a result, it’s boosted EV stocks.
This $1 trillion bill will be instrumental in pushing forward initiatives to electrify the U.S. and provide clean energy-related jobs. Given all the noise around climate change following the COP26 proceedings, infrastructure-related stocks and, in particular, clean energy infrastructure stocks are likely to remain in high demand.
A significant portion of this bill is dedicated to tax incentives for electric vehicles (EVs), with the goal of half of all vehicles sold in the U.S. being electric, by 2030. According to this bill, consumers can receive a tax credit of up to $12,500 on electric vehicles. This tax credit would include a $4,500 incentive on union-made cars and $500 on batteries made in the United States.
Additionally, $7.5 billion will be earmarked for the construction of EV charging stations across the country. The infrastructure bill will also offer tax credits on used EV cars and a $9 billion grant to U.S. Postal Service to use EVs. In short, this bill will provide a massive push to EV sales in the upcoming years.
Electric vehicle stocks seem to have a significant growth potential given how the world attention is sharply shifting towards clean energy. Let’s take a look at some of the best EV stocks that are bound to soar as the U.S government passes the infrastructure bill:
Fisker (NYSE:FSR)
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Lucid (NASDAQ:LCID)
ChargePoint (NYSE:CHPT)
Ayro (NASDAQ:AYRO)
Lithium Americas (NYSE:LAC)
Albemarle (NYSE:ALB)
Top EV Stocks for Infrastructure: Fisker (FSR)
Fisker is one of the newest electric vehicle makers, launched in 2016. This California-based EV manufacturer will launch its first model Ocean SUV in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Fisker has outsourced the manufacturing of its first model to Magna International. It is one of the most trusted original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the world. This decision is being considered as an intelligent, yet conservative move.
Fisker aims to manufacture and deliver 5,000 units by 2023. Currently, it’s expected Fisker’s flagship electric SUV, the Fisker Ocean, will be available by Nov. 2022. The company has actually moved its delivery timeline up, resulting in a recent surge in FSR stock.
I think Fisker has one of the most attractive-looking electric SUVs on the market. And the company’s price point for its Ocean SUV model is attractive. Accordingly, investors will pay close attention to preorder data as we approach Q4 of next year.
Tesla (TSLA)
When thinking about electric vehicles, it’s impossible to leave Tesla out of the discussion.
The largest EV manufacturer globally, Tesla is regarded as the pioneer in this space. It’s certainly not the first company to come out with an all-electric vehicle. However, Tesla has been credited with starting the push toward electrification in the automobile space. Arguably, without Tesla, the entire sector may have taken much, much longer to shift toward an EV focus.
The company’s Model 3 was launched in 2016, and is among the best-selling cars globally. This is an EV company that has already built out a massive charging network. However, more charging infrastructure is a rising tide that could lift all EV-related boats. Accordingly, investors have reason to be bullish on Tesla stock right now.
This is a stock that’s looking a bit frothy at the moment. The company’s valuation has recently broken through the $1 trillion mark, making the company’s CEO Elon Musk the richest man in the world.
For Tesla aficionados, this rally may only just be getting started. However, this is a stock that investors may want to take caution with at these levels, and consider on dips moving forward.
Top EV Stocks for Infrastructure: Lucid (LCID)
Sticking with the EV sector for a minute, we come to Lucid. Perhaps one of the most sought-after EV stocks right now, Lucid has built quite the name for itself. That is, considering the company’s vehicles just started rolling off the production line this month.
Essentially, this coming quarter will be the first with material earnings to report. However, this is a company that has certainly had a number of catalysts play out this past year.
The Lucid Air lineup has been making a number of headlines. The company’s Dream Edition R model recently earned a record EPA rating for range – 520 miles. For those who have used range as an excuse not to buy an electric vehicle, Lucid’s found a way to take this objection away. Additionally, this company recently announced an expansion of the company’s manufacturing footprint. Lucid will grow into an expanded 5.1 million square feet site in Arizona. It’s expected this facility should provide ample growth, at least for now, as the luxury EV automaker continues to rake in orders.
As an early-stage EV company, it’s clear Lucid is a stock that’s benefited from the infrastructure bill. Whether this catalyst can carry on for some time from here remains to be seen.
ChargePoint (CHPT)
Now, to a leading EV charging play. ChargePoint is the current leader in the U.S. market in this regard. The EV charging company has recently come back into favor, after seeing its earlier gains dissipate from January levels.
Indeed, ChargePoint’s valuation appears to fluctuate wildly alongside market expectations for the EV sector as a whole. This infrastructure bill is certainly a big deal for companies like ChargePoint. Besides the spotlight it shines on the future demand for EV charging stations, ChargePoint’s future economics could improve should the government tap this company for funds in the future.
With so many unknowns right now in the EV charging space, this stock is certainly one that’s hard to value. Accordingly, I’ve been on the sidelines with respect to CHPT stock. However, I can also understand the perspective that this is an intriguing option in this current climate right now. After all, investors are looking for sector-leading green plays right now, and ChargePoint is a company near the top of the list for many investors.
Top EV Stocks for Infrastructure: Ayro (AYRO)
Now, to a company many may not have heard of. Ayro is a Texas-based EV manufacturer focusing on the light truck and utility vehicles segment. It’s a segment that’s received a tremendous amount of attention of late, with rivals Ford (NYSE:F) and Rivian (NASDAQ:RIVN) making big splashes in this space.
However, the thesis among these commercial-grade vehicles is strong. As part of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package, the modernization of various commercial vehicles is implicit in where some of the earmarked money goes. Accordingly, those bullish on growing demand among private companies seeking out green last-mile delivery vehicles may want to consider this stock.
Ayro is a company that’s been successful at raising money of late, recently completing two equity offerings. This is a company with what appears to be a decent balance sheet, and a niche market that is compelling right now. Accordingly, long-term investors looking for an infrastructure bill-related stock right now may want to take a look at Ayro.
Lithium Americas (LAC)
For more of a picks and shovels way to play the growth among EV infrastructure-related stocks, lithium producers are among the top choices for investors right now. Indeed, lithium-ion batteries remain the gold standard for most EV companies presently. Experts suggest the amount of lithium needed to support this electrification trend will only continue to skyrocket over time.
As a leading lithium producer, Lithium Americas is one of the top companies I think represents a sneaky way to play the growth associated with this infrastructure bill.
The company’s Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada is an impressive prospective site. This mine is expected to be under construction next year. And all eyes are on what sort of grade and metrics the company will report here. Additionally, the company has its Cauchari-Olaroz mine, which is slated to produce by mid-2022.
Lithium Americas is also a company that’s been busy on the acquisition front, acquiring Argentina-based Millenial Lithium (OTCMKTS:MLNLF). For those looking to build out their exposure to this growth space, this is one mining option worth considering right now.
Top EV Stocks for Infrastructure: Albemarle (ALB)
Finally, we have Albemarle. Another lithium producer aimed at providing battery-grade lithium to support rising EV demand, Albermarle is another one of my top mining picks for investors to consider right now.
Lithium miners like Albemarle have absolutely skyrocketed over the past couple years. Since hitting pandemic lows, ALB stock has been better than a 5-bagger for investors who bought near the trough. That’s certainly some impressive growth.
Can this trajectory continue? Time will tell. However, Albemarle is certainly a lithium miner that’s positioned well.
The company’s expected to continue to pump out record earnings, given where the price of lithium is right now. Should this dislocation between supply and demand continue, there’s certainly the potential for significant earnings growth over the near- to medium-term. Longer-term, like all commodities, there will likely be an equilibrium found in the market, at some point. But for now, Albemarle remains a top pick of many EV infrastructure enthusiasts, for good reason.
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Fisker ->>> Billionaire George Soros Loads Up on These 3 “Strong Buy” Stocks
TipRanks
November 29, 2021
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/billionaire-george-soros-loads-3-144712924.html
Wall Street has known its share of legends, but few of them have made as big a splash as “the Man Who Broke the Bank of England.” That nickname belongs to George Soros who earned the tag after famously betting against the British Pound in 1992; following the Black Wednesday crash, the hedge fund manager pocketed $1 billion in a single day. This is the stuff that Wall Street legends are made of.
By then Soros was already incredibly successful and in the midst of steering his Quantum Fund to decades-long average annual returns of 30%.
Today, Soros remains the chair of Soros Fund Management and is thought to be worth over $8 billion, a figure which would have been far greater but for the billionaire’s extensive philanthropic work.
So, when Soros takes out new positions for his stock portfolio, it is only natural for investors to sit up and take notice. With this in mind, we decided to take a look at three stocks his fund has recently loaded up on. Soros is not the only one showing confidence in these names; according to the TipRanks database, Wall Street’s analysts rate all three as Strong Buys and see plenty of upside on the horizon too.
EQT Corporation (EQT)
We’ll start with the largest natural gas producer in the US. EQT is an $8 billion industry giant, operating in the gas-rich Appalachian states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. With 1 million acres of land holdings in the Marcellus and Utica shale deposits, and 19 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, the company is well-positioned to gain from the current regime of rising gas prices, even as the Biden Administration pushes an anti-fossil fuel strategy.
One clear sign of EQT’s strong position: the stock is up 65% year-to-date, even after some late-summer volatility. In the most recent quarterly report, for Q3, the company’s revenue came in at $1.79 billion, reversing the year-ago quarter’s $255 million revenue loss, while the EPS of 12 cents was up from a year-ago loss of 15 cents per share. Looking forward, management has boosted this year’s guidance on free cash flow upward by $200 million.
From Soros’ position, it’s clear that he sees profit potential in natural gas. His fund pulled the trigger on 534,475 shares, giving it a new position in EQT. At current prices these shares are now worth over $11.4 million.
Soros isn’t the only one giving this resource stock some love. Wall Street analyst Vincent Lovaglio, writing from Mizuho Securities, points out several strong points from 3Q21.
“Gas realizations were better than expected, low end of full year capex guidance is down slightly, full year operating cash flow guide is higher on the commodity rally and in line with our full-year forecast, and the company optimized firm-transport agreements expected to lower unit gathering while improving realizations.”
In addition, Lovaglio isn’t shy in setting forth his opinion that the company will start returning cash to shareholders, sooner rather than later, believing EQT is “positioned to announce a cash return framework early next year.”
In line with these comments, Lovaglio rates EQT stock a Buy and his $35 price target points toward 68% upside in the next 12 months. (To watch Lovaglio’s track record, click here)
Overall, the Strong Buy consensus rating on this stock is supported by 11 recent reviews, which include 9 Buys against just 2 Holds. The shares are selling for $21.35 and the $29.64 average price target suggests an upside of 42%. (See EQT stock analysis on TipRanks)
Fisker (FSR)
The next stock we’ll look at is Fisker, an electric vehicle (EV) maker based in LA, California. Fisker is preparing to jump full-on into the consumer automotive segment, and unveiled its Ocean fully electric SUV earlier this month at the 2021 Los Angeles Auto Show. The company has already been taking pre-orders on the vehicle; with the unveiling, Fisker is now putting its money where its mouth is. The Ocean, with – among other features – a solar-panel roof capable of generating battery charging power, is scheduled to start its regular production run in November of next year.
In recent weeks, Fisker has met some other important milestones for investors to consider. First, on November 2, the company announced an agreement with the European battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology to receive two separate battery supply options for the Ocean, with a total of 5 gigawatt-hours annual battery capacity over the years 2023 to 2025. And one day later, Fisker noted that its prototype Body Shop at the Austria Fisker Ocean assembly plant, is now fully operational and that production has begun on the Ocean’s prototype run, allowing the vehicle to enter the next phase of testing.
Constant progress toward a deliverable product is a clear positive marker for a pre-production auto maker, and Soros clearly agrees; he picked up 317,300 shares of Fisker, opening his position in the company with a holding now worth $6.26 million.
Giving Fisker an Outperform (i.e. Buy) rating, with a $32 target price indicating room for ~57% one-year upside, Credit Suisse analyst Dan Levy is also clearly bullish, and he bases his conclusion on the recent unveil.
Backing his stance, Levy writes, “FSR’s unveil of the production version of the Ocean at the LA Auto Show last week reinforces our bull thesis on FSR – with EV uptake sharply inflecting and the market lacking sufficient model options, FSR offers a compelling value proposition – sleek product at a high-volume price point, and with a de-risked path to market.”
Going on, Levy lays out the key point: “Reaching start-of-production for Ocean next year, even if the vehicle isn’t profitable initially, may be enough to drive significant upside for the stock.” (To watch Levy’s track record click here)
Wall Street appears to be in broad agreement with Levy, as FSR shares maintain a Strong Buy rating from the analyst consensus. There have been 8 recent reviews, including 6 Buys and 2 Holds. Meanwhile, the stock’s $26 average implies 27% upside potential from the $20.44 trading price. (See FSR stock analysis on TipRanks)
SoFi Technologies (SOFI)
Last on our list is SoFi, short for Social Finance, a San Francisco-based personal finance company. The company uses social media modes to connect its members with loan funding sources. SoFi offers a full range of loan products, from student loans to home financing, and maintains a solid commitment to its ‘no fee’ policy; the only cost to borrowers is the interest on the loan. And with SoFi’s non-traditional underwriting approach, it is able to offer borrowers lower rates than are available with banks.
Founded 10 years ago, SoFi only entered the public trading markets this year. Like many firms in recent years, the company took advantage of the rising market environment to enter a SPAC transaction, merging with Social Capital Hedosophia V in the early summer and putting the SOFI ticker on the NASDAQ on June 1.
Earlier this month, SoFi published its 3Q21 financial data, showing strong growth, especially in membership numbers. The company recorded year-over-year member growth of 96%, reaching a total of 2.9 million. Of that growth, 377,000 new members were added in Q3, making the quarter the company’s second-best ever for member increase. For the quarter, adjusted net revenue came in at $277 million, beating the company’s previously published guidance high end of $255 million by 9%. Management is predicting further acceleration of revenue growth in Q4, and is guiding toward $272 million to $282 million in net revenue. Achieving this would bring 49% to 55% yoy revenue growth. For the full year, the company expects revenues in the range of $1.002 billion to $1.012 billion.
Also looking ahead, the company has applied for a national bank charter, a move that will take it into the traditional banking industry. The move would bring the lender under the auspices of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a plus for account holders. SoFi management has indicated that its charter application is in line with regulatory expectations.
A finance company with sound underwriting and bright prospects, working in an environment flush with cash, is sure to attract investors – and Soros bought in heavily. He opened his position at 177,500 shares, valued at $3.22 million given current prices.
Wall Street, like Soros, sees plenty to appreciate here. Rosenblatt analyst Sean Horgan says, “We continue to be buyers on SOFI here." His Buy rating is backed by a $30 price target indicating his confidence in a one-year upside of 65%. (To watch Horgan’s track record, click here)
Looking at the company's latest earnings, the analyst highlights several positive developments: "1) Digital influencer partnerships led to 400mn impressions and 775k engagements with SOFI content, and SOFI's TikTok campaign drove more than 8bn views and more than 1mn uses of SOFI's branded hashtag #SoFiMoneyMoves; 2) 18% of member growth (up from 3% in 2Q) was driven by the successful launch of SOFI's new and enhanced referral programs, including 'Refer the App'; 3) 73% of cross buying was driven by money/invest members (85% including relay); 4) Galileo accounts totaled 88.9mn (80%y/y) vs. consensus of 85.1mn; 5) the lending segment adj. revenue hit a record of $215mn,which was driven by growth in SOFI's personal loan business originations (+167% y/y to$1.6bn); 6) total members grew 96% y/y to 2.9mn in 3Q21."
Once again, we’re looking at a Strong Buy stock, with the Buys outweighing the Holds by a 5 to 1 margin. The shares have a current trading price of $18.11 and an average price target of $26.33, indicative of a ~46% one-year upside. (See SOFI stock analysis on TipRanks)
To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’ Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights.
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>>> Nissan lays out $17.6 billion plan to electrify its future
The automaker also showed off a handful of EV concepts, including a pickup truck and a sports car
The Verge
By Andrew J. Hawkins
Nov 29, 2021
https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/29/22807700/nissan-electric-vehicle-investment-plan-concepts
Nissan is the latest automaker to announce a plan to spend gobs of money on an ambitious electrification strategy. The company said it will spend 2 trillion yen (around $17.6 billion) over the next five years to accelerate the roll-out of electric vehicles. And to emphasize that point, Nissan unveiled a pack of delightful EV concepts, including an adorable pickup truck, an outdoorsy SUV, and a sleek sports car.
It’s an impressive commitment, but Nissan notably stopped short of making the same promise that other automakers have to phase out the production of gas-powered vehicles. For example, Volvo and General Motors have vowed to become EV-only companies by 2030 and 2040, respectively.
Nissan said it will produce 23 new electrified models by 2030, 15 of which will be fully electric. The company is targeting a 50 percent electrification mix for its Nissan and Infiniti brands by the end of the decade. In the US, Nissan plans to take things a little slower, only targeting 40 percent of its sales to be EVs by 2040.
On batteries, Nissan is pursuing what it calls “all-solid-state batteries (ASSB)” by 2028. The company is preparing a “pilot plant” in Yokohama, Japan, for early 2024. Solid-state batteries could theoretically charge faster, hold more power, and last longer than traditional lithium-ion batteries, which use liquid electrolytes to move energy around. While solid-state batteries have eluded researchers for years, some companies claim that a breakthrough is nearly at hand.
Nissan says that solid-state batteries will help make EVs more affordable by reducing the price of battery packs down to $75 per kWh by 2028. The company aims to bring it further down to $65 per kWh to achieve cost parity between EV and gasoline vehicles in the future.
To underline its commitment to an electric future, Nissan revealed a handful of EV concepts: a small pickup truck called Surf-Out; a boxy crossover called Hang-Out; a compact SUV called Chill-Out; and a convertible sports car called Max-Out.
Nissan didn’t release any specs or details about the future, but from the look of it, the Chill-Out concept SUV seems to be closest to production. It looks similar to the Ariya but utilizes the company’s smaller CMF-EV platform, which means it will probably be slightly cheaper than the $47,000 Ariya.
The Max-Out is the sportiest concept, with a low-slung stance and an emphasis on speed and performance. Nissan says that it will include dynamic cornering and a steering response that’s balanced with limited body roll to optimize driver and passenger comfort.
The Hang-Out is presented as an amalgam of mobility and “personal space,” with a lounge-like interior and adjustable seating. A completely flat floor extends from the front to the rear of the vehicle. And like the other concepts, it has Nissan’s e-4ORCE all-wheel-drive setup and ProPilot driver assistance technologies.
The Surf-Out is undoubtedly the stand-out of the bunch, with a minimalist interior and a rear lighting scheme that is fairly unique. Nissan says the pickup will have off-road capabilities and an outboard generator of some kind.
Nissan has long been a leader in electric vehicle sales, despite really only having one EV — the functional-if-uninspiring Nissan Leaf hatchback — on the market. The company unveiled the Ariya against the backdrop of corporate turmoil, executive turnover, plummeting sales, and pandemic-related cost-cutting at Nissan.
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>>> Koch Charges Up with Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Company
Koch Newsroom
SEPTEMBER 29, 2021
https://news.kochind.com/news/2021/koch-invests-koch-charges-up-with-lithium-ion-batt
Koch Strategic Platforms has announced a $100 million investment in Toronto-based Li-Cycle – the leading lithium-ion battery recycler in North America – to help meet the rapidly growing global demand to source and recycle critical and scarce battery-grade materials.
“KSP’s strategic investment in Li-Cycle will further fund and accelerate our growth as we scale our efficient and proven commercial lithium-ion recycling technology globally to grow in lockstep with our customers,” said Li-Cycle co-founder and CEO Ajay Kochhar. “KSP has made significant investments in the energy transformation and the electrification of transportation, and we’re proud to partner with their team to leverage their expertise and this capital to continue to execute our global growth plan.”
WHAT IT MEANS: Improving the scale of lithium-ion battery recycling and recovery is critical to the transformation of the electric vehicle (EV) value chain, said KSP President David Park.
“Li-Cycle is a true leader in the space with proven innovative technology and a robust portfolio of customers and strategic partners,” Park added. “We’re confident in Li-Cycle’s cutting edge technology ability to deliver growth and long-term value to shareholders and their stakeholders throughout battery supply chain.”
KOCH AS A LAB: KSP’s investment will enable Li-Cycle to tap into expertise across the enterprise, including Koch Engineered Solutions, which specializes in design, engineering, equipment, project management, service and analytics to help industrial customers improve operations through improved efficiency and safety and reduced waste and emissions.
KES and their Optimized Process Designs group are exploring opportunities to support the incremental global deployment of Li-Cycle’s Spokes – part of the company’s Spoke & Hub system to recycle lithium-ion batteries. The Spoke facilities process lithium-ion batteries into battery materials (a.k.a. black mass) and mixed copper/aluminum before they are processed at Hub facilities into battery-grade end products for reuse in lithium-ion production or other applications.
Li-Cycle will also benefit from Koch’s support for execution, operational readiness and supply procurement, as it gears up for the 2023 launch of its North American Hub facility in Rochester, New York.
THE BIG PICTURE: From cellphones to energy storage systems to electric vehicles, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are seemingly everywhere these days.
But once they reach the end of life, they often end up in landfills with valuable, non-renewable materials still inside, like nickel, cobalt and manganese.
KSP’s investment in Li-Cycle will support the company’s ability to address a growing addressable market in North America, Europe and Asia.
GO DEEPER: Li-Cycle is only the latest investment in the EV value chain for Koch companies, including deals with next-gen battery cell developer FREYR, thermal aerogel producer Aspen Aerogels, zinc-powered energy storage system producer Eos Energy and e-mobility company REE Automotive.
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>>> Rivian, Lucid stock price surge 'a sign of an unhealthy stock market': strategist
Yahoo Finance
Brian Sozzi
November 17, 2021
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/rivian-lucid-stock-price-surge-a-sign-of-an-unhealthy-stock-market-strategist-210502458.html
Some haywire moves higher in money-losing electric vehicle makers such as Rivian and Lucid hint at the stock market forming an unhealthy bubble, argues Matt Maley, Miller Tabak chief markets strategist.
"It's just a sign of an unhealthy stock market," Maley said on Yahoo Finance Live.
That may be an understatement.
While Rivian's stock price (RIVN) plunged 15% to close at $146.07 on Wednesday, shares at one point on Tuesday were more than double the company's IPO pricing of $78 from last week. The stock hit an intraday high of $179.47 Tuesday, according to Yahoo Finance Plus data.
For perspective, Rivian's market cap at its peak eclipsed that of auto giant Volkswagen. Rivian has barely shipped any of its electric trucks, and has lost more than $2.4 billion from 2019 through 2021.
Fellow electric vehicle maker Lucid (LCID) isn't too far behind Rivian in terms of an explosive stock price of late.
Lucid's stock has surged 118% inside of a month, with the latest push higher coming amid upbeat order data shared this week. Shares also closed down 5% Wednesday. Similar to Rivian, the company is also losing a great deal of money as it ramps up its production capacity to meet initial consumer demand.
At a market cap of $85 billion, newcomer Lucid has a higher market cap than Ford ($79 billion) and nearly General Motors ($93 billion).
Lucid preview's it's new electric car, Lucid Air, at CNBC Nasdaq in New York City on March 17, 2021. Credit: RW/MediaPunch /IPX
Some strategists like Maley think the eye-popping gains in Rivian and Lucid underscore the continued high levels of liquidity in the market, in large part fueled by low interest rates.
Explains Maley, "Just like 1999 when Amazon [stock] got way, way, way ahead of itself — it's a great company and changed the world — but the stock had to come down. I am not saying we are going to have the same problems next year that we had in 200 with a major bear market. But this market is being run by liquidity, and much less so than on economic growth or earnings growth. This liquidity is going to become less plentiful and people need to be preparing for how they will react when this market starts to come down at point. It's inevitable, and I think will come down at some point in the next 12 months."
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>>> How to play the new electric economy
Yahoo Finance
by Andy Serwer with Max Zahn
November 13, 2021
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-to-play-the-new-electric-economy-101328982.html
For a certain sector of the economy the past week has been electric.
Item 1: Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk polls his Twitter followers if he should sell his Tesla shares. They say yes. TSLA tanks on the news and Musk loses $50 billion. Then Musk sells 5.2 million shares or $5.8 billion of stock (as of Friday.) Tesla shares rally. Musk is still the richest man in the world.
Item 2: On Tuesday, electric truck maker Rivian goes public. Its stock soars 29% in the biggest IPO since the company formerly known as Facebook debuted in 2012. Rivian’s (RIVN) market value of $100 billion is bigger than Ford’s or GM’s.
Item 3: Also on Tuesday, Hertz, which had its IPO this week, confirms it is going to buy 100,000 Teslas, highlighted in an ad campaign, “Let’s Go!” featuring Tom Brady.
So the week might sound kind of bananas but in this quarter of the business universe, that’s actually pretty much SOP. It’s also the case that EVs, Elon and all things electric aren’t fringe anymore. They’re a massive, rapidly growing and increasingly core part of our world. This week’s New Yorker cover pretty much sums it up — Don Quixote looking to tilt a cluster of giant wind turbines. You don’t want to fight this.
Welcome then to the new Economy Electric.
What do I mean by that? Simply that there is a revolution happening right now that’s transforming all businesses, which use engines that burn fossil fuel, and forcing them over to electric power. It’s begun with cars, (though we’re still early days at least in the U.S.) “EV sales have been skyrocketing over the last couple years," says Ram Chandrasekaran, an EV analyst at Wood Mackenzie.
“In the first three quarters, we’ve already exceeded all of 2020 sales. It’s been an exceptionally strong year. 70% are coming from China and Europe. In China and Europe they’re firmly in the mainstream now. In the U.S., EV sales have been lagging compared to China and Europe around 6% or so,” he said. That will change.
And there’s everything else. Like motorcycles, boats, and some day planes and all forms of transportation. And then there’s generators, farm tractors and so on. It is a massive shift and it’s coming right now.
At this point — Rivian notwithstanding — it's mostly, one man, one company and one stock: Elon Musk and Tesla. So much has been written about Musk and Tesla, I’ll just boil it down to this: Musk is a visionary. And Tesla is groundbreaking. Those two statements are unassailable and are immutable regardless of what Musk does or what happens to the company, car or stock going forward.
Certainly the market has more than validated this. Beyond the fact that Tesla has cumulatively sold more than 2 million cars, consider that Musk, the personification of the electric revolution, is worth some $294 billion, (way richer than Jeff Bezos — $200 billion), and up $124 billion this year. And of course Musk’s vision and strategy encompass much more than just Tesla, which is an element of an electric ecosystem he’s building including SolarCity and a distributed power grid.
Tesla’s trillion dollar market capitalization — the most valuable car company on the planet — is of course tough to justify. “I don’t want to make any serious comment about Tesla's market cap — it being higher than the next seven or eight automakers combined is somewhat comical,” says Chandrasekaran but he adds: “That’s how things are sometimes.” (It’s ironic that Tesla is on this kind of trajectory, while GE, a company rooted in the history of humanity’s taming of electricity, is now a shadow of its former self and being broken up.)
But Tesla won't be the only (dare I say) blue chip e-company forever. In fact one of the most serious parlor games on Wall Street right now is picking which other e-businesses will become dominant tomorrow. I want to go through some of these companies, but before that, some brief history about, yes, electricity.
The word "electric" comes from the Latin word electricus ("of amber" or "like amber,” also the elektron, the Greek word for "amber") because one way we humans first became aware of electricity was when amber is rubbed it becomes magnetic.
Yes, Ben Franklin was an early pioneer. Some version of the kite and the key story may in fact be true. But no, Franklin didn’t "invent" electricity, (any more than Columbus "discovered" the new world.) Franklin did help harness it and maybe coined the phrase "electric battery."
Other giants in the history of electricity include the likes of Thomas Edison, (who among many other things, was a co-founder of the aforementioned General Electric company.) His rivalry with George Westinghouse (AC versus DC) makes for an excellent movie, "The Current War," starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Edison (I know, really?) There’s also of course the amazing Nikola Tesla, the namesake of two EV makers, which I wrote about here.
Then there’s British physicist Michael Faraday, who in 1850 was asked by William Gladstone, then the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the practical value of electricity was. “One day sir, you may tax it,” was Faraday’s retort.
A quick word about Industrial Revolutions. The first one, from 1760 to 1820, wasn’t about electricity at all and was in fact driven by localized steam engines, textile looms, the cotton gin and other simply powered machines. The Second Industrial Revolution however, from 1870 to 1914, is when electrification began which led to the creation of giant steel, chemical businesses and scores of other industries as well.
Of course electricity was used for cars early on and for rails and buses right through, but the powerful oil and gas industries promoted internal combustion engines at the expense of electrics from the early 20th century right up to, well now. ("Who Killed the Electric Car" is just a recent example of many such stories.)
But now that’s all changing. Why? Awareness of global warming for one. Erika Myers, a senior EV analyst at the World Resources Institute, thinks electrifying the economy is “our best chance” to address climate change. “I would not say EVs are a silver bullet,” she adds. “There needs to be a lot of strategies for transportation. Transport is 25% of global carbon dioxide emissions and fossil fuels have provided 95% of transportation fuels up to this point.”
“There’s not enough biofuels — you can’t do enough sequestration to get there,” says Saul Griffith, co-founder and chief scientist at Rewiring America, as well as the author of "Electrify: An Optimist’s Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future." “80% or 90% of our energy system has to go electric. People say hydrogen but hydrogen starts with green electricity.”
Remember too that technology is driving down the cost of going electric.
Now back to the new electric companies. First, because the first wave of this third revolution has been cars, the category is usually referred to as EVs, (electric vehicles). But when you look up, say a list of best EV stocks, (like this one and this one), they invariably include battery makers and other suppliers as well.
There are a handful of EV ETFs, such as this one and this one that focuses on China plays, but most are still small and not really pure plays, i.e. they hold, say, diversified chipmakers that produce chips for EVs, but also have major other lines of business as well.
Here then are a few categories:
CARS AND TRUCKS
“Even Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which I’d hardly call radical, estimates in 2025, 2026 the electric vehicle will cost less in the showroom than an internal combustion engine,” says Saul Griffith. “When electric vehicles are more cost efficient in 2025 — it has flipped in China, in Norway — then it’s game over.”
There are EV makers selling right now, Tesla but also Lucid and Rivian. (BTW, Musk’s arch rival Jeff Bezos’s company Amazon is a large investor in Rivian.) In China you have NIO, (a very popular ticker here at Yahoo Finance), BYD (which Charlie Munger has invested in), Xpeng and Li. Then there are those that shall we say, are on more extended timelines like Fisker (FSR), Canoo (GOEV), Faraday Future (FFIE), Lordstown (RIDE) and Xos (XOS).
Obviously Rivian has been the talk of the town, which as my colleague Rick Newman notes, is a bit bizarro, “Electric-vehicle startup Rivian [with its giant market cap] has never sold a vehicle until this year. GM sells around 7 million vehicles per year; Ford, 4 million.”
True that Rick. But sometimes Mr. Market likes bizarro.
Another interesting point about Rivian to consider. DataTrek suggests that: “Rivian is the first legitimate competition Tesla has ever had in terms of institutional investor interest. That could pull capital out of TSLA, and therefore the S&P 500.”
Of course Elon couldn’t resist a poke Tweet at Rivian:
Some are saying that now is the time to sell Tesla, as in “Own Tesla Stock? Be Like Elon Musk and Sell” in the Wall Street Journal this week. Who knows, maybe this time the skeptics will be right. Ark Invests’ Cathie Wood is still a believer though, saying the recent dip in Tesla is, “is nothing but a blip,” on the way to her price target of $3,000.
MOTORCYCLES
What makes people love motorcycles; the noise, the vibration, the smell is exactly what electric motorcycles obviate. And of course, any self-respecting Harley rider would scoff at all that. (My colleague Pras Subramanian, who covers EVs and all things electric, details all in this primer on e-bikes.) In spite of or perhaps because of all that, I think e-motorcycles are going to be a home run. Here you have newbies like Zero Motorcycles and NIU (e-scooters) as well as Volcon (VLCN), a manufacturer of electric motorcycles, and ATVs based near Austin, “an area that is poised to become the electric vehicle capital of the world.”
“With our current products, we found out 50% of people ordering directly from us hadn’t ridden a motorcycle before,” says CEO Jordan Davis. “Our bike doesn’t require a clutch; it doesn’t require a shifting of gears. You don’t need to be mechanically inclined — there’s no spark plug, no oil changes. Maintenance on the bike is very, very low.”
Wouldn't you kill to be a fly on the wall at Harley-Davidson, which has an electric motorcycle called LiveWire, as they discuss all this?
BATTERY MAKERS
I get out of my depth pretty quickly here, so I’ll keep it short. This article is a great starting point. Bottom line: Most of the know-how and manufacturing is in China, which brings global politics into play as outlined in this New York Times guest essay by Steve LeVine, editor of The Electric, a publication focused on batteries and electric vehicles. His most recent book is “The Powerhouse: America, China and the Great Battery War.” (I’m telling you there is so much here.)
SPACS
Unlike the other categories here, SPACs are an investment vehicle through which many e-companies choose to go public. Kristi Marvin, CEO and founder of SPACInsider.com and her team put together some numbers. Simply put EVs are big on SPACs. Since the beginning of 2020, when SPACs began to boom, 23 EV SPACs have been announced or completed including SPACs for Lordstown, Fisker, Lucid and Nikola, with a total enterprise value today of $67 billion, the second biggest SPAC category after tech.
PLANES AND HELICOPTERS
Even more speculative here. “Right now batteries are just too heavy to be used successfully in commercial flights,” says Erika Myers. (There’s also the question of whether anyone would fly in an electric plane, nevermind helicopter?) Still this too could be coming. There are numerous commercial projects underway, including those by Airbus, Cessna and EasyJet, as well as startups like Wright Electric (“All short flights can be zero-emissions starting in 2026.”) And check out the Pipistrel Velis Electro, plane of the year. As for choppers, going back to 1917 apparently there was an electrically-powered tethered job. (Yikes.) Sikorsky’s been working on the Firefly for a decade. Here too there are myriad projects that include hybrids and unmanned models. (That sounds better to me!)
OTHER
Want an electric tractor? Check out here. And here. Electric RV? Coming here and here. Electric boat? Got a whole fleet of ‘em. Electric generators? Amazon has all kinds. And I could keep going here into any and all gas or diesel, etc. powered engines business again.
And that would include GM and Ford, right? It's kind of funny to put these two legacy giants in an "other" category, but yes, they too could be major EV companies... soon. In fact they better be. There are signs. Ford stock has quadrupled (to $19) since its COVID-19 low in March 2020 based to a large degree over optimism of achieving this transformation. (GM has tripled to $60 over the same time period.) For Ford, developing an electric F-150 is critical. “To take something so central to Ford's entire brand image and make an electric version and price it at a price point that's extremely competitive, I think is a great achievement and is going to make a huge impact in the coming years,” says Ram Chandrasekaran.
And then there are the others. Ferrari is going electric, at $320K a pop. (What’s a Ferrari without the VROOM, I wonder...) And so is the aforementioned Hertz. Hertz CEO and former Ford CEO Mark Fields telling Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi: “We are excited about the Tesla relationship. It's all wrapped around our strategy to lead the adoption of electric vehicles."
Everybody’s in on the act because, well, you want to be in on the act, but also because you do it or you die.
Sound like an investment slam dunk? Not exactly. I’m sure there are fortunes to be had for VCs and for ordinary people as well, (like buying TSLA two years ago when it was $70 — it's now $1,045.) But please, please, please caveat emptor here. There’s all kinds of risk. For instance, hydrogen-powered vehicles for instance might make a quantum leap and win out over EVs.
I’m also reminded of something Warren Buffett said back in 1999: “There's a lot of difference between making money and spotting a wonderful industry." Here’s how Buffett expounded:
“You know, the two most important industries in the first half of this century in the United States — in the world, probably — were the auto industry and the airplane industry. Here you had these two discoveries, both in the first decade — essentially in the first decade — of the century. And if you'd foreseen, in 1905 or thereabouts, what the auto would do to the world, let alone this country, or what the airplane would do, you might have thought that it was a great way to get rich. But very, very few people got rich by being — by riding the back of that auto industry. And probably even fewer got rich by participating in the airline industry over that time. I mean, millions of people are flying around every day. But the number of people who've made money carrying them around is very limited. And the capital has been lost in that business, the bankruptcies. It's been a terrible business. It's been a marvelous industry. So you do not want to necessarily equate the prospects of growth for an industry with the prospects for growth in your own net worth by participating in it.”
Meaning in some cases it might be great to be a customer, i.e., to own an EV, but it might not be as great to an EV shareholder. To wit: Living in the electric economy might be more rewarding and enjoyable than investing in it.
Wikipedia has a “List of defunct automobile manufacturers of the United States” with some 1,500 entries. While some EV makers will succeed wildly, no doubt others will be added to this list
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>>> Tesla is not a car company — it's an 'internet-of-cars company:' Arteris CEO
Yahoo Finance
by Pras Subramanian
October 29, 2021
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-is-not-a-car-company-its-an-internet-of-cars-company-arteris-ceo-191640972.html
It's been a huge week for Tesla (TSLA).
Shares jumped to new highs as the market cap of the pure-play electric vehicle maker topped $1 trillion for the first time, making it the 5th most valuable company in the S&P 500 (^GSPC) — and sending Elon Musk's personal fortune north of $300 billion.
A huge deal with Hertz buying 100,000 Teslas for its rental fleet, and a big bullish note from Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas had shares jumping. But it also follows a big earnings report in the week prior, where Tesla again posted record deliveries of 241,391 in the third quarter, up over 60% from a year ago. This as the company has now achieved an annual production run rate of 1 million vehicles.
Tesla's production and delivery output comes amid the backdrop of massive automakers like GM (GM), Volkswagen (VWAGY), and Ford (F) seeing production cuts because of the ongoing component and chip shortages brought on by the lingering effects of the global pandemic.
From a scale perspective, traditional OEM automakers produce far more vehicles compared to Tesla, but even Musk naysayers can't deny what the company has been able to achieve in difficult times.
So what can other automakers learn from Tesla? Yahoo Finance asked chip tech company Arteris' (AIP) CEO Charles Janac, whose company helps SoC (system-on-chip) manufacturers make chips for cars, why Tesla has not been as affected as some of their competitors. His answer turned the question on its head.
"In my opinion, Tesla is not necessarily a car company — It's an internet of cars company," he said. "They control their software architecture very well, and ... they make some of their own chips."
Janac noted Tesla has an innovative partnership with Samsung to make chips it specifically needs, but adds that Tesla's ingenuity goes further. "Even for the chips that they buy, they're able to get their software teams to reprogram some of the software for chips that are available. So they're a little bit more nimble because they control their own software architecture."
What's happening is Tesla is that its engineers are able to repurpose and reprogram chips that control the automatic climate control system to then work with the cars infotainment system, for example.
Because Tesla has been doing all of its software programming in-house — and has basically grown up as as software and tech company first, and automaker second — it can solve problems differently than traditional automakers.
Janac's not the first to point out how nimble the company can be. And many investors are betting on the company's creative problem-solving and its tech and software prowess when when they value the EV automaker at a forward P/E (price/earnings) ratio of 127, compared to GM's forward P/E of 8.
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>>> A Big Oil Company Is Jumping Into EV Batteries
Barron's
By Al Root
Sept. 24, 2021
https://www.barrons.com/articles/totalenergies-big-oil-company-ev-batteries-51632487450?siteid=yhoof2
Less than 10 million of the roughly 600 million cars, trucks, motorcycles, and buses on roads in the U.S. and Europe are electric. Nonetheless, a big oil company might already be feeling the threat.
French energy giant TotalEnergies (ticker: TTE.France) has entered into an agreement with Chrysler owner Stellantis (STLA) and Daimler (DAI.Germany) luxury division Mercedes Friday in a pact to make EV batteries.
The trio will each own a third of the joint venture, called Automotive Cell Company, which plans to produce at least 120-gigawatt hours of batteries annually by 2030. That’s roughly enough to provide power for 2 million EVs a year.
“This new step is another demonstration of TotalEnergies transformation into a broad energy company and of our willingness to extend our footprint in electric mobility,” said Patrick Pouyanné, TotalEnergies’ Chairman and CEO, in the announcement.
TotalEnergies changed its name from Total in June. The name change was a sign that the $123 billion market capitalization company is thinking about the transition away from a fossil-fuel-powered economy. Friday’s announcement is the equivalent of Exxon Mobil (XOM) pouring billions in to EV battery production.
For Mercedes and Stellantis, the announcement is another in a long line of battery announcements. General Motors (GM) and LG Chem (051910.Korea) expanded their plans to build EV battery capacity earlier this year. Ford Motor (F) and SK Innovation (096770.Korea) announced plans for battery capacity in May. And Volkswagen (VOW.Germany), Toyota Motor (TM) and, of course, Tesla (TSLA), along with other auto makers, all have their own plans to build battery capacity.
Roughly tens of billions of dollars is being spent by the industry between now and 2030 to produce enough batteries to make tens of millions of EVs a year.
The plan for 120-gigawatt hours contemplated by Stellantis, Mercedes, and TotalEnergies should end up costing between $8 and $9 billion.
“This investment marks a strategic milestone on our path to CO2 neutrality,” said Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius. CO2 neutrality refers to operations and sales that add no additional carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Neutrality is difficult for a car company because its products are powered by burning an oil product.
“Stellantis’ electrification strategy is running full-speed ahead, and today’s announcement is the next step in our plan to be the automotive frontrunner, with all 14 brands committed to offering best-in-class fully electrified solutions that meet demands of customers,” said Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares.
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Yes, for now it looks like an investment area mainly for the private equity firms. Us smaller investors may have to stick with broader plays and the sector ETFs.
Here is a more focused Energy Storage board (link below). Any insights you have are appreciated :o) -
https://investorshub.advfn.com/Energy-Storage-38181/
They all private, anyone that trades ?
>>> Top USA and International Capacitor Manufacturers and Suppliers
Share:
https://www.thomasnet.com/articles/top-suppliers/capacitor-manufacturers-suppliers/
Introduction
Types of Capacitor Suppliers
US Capacitor Suppliers
Top 12 Global Supercapacitor and Ultracapacitor Manufacturers
Top 9 Key Global Lithium Capacitor Manufacturers
Introduction
Capacitors are passive electronic devices which perform a variety of important functions such as to store electrical charge, provide filtering of noise in electrical circuits, and supply a source of current under peak demand situations such as when starting the rotation of an electric motor from a static non-rotating state.
Types of Electrical Capacitor Suppliers
Capacitors vary in the materials used for their electrodes and dielectric layer sandwiched between the electrodes, which affects the electrical performance characteristics and useful life of the device. In this summary, we consider the top suppliers of capacitors and have segregated these into three main groups:
US- based suppliers of capacitors, which may include manufacturers or distributors of general styles of capacitors including electrolytic, mica, ceramic, film, and PTFE to name several common styles
US-based and global manufacturers of the specific type of devices known as Supercapacitors and Ultracapacitors
US-based and global manufacturers of Lithium-ion capacitors
Supercapacitors and Ultracapacitor Manufacturers
These global companies and startups manufacture Electric Double Layer Capacitors (EDLCs), commonly known as supercapacitors or ultracapacitors. EDLCs do not have any dielectrics in general, relying instead on an electric double layer (a dielectric layer is an insulator that can be polarized). These capacitors can be made with both non-water soluble and water -soluble electrolytes, which affect energy density and weight. They can also be built in a cylindrical or prismatic design (which is a flatter shape, like that of a cell phone battery). In cylindrical manufacturing, electrode cells are deposited onto a sheet and wound like a jelly roll into a cylinder. A casing maintains the capacitor’s shape. Cylindrical designs are more common, but more prismatic designs are evolving so that EDLCs can substitute for lithium-ion batteries in consumer electronics. Most established companies in this area are based in Japan, though many startups are located in Europe and the USA.
Lithium-ion Capacitor Manufacturers
A Lithium-Ion Capacitor (LIC) is an EDLC that uses a lithium-ion salt as the electrolyte solution. LICs are typically manufactured in a cylindrical form in the same manner as EDLCs, but prismatic forms are also emerging.
We've evaluated the top general suppliers of capacitors and top companies in both of these smaller categories below.
US Capacitor Suppliers
Below in Table 1, we have compiled information on the top 10 capacitor suppliers in the United States, sorted in descending order of annual sales. Table 1 also offers information on each company’s headquarters location and year founded. Sales are shown in US dollars.
Table 1: US-Based Capacitor Suppliers*
Company Headquarters Founded Annual Sales
F.W. Webb Company Bedford, MA 1866 $250+ Million
Mouser Electronics Mansfield, TX 1964 $250+ Million
Aerovox Corp. New Bedford, MA 1922 $25-49.9 Million
Admat, Inc. Norristown, PA 1997 $10-24.9 Million
NetSource Technology, Inc. San Clemente, CA 1997 $5-9.9 Million
Thermal Devices Mount Airy, MD 1975 $5-9.9 Million
Condenser Products, A Custom Capacitors Inc. Co. Brooksville, FL 1934 $1-4.9 Million
High Energy Corp. Parkesburg, PA 1971 $1-4.9 Million
Diamond Needle Corp. Carlstadt, NJ 1949 <$1 Million
bisco industries Anaheim, CA 1973 NA
Notes:
* Information as supplied on Thomasnet.com company profiles
Capacitor Manufacturers in USA — Company Summaries
F.W. Webb Company, based in Bedford, MA, offers start and run capacitors between 110 and 440 volts. Capacitors are available in reversible, clockwise, and counterclockwise rotation. It also offers other pump, circulator, motor, heating, and cooling products.
Mouser Electronics distributes ceramic, MLCC, tantalum, aluminum, film, organic, polymer, super, and ultracapacitors, among others. It also offers capacitor hardware and kits, and is based in Mansfield, TX.
Aerovox Corp., based in New Bedford, MA, offers defibrillator, lighting, microwave, motor run, general purpose, power factor correction, pulse, custom, snubber, UPS, and high voltage AC and DC film capacitors.
Located in Norristown, PA, Admat, Inc. distributes tantalum hybrid capacitors as well as capacitor lead sealing. It also offers other refractory metal products and parts.
NetSource Technology, Inc. offers capacitor types including molded tantalum, ceramic, thin film, radial electrolytic, and niobium oxide. The company is based in San Clemente, CA.
Thermal Devices, in Mount Airy, MD, distributes power factor correction capacitors, as well as other low voltage products.
Condenser Products, A Custom Capacitors Inc. Co., is based in Brooksville, FL. It offers high voltage oil-filled capacitors in various container configurations.
High Energy Corp., in Parkesburg, PA, offers ceramic, metallized film, water-cooled, and oil- filled high voltage capacitors.
Based in Carlstadt, NJ, Diamond Needle Corp. distributes capacitors as parts for sewing machines.
bisco industries, headquartered in Anaheim, CA, offers a variety of capacitors, as well as other electronic components, fasteners, and hardware.
Top 12 Global Supercapacitor and Ultracapacitor Manufacturers
The top 12 global EDLC manufacturers are summarized in Table 2 below, in alphabetical order. These manufacturers include startups and conglomerates that develop and manufacture EDLCs.
Also shown in Table 2 is the country in which the manufacturer is headquartered as well as estimated financing for startups and revenue data for those companies where financial data was reported.
Table 2: Top 12 Global Supercapacitor and Ultracapacitor Manufacturers
Company Country Founded Estimated Financing* Revenue**
1 Cellergy USA 2002 NA NA
2 Ioxus USA 2007 $160.1 Million NA
3 Maxwell Technologies USA 1965 NA $130.4 Million
4 Murata Manufacturing Japan 1944 NA NA
5 Nanoramic Laboratories USA 2008 $9 Million NA
6 Nec Tokin Japan 1938 NA $24.0 Billion
7 Nippon Chemi-Con Japan 1931 NA $1.02 Billion
8 Panasonic Japan NA $71.8 Billion
9 Paper Battery Company USA 2008 $5.7 Million NA
10 Skeleton Technologies Estonia 2009 $53.8 Million NA
11 Yunasko UK 2010 NA NA
12 ZapGo UK 2013 $18.2 Million NA
Notes:
* Financing as reported on Crunchbase as of August 8, 2018 and converted to US dollars using foreign exchange rates as of August 9, 2018.
**Revenue is based on fourth quarter reported values, reported as of 2017 and converted to US dollars using foreign exchange rates as of August 9, 2018.
Capacitor Manufacturers — Company Summaries
Cellergy designs, develops, produces and markets supercapacitors and ultracapacitors for the industrial, consumer, mobile, and medical electronic markets. Cellergy was purchased by the Israeli PCB group in 2010.
Ioxus’ EDLC and LIC product lines include iCAP ultracapacitors, iMOD modules, and THiNCAP. Serves the hybrid automotive, hybrid bus, wind turbine pitch control, UPS, and industrial markets.
Maxwell Technologies offers products for commercial applications, including commercialized EDLCs, high voltage capacitors, and microelectronic components and systems. In 2017 it purchased Nesscap Energy, a leading developer and manufacturer of EDLCs.
Murata Manufacturing is involved in the development, manufacture, and sales of electronic parts, including components for capacitors and piezoelectric products.
Nanoramic Laboratories, formerly known as FastCAP Systems, specializes in nanocarbon materials. Its ultracapacitor division, FastCAP Ultracapacitors, specializes in harsh environment energy storage, producing the only ultracapacitors capable of operating in temperatures up to 150oC and under conditions of high shock and vibration.
Nec Tokin manufactures electronic components and devices. The product portfolio of the company includes conductive polymers, super capacitors, tantalum capacitors, and proadlizers. It also offers transformers, choke coils, EMI countermeasure parts, piezoelectric ceramics, piezoelectric inverters for cold cathode tubes, multilayer piezoelectric actuators, and flex suppressors. Its EDLCs are utilized in A&V equipment and telecommunication equipment as environmentally safe back-up power supplies.
Nippon Chemi-Con develops various electronic components, including aluminum electrolytic capacitors.
Panasonic is involved in the manufacture of EDLCs used for heavy power supply applications. It is one of the group companies under Panasonic, which is comprised of more than 680 companies involved in the manufacturing of electronic products.
Paper Battery Company, or PBC Tech, manufacturers ultrathin supercapacitors as replacements for lithium batteries. It offers ultrathin supercapacitors of 1 Farad. The company targets the consumer electronics, wearables, and wireless sensor markets.
Skeleton Technologies manufactures and develops EDLCs with high energy and power density. The company serves the transportation, automotive, industrial, and renewable energy markets. It also offers high-end carbon and adsorption materials.
Yunasko develops EDLCs and LICs with prismatic designs. Its R&D facility is located in Ukraine. Yunasko EDLC cells are manufactured in special prismatic encasements made from multi-layered laminated aluminum foil. Depending on the number of cells connected in series, the module can handle the voltage range from 2.7V (single cell) up to 750V (large assemblies of cells).
ZapGo derived its trademarked carbon-ion technology in partnership with Oxford University. The company is at the proof of concept stage with a number of prototype demonstrators. Its power module is due to enter the production phase in 2018.
Top 9 Key Global Lithium Capacitor Manufacturers
Nine major global LIC manufacturers are summarized in Table 3 below, in alphabetical order. These manufacturers include startups and conglomerates that develop and manufacture LICs. Several of these companies manufacture EDLCs.
Also shown in Table 3 is the country in which the manufacturer is headquartered, as well as estimated financing for startups and revenue data for those companies where financial data was reported.
Table 3: Top 9 Key Global Lithium Capacitor Manufacturers
Company Country Founded Estimated Financing Revenue
1 Fujikura Japan 1843 NA $5.9 Billion
2 General Capacitor USA NA NA NA
3 Ioxus USA 2007 $160.1 Million NA
4 JM Energy Corporation Japan 2007 NA NA
5 Maxwell Technologies USA 1965 NA $130.4 Million
6 Nawa France 2013 NA NA
7 Silatronix USA 2007 $13.6 Million NA
8 Taiyo Yuden Japan 1950 NA $2.2 Billion
9 Yunasko UK 2010 NA NA
Company Summaries
Fujikura is a Japanese conglomerate that manufactures optics, cables, and electronics for the telecommunications, energy, transportation, manufacturing, and digital electronics industries. In 2016 it announced that it had developed a small LIC with an energy density five times higher than an EDLC and two times higher than any other LIC.
General Capacitor is located in Tallahassee, FL, USA. It is a startup partnered to the U.S. Army Research Lab and contractor to the US Department of Defense. It specializes in R&D, marketing, and manufacturing of patented high performance LIC and hybrid electrochemical capacitors.
Ioxus’ EDLC and LIC product lines include iCAP ultracapacitors, iMOD modules, and THiNCAP. It serves the hybrid automotive, hybrid bus, wind turbine pitch control, UPS, and industrial markets.
JM Energy Corporation started as a member of the JSR group in August 2007 and developed the world’s first lithium ion capacitor at the end of 2008. It now develops, manufactures, and markets lithium ion capacitors, a new type of electricity storage device. In 2011, JM Energy Corporation announced that it had developed the world’s first flat prismatic lithium ion capacitor and associated control module.
Maxwell Technologies offers lithium-ion capacitors. Compared to traditional ultracapacitors, lithium-ion capacitors triple energy density and reduce the total weight of the energy storage system by 50 percent.
Nawa Technologies has a unique nanoscale structure and one-step roll-to-roll manufacturing process that enables the mass manufacturing of its technology. Its NAWACAP achieves power densities more than five times higher than existing ultracapacitors.
Silatronix is the leading producer of patented Organosilicon (OS) materials that enable extreme performance in Li-ion batteries.
Since its establishment in 1950, Taiyo Yuden has offered leading edge technology in capacitors, inductors, circuit products, surface acoustic wave (SAW)/film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) devices, energy devices, and recording media. It targets the telecommunications, Internet of Things (IoT), and energy industries.
Yunasko develops EDLCs and LICs. Its R&D facility is located in Ukraine. Yunasko LICs are available in prismatic cells and can be assembled into modules with 15-450 volt ranges.
Conclusion
Above we’ve listed the top 10 US suppliers of capacitors, the top 12 supercapacitor and ultracapacitor manufacturers, and the top 9 global lithium ion capacitor manufacturers. Many of these companies are emerging startups, so expect the landscape to be continually changing and developing.
We hope this information has been helpful to you in your supplier search. To make your own custom lists of capacitor suppliers in your area, visit the Thomas Supplier Discovery Platform, which features over 500 capacitor suppliers.
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>>> Airbus, Air New Zealand to Jointly Study Hydrogen Aircraft Feasibility -
Air New Zealand News
September 15 2021
By Stephen Wright
https://ih.advfn.com/stock-market/ASX/AIZ/stock-news/86062203/airbus-air-new-zealand-to-jointly-study-hydrogen
WELLINGTON, New Zealand--Airbus SE and Air New Zealand Ltd. have agreed to jointly research the feasibility of operating a hydrogen-fueled aircraft by the end of this decade.
Airbus, which has been exploring three hydrogen-powered aircraft concepts, said the joint study would help it understand the practical challenges of putting an aircraft powered by a renewable energy source into service. Air New Zealand would assess the possible impact that a hydrogen aircraft would have on its network, operations and infrastructure.
The airline earlier this month told an aviation conference it aims have a so-called zero carbon plane in its domestic fleet by 2030--likely for cargo--and is exploring both hydrogen and electric options.
As governments ramp up efforts to meet targets for reductions in carbon emissions, transport industries and aviation in particular are likely to face increased pressure from investors, regulators and their customers to decrease reliance on fossil fuels.
Air New Zealand has 51 turbo prop planes that it uses on regional New Zealand routes and about half of them--Bombardier Q300 planes--have an average age of 14.5 years and will need to be replaced after 2030.
"This agreement brings us a step closer to seeing low carbon solutions in place for our shorter domestic and regional flights in the next decade," the airline said.
For long-haul routes, the airline is exploring fuels with lower carbon emissions.
Two New Zealand power utilities--Contact Energy and Meridian Energy Ltd.--have been scoping a possible investment in hydrogen production in the far south of New Zealand, close to big hydro lakes.
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Does anyone know of a super capacitor stock to invest , it’s seems all are private
>>> CNBC road test: The U.S. EV charging network isn’t ready for your family road trip, let alone the expected wave of new cars
CNBC
AUG 24 2021
by Brian Sullivan
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/24/cnbc-road-test-the-us-ev-charging-network-isnt-ready-for-your-family-road-trip-let-alone-the-expected-wave-of-new-cars.html
KEY POINTS
One of the biggest barriers to EV adoption in the U.S. is the charging infrastructure.
Finding a charger wasn’t a problem in California, it was the time it takes to get a full charge.
It takes about 10 minutes to fill your car with a tank of gas but about 45 minutes to fully charge an EV, sometimes longer.
Whether you want to go green or not, most of us are going to be driving an EV in the next two decades. Automakers are spending billions retooling factories and revamping their fleets to go most or all-electric in the next 10 to 15 years, plans fully endorsed by President Joe Biden who wants half of all U.S. auto sales to be electric vehicles by 2030. That’s a massive goal considering the market, including plug-in hybrids, currently stands at about 3%.
One of the biggest barriers to EV adoption is America’s charging network. There are roughly 136,400 gas stations in the U.S., but just 43,800 EV charging stations, according to the Department of Energy. And it takes about 10 minutes to fill your car with a tank of gas but about 45 minutes to fully charge an EV, sometimes longer.
While the bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill in Congress budgets $7.5 billion for charging stations we are still a long way from a widespread charging network.
So my producer Harriet Taylor and I decided to put California’s charging infrastructure to the test on an eight-hour road trip from Southern California to San Francisco. California accounted for 9% of EV sales in the first quarter and has the largest charging network in America, so it made sense to start there.
We specifically wanted to test anything other than a Tesla, which has the single-largest charging network in the world with 25,000 global charging stations. You need an adapter to use it, but the benefits and wide availability of Tesla’s charging network are generally well known.
Charging on the road with any car brand other than Tesla is something you don’t hear much about.
I admit that even as a “car guy” I had a lot of questions about charging, the new terminology, the speed, potential costs and more.
We rented a brand-new Polestar 2, Volvo’s recent entry into the electric car market, from Enterprise. Most EVs have a range, how far it can drive on a single full charge, of between 100 and 300 miles. The Polestar’s range was advertised at 265 miles, but that can change depending on a variety of things: cold weather, driving up or down hills or using the AC, for instance.
I had driven the Polestar 2 on a brief test a few months earlier so was familiar with it enough to feel comfortable on a long drive.
We drove about 60 miles from Enterprise to our first stop at Mountain Pass, California, about 15 miles from the Nevada border in the “high desert” at around 5 p.m. on a Tuesday night at 105 degrees.
We had to remove a metal cover from a power outlet at a mine but then we were able to plug in and get to 100% before setting off.
Two initial takes after just a few miles: One, it’s easy to get anxious by staring at the giant “percent charged” screen (so we turned it off) and two, we had to download a bunch of apps as we learned to navigate the new “range world.”
Our go-to became PlugShare, which shows you where charging stations are regardless of who owns them, which network it was on, how fast it took to charge, whether it’s currently available and, hopefully, a picture so you can see what you’re getting into.
PlugShare became a favorite because it was brand-agnostic and customers left reviews of their experience. Those reviews were valuable, because we found that many chargers weren’t nearly as fast as advertised and some just didn’t work or were in weird locations.
The Polestar also has Google map integration that shows charging stations along the route as well as your projected percent charge when you arrived. We found the charging forecast very accurate, but we think Google could improve the experience by filtering by types of chargers (we had Tesla envy as their stations popped up everywhere).
Stop 1: Electrify America at a Walmart
We rolled into our first stop at a Walmart in Barstow, California. It was an Electrify America location, and they had about eight chargers. Only one was occupied — by an Audi eTron — and so we plugged in, hitting the store for the facilities and, honestly, just to walk around in the air conditioning (did we mention it was hot, hot, hot?!).
Charging took 37 minutes and cost us $13.33.
Now, off to Bakersfield.
The drive along Route 58 was fascinating. We passed one of the airplane storage fields along with the Alta Wind Energy Center, one of the biggest wind energy facilities in the world. It was a gorgeous drive at sunset coming down the mountain with lots of hills along this route.
Hills matter for the Polestar 2 in two ways: first, up hill seems to burn more charge as the car is under load pulling its own weight, but going down is a win because the car has a system that generates power by slowing the car without braking. So once you get the hang of it, you almost never touch the brake pedal and produce some power while you do it.
Stop 2: The Hampton Inn
We rolled into Bakersfield at an 18% charge after covering 135 miles and plugged into a Chargepoint system at a Hampton Inn. It only had two plugs but we were the only car there and the night manager said he’s actually never seen anyone use it. It was slow, but free, and we left with an 89% charge about 10 hours later.
The long, boring and hot (did we mention it was hot?) drive straight up I-5 through the breadbasket of California was next. Harriet had a 4 p.m. flight out of the San Francisco airport so we were on a bit of a tight schedule and had to leave time to charge.
Pro tip: when planning a trip, it helps to be relatively good at math to help calculate various charging time scenarios.
Stop 3: Electrify America at Shell gas station
The various apps showed us the best possible stop was in Firebaugh, about 140 miles up the road. There looked to be a few fast-food joints and places to get a coffee. And that’s pretty much all it was. Our Electrify America plug was at a Shell gas station (as many seem to be) with a small convenience store.
We grabbed some water and just, well, stood around. It took us 41 minutes and cost $21.93 to get to an 87% charge, and we enviously eyed the Tesla network across the road, where drivers charged more quickly and had shade from the stations’ roof (did we mention how hot it was?). We went back in to buy sunscreen.
Now, the final leg. Firebaugh to San Francisco International Airport. Or not. The car’s software indicated we would hit SFO with a meager 5% charge. And since I was continuing on to the city, it wouldn’t be enough. We would have to stop again. Annoying, but not the end of the world given that we were going to be hungry and we were rolling into Silicon Valley, where charging stations are as plentiful as garlic in Gilroy. We found a charger near a ramen joint and powered up both ourselves and the car.
I dropped Harriet off at the airport and finished the short ride into the city, arriving near the CNBC studio with a solid 42% charge and a lot of curious looks from drivers wondering what kind of car it was.
Pro tip No. 2: Because of the hills, SF is the perfect place for the Polestar 2 and its regenerative braking!
Final thoughts
A long road trip in an EV right now is not impossible, but it’s not ideal. Yes, we know that something like 95% of trips by car are short hops along the same routes: work, school, store, repeat.
Electric cars may be the future, but the future needs to speed up. And by that, we mean charging speeds have got to accelerate as quickly as the Polestar 2 at a green light: 45 minutes every 200 miles or so won’t cut it for any family looking to make a longer road trip.
We didn’t see a shortage of chargers. Even in the desert we found chargers to use. There is, however, a shortage of chargers in places you really want to stop. Ultimately, I think the EV play is less about cars and more about real estate.
The more EVs on the road, the more charging stations that will be needed. There’s not a lot of demand for them right now, so charging ports were plentiful on our trip. But just think of 20 cars sitting for 45 minutes or more at a time at a single charging station. That takes up a lot of time and space.
For most people, a new car needs to have utility 100% of the time. Based on this trip, it’s not clear we are there yet.
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>>> Cerence Inc. (CNRC) provides AI-powered assistants and innovations for connected and autonomous vehicles It offers edge software components; cloud-connected components; toolkits; applications; and virtual assistant coexistence and professional services. The company also provides conversational artificial intelligence, including voice recognition, natural language understanding, and artificial intelligence services. Cerence Inc. is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.
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>>> Smart Transportation & Technology ETF (MOTO)
https://www.etftrends.com/innovative-etfs-channel/smartetfs-launch-smart-transportation-technology-etf-moto/
SmartETFs Funds launched a new, actively managed transportation and technology ETF on Friday that invests in companies believed to benefit from the current revolution in transportation.
The SmartETFs Smart Transportation & Technology ETF (MOTO) seeks long term capital appreciation from investments involved in the manufacture, development, distribution, and servicing of autonomous or electric vehicles and companies involved in related developments or technologies to support autonomous or electric vehicles including infrastructure, roadways, or other pathways.
As noted, the ETF is actively managed, as well as fully transparent, investing in approximately 35 equally weighted positions on a global basis. This includes companies that manufacture, distribute, service, offer, support, or enable the following: electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, transportation as a service, flying autonomous vehicles, autonomous or electric public transportation, and hyperloop-based transportation, for passengers or goods.
Adapting To Tech Change
Jim Atkinson, CEO for Guinness Atkinson Asset Management, which manages SmartETFs, spoke to ETF Trends about MOTO and how it will adapt to changes in the technology sector.
The technology demands for autonomous and electric vehicles are high and the competition to win, particularly in the autonomous challenge, is fierce, Atkinson stated.
“It is very difficult to pick the winners in this competitive challenge,” he said. “We know some firms have an obvious lead, most notably Waymo and Tesla in autonomous technology and Tesla in the EV space. But how this plays out over the next decade is hard to predict.”
Atkinson added how this is one reason SmartETFs believes an actively managed strategy is preferable. Their style is low turnover, but the managers are acutely aware of these challenges and will seek to position the portfolio to take advantage of developments over time.
MOTO: A Progressive ETF
In discussing how MOTO is a progressive ETF looking at future revolution, Atkinson also noted how he believes a transportation revolution is underway.
“We’re at the beginning so it doesn’t look like much at the moment but as EVs gain market share and self-driving vehicles begin to be deployed in larger numbers our entire system of transportation may change,” he said. “The combination of electric autonomous vehicles and application-based ride-hailing may mean an end to the own and drive transportation model. The average automobile in the US is idle 95% of the time.
“A more efficient utilization means a cheaper, safer and more convenient alternative. It isn’t entirely clear where this revolution is headed but the direction of travel is for safer, cleaner, cheaper and better transportation.”
As far as where this ETF fits in a portfolio and who it’s for, Atkinson explained that MOTO is for investors who recognize the changes coming in transportation. That said, this is not a core holding and most investors that want to invest in the smart transportation revolution will likely want this as a small portion of their overall portfolio.
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>>> Tesla Strikes Deal With Top Miner BHP Over Nickel Supplies
Bloomberg
by Thomas Biesheuvel
July 21, 2021
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-strikes-deal-top-miner-230100065.html
(Bloomberg) -- Tesla Inc. has struck a nickel-supply deal with BHP Group, as the electric-car maker seeks to protect itself from a future supply crunch.
BHP will provide the automaker with the metal from its Nickel West operation in Western Australia, the world’s biggest miner said in a statement. BHP gave few further details, but said the companies would work together to make the battery supply chain more sustainable.
Telsa’s billionaire boss, Elon Musk, has repeatedly expressed concern about future supplies of nickel due to challenges in sustainable sourcing. Musk has pleaded with miners to produce more nickel, with demand set to skyrocket as the world increasingly moves toward electric vehicles.
Nickel is a key component in lithium-ion batteries, used in electric vehicles. It packs more energy into batteries and allows producers to reduce use of cobalt, which is more expensive and has a less transparent supply chain.
Telsa has struck a string of deals with mining companies for the commodities it needs to make batteries, including cobalt pacts with Glencore Plc and supporting a nickel venture in New Caledonia.
For BHP, it marks a turnaround for the company’s Nickel West business. The company unsuccessfully tried to sell the unit in 2014 and has since pivoted it to serve battery makers, rather than traditional customers such as the stainless steel industry.
Bloomberg originally reported that the two companies were in talks in October.
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>>> Report: Philadelphia’s Proterra Fleet in Complete Shambles
https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/report-philadelphias-proterra-fleet-in-complete-shambles/
$24 million worth of Proterra buses taken off the road due to problems
The entire fleet of Proterra buses was removed from the roads by SEPTA, the city's transit authority, in February 2020 due to both structural and logistical problems—the weight of the powerful battery was cracking the vehicles' chassis, and the battery life was insufficient for the city's bus routes. The city raised the issues with Proterra, which failed to adequately address the city's concerns.
The city paid $24 million for the 25 new Proterra buses, subsidized in part by a $2.6 million federal grant. Philadelphia defended the investment with claims that the electric buses would require less maintenance than standard combustion engine counterparts.
"There’s a lot less moving parts on an electric bus than there is on an internal combustion engine," SEPTA chief Jeffrey Knueppel said in June 2019. Knueppel retired from the post just months later.
Proterra, which had Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on its board of directors when Philadelphia pulled the buses off the streets last year, has been highlighted by the Biden administration as a business of the future. President Joe Biden visited the company's factory in April and pledged in his initial infrastructure package proposal to include federal money for the electric vehicle market. The company has since been touted by top officials including White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy, who in a public meeting asked Proterra's CEO how the federal government could spur demand for Proterra buses.
The cost of Proterra's electric buses has gained attention in recent weeks. On a recent trip by Biden to La Crosse, Wis., it was revealed that two buses the city ordered from Proterra for $1.5 million in 2018 have still not been delivered. Over the past five days, Proterra’s stock price has fallen over 25 percent.
Philadelphia's Proterra buses were first rolled out for the 2016 DNC convention with a promise that the city was "plugging into an emissions free future."
Granholm was on Proterra’s board from 2017 until earlier this year. It was during that time that both SEPTA and Proterra learned that the heavier buses were cracking, according to the WHYY report.
Philadelphia placed the Proterra buses in areas where it thought they could succeed but quickly learned it was mistaken. Two pilot routes selected in South Philadelphia that were relatively short and flat compared with others in the city were too much for the electric buses.
"Even those routes needed buses to pull around 100 miles each day, while the Proterras were averaging just 30 to 50 miles per charge," WHYY reporter Ryan Briggs wrote. "Officials also quickly realized there wasn’t room at the ends of either route for charging stations."
Similar problems have been found in other cities that partnered with Proterra. Duluth, Minn., which, like Philadelphia, waited three years for its Proterra buses to be delivered, ultimately pulled its seven buses from service "because their braking systems were struggling on Duluth’s hills, and a software problem was causing them to roll back when accelerating uphill from a standstill," according to the Duluth Monitor.
Proterra did not respond to a request for comment.
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>>> Biden’s $2.5 Trillion Plan Could Send These 3 EV Stocks Soaring
Editor OilPrice.com
July 11, 2021
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/biden-2-5-trillion-plan-210000356.html
Just days from now, Biden is set to gamble a proposed $2.5 trillion on a new plan, in hopes of bringing America’s foundation into the next generation.
It's coming in the form of the biggest infrastructure project since the highway system was built in the 1970s.
But with today's massive infrastructure bill, most people might be missing the real story.
That's because typical "infrastructure" pieces like roads, highways, and bridges don't even make up the biggest part of the bill.
Instead, billions more are planned to be spent on what will be driving on those roads instead.
That's why USA Today is saying, "Biden pushes the US electric vehicle revolution."
EV fans are calling it "a down payment on the future of transportation."
And CBS News just reported Biden's latest proclamation, "The future of the auto industry is electric. There's no turning back."
But while the massive $174 billion is expected to help push the EV industry past the tipping point and into the mainstream...
This could be pocket change compared to the private money expected to follow into the industry...
Which is why smart investors may be investing their money into the latest hot EV stocks, as Biden prepares to put the proposed $2.5 billion down in his big gamble.
Here are our picks for the top 3 EV-related stocks we're looking at:
1 - Ford (NYSE: F)
The media buzz used to revolve entirely around Tesla, but lately that story has changed.
Ford recently made headlines with their announcement of their electric truck, the Ford F-150 Lightning.
With the F-150 being the best-selling vehicle in America for 39 years and running, this could be a huge turning point for the EV industry.
And just days ago, Biden brought all eyes to the electric F-150 as he took it out for a ride at their motor plant in Dearborn, Michigan.
That was followed by nearly 45,000 reservations in 2 days from the hordes of people trying to get their hands on one.
While many have high hopes because of the popularity of the F-150…
The F-150 Lightning could see even greater success since it's helping overcome what’s been one of the EV industry’s biggest barriers in the past.
The extra cost has kept EVs mostly limited to the wealthy.
But as the F-150 Lightning is set to be released with a price tag of $39,974, it'll be $16K cheaper than Tesla's new Cybertruck.
And after federal tax credits and state incentives being poured in...
It could be even cheaper than a gas-powered truck at this point.
The Lightning is expected to hit the shelves coming in 2022, but there's another EV truck that will be coming even sooner...
2 - Facedrive (TSXV:FD,OTC:FDVRF)
Smart investors may be eyeing Facedrive (TSXV:FD,OTC:FDVRF) as a promising name with solid potential upside, even after having a banner year last year.
Those who invested a year ago were able to more than double their money during a very tough year for most companies.
But with a modest market cap compared to their competitors, we think there’s still plenty of room for this fast-mover to grow in the coming months.
That's because the green ridesharing company has been making partnership deals and acquisitions left and right, and they show no signs of slowing down.
And that’s helped them to gain the attention of retail investing websites like Motley Fool and several others.
It seems that while Facedrive has been building up to this moment for years, it's coming into it at the perfect time.
With the world finally re-opening after a year of lockdowns just as the EV rush is making headlines again, it's the perfect recipe for the success of green ridesharing.
Facedrive's signature ridesharing service allows riders to take their pick between catching a ride in an EV, hybrid, or gas-powered vehicle.
But while ridesharing was where it all started, they've taken off in exciting new directions with the help of their unique verticals.
Today, they've spun the EV enthusiasm out into several apps with thousands of downloads...
They've turned it into apparel partnerships with A-list celebrities Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith...
And they've even branched out to develop contact tracing technology being implemented by Air Canada and a Canadian provincial government, to help fight the spread of COVID-19.
This creative mindset helped them take a quick left turn when ridesharing hit some bumps in 2020, continuing to grow even while people were homebound.
That's when they began making acquisitions within their Facedrive Foods delivery service.
The company says these acquisitions led them to start making thousands of contactless food deliveries, using electric vehicles to bring people gourmet meals from their favorite restaurants.
And as that's steadily grown over the last year, the company reports they're now fulfilling over 5,000 deliveries per day on average.
But Facedrive's latest big hit came thanks to their acquisition of Steer, the subscription-based EV model.
Now, instead of footing the $40,000 bill to get a new EV truck, customers can get in and drive their own at just a small fraction of that cost.
After paying a monthly subscription fee similar to Netflix, Steer customers are able to take their pick from a line of high-end electric vehicles they can take home and use whenever they'd like.
They can drive it as their own for as long as they're a monthly subscriber. Or if they'd like to swap it out for another from their digital showroom, they can make a trade whenever they'd like.
The company reports this unique new model has been a growing success in the last 9 months.
So much so that they've gone from only operating in the Washington D.C. area to crossing the border and moving into Canada.
Steer just recently launched in Toronto, making their EV subscription model available to 2 of the biggest metro areas in North America.
And after this initial phase, they’re probably already planning next steps to expand over the rest of the United States and Canada.
3 - Rivian
Rivian is another red-hot EV company making news lately because of their R1T truck.
The R1T could soon start the wave of new EV sales as this new model is set to go public in June.
Rivian has already been making headlines over the last year thanks in part to their landmark deal with Amazon.
Amazon has made it known that they plan to go electric with their delivery trucks.
They began testing Rivian trucks earlier this year. And they're expected to transition 10,000 of their vans to electric by 2022.
That number could soar to over 100,000 vans by 2030.
If all goes well for Rivian, it could turn out to be a massive deal that would quickly make them one of the biggest names in the space.
But while everyone's waiting on Rivian going public for their chance to invest...
They remain private at the moment, with nothing but an enormous amount of speculation around when they'll IPO and give everyday folks a chance to profit in the process.
The Beginning of the EV Takeover?
Thanks to Biden's big proposed $2.5 trillion gamble, we could soon see the EV industry move from being a fringe movement years ago to one day overtaking gas-powered vehicles.
And while there are plenty of ways to play the EV boom in the days ahead, we're keeping an eye on ones already making big moves like Ford, Rivian, and Facedrive.
Other Giant Automakers Are Getting Into The Game
General Motors (NYSE:GM) is one Detroit’s old school automakers, and it’s looking to catch a ride on the EV bandwagon, benefiting from a shift from gas-powered to alternative technology such as hydrogen and electricity. It’s now well over 100 years old and has survived where many others have failed. Even with the downfall of Detroit, GM has persisted, and that’s due in large part to its ability to adapt. In fact, GM’s dive into alternative fuels began way back in 1966 when it produced the world’s first ever hydrogen powered van. And it has not stopped innovating, either.
Recently, GM dropped a bomb on the market with the announcement of its new business unit, BrightDrop. The company is looking to capture a key share of the burgeoning delivery market, with plans to sell electric vans and services to commercial delivery companies.
GM isn’t just betting big on EVs, either. It’s also looking to capitalize on the autonomous vehicle boom. Recently, it announced that it’s majority-owned subsidiary, Cruise, has just received approval from the California DMV to test its autonomous vehicles without a driver. And while they’re not the first to receive such an approval, it’s still huge news for GM.
Toyota Motors (NYSE:TM), for example, is a leader in the industry. Beginning with the Prius, Toyota has been on the cutting edge of green transportation for years and years. And now, it has developed a fuel cell system module and looks to start selling it after the spring this year in a bid to promote hydrogen use and help the world achieve carbon neutrality goals, the world’s largest car manufacturer said in February.
According to Toyota, the new module can be used by companies developing fuel cell (FC) applications for trucks, buses, trains, and ships, as well as stationary generators.
The fuel cell system module can be directly connected to an existing electrical instrument provided with a motor, inverter, and battery, Toyota said, noting that the modularization significantly improves convenience.
Chinese EV Companies Making Major Moves
Nio Limited (NYSE:NIO) is one of Tesla’s most exciting new competitors, dominating the Chinese EV markets. After a rough start after going public in 2018, it’s been on a tear, producing vehicles with record-breaking range.
Just a year ago, no one could have imagined how successful the Nio was going to be. In fact, many shareholders were ready to write off their losses and give up on the company. But China’s answer to Tesla’s dominance powered on, eclipsed estimates, and most importantly, kept its balance sheet in line. And it’s paid off. In a big way.
Nio has made all the right moves over the past year to turn heads on the streets and in the marketplace... From its stunningly beautiful - and fast - EP9 supercar to its new line of family-friendly high-performance sedans, Nio is well on its way to retaking control of its local market from Elon Musk’s electric vehicle giant. And as Chinese EV sales continue to soar…Nio’s already-impressive ascension to electric superstar is only going to accelerate from here.
Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI) is another up-and-comer in the Chinese electric vehicle space. And while it may not be a veteran in the market like Tesla or even NIO, it’s quickly making waves on Wall Street. Backed by Chinese giants Meituan and Bytedance, Li has taken a different approach to the electric vehicle market. Instead of opting for pure-electric cars, it is giving consumers a choice with its stylish crossover hybrid SUV. This popular vehicle can be powered with gasoline or electricity, taking the edge off drivers who may not have a charging station or a gas station nearby.
Though it just hit the NASDAQ in July of last year, the company has already seen its stock price more than double. Especially in the past month during the massive EV runup that netted investors triple-digit returns. It’s already worth more than $30 billion but it’s just getting started. And as the EV boom accelerates into high-gear, the sky is the limit for Li and its competitors.
Canda Won’t Be Left Behind In The Electric Vehicle Boom
GreenPower Motor (TSX:GPV) is an exciting company that produces larger-scale electric transportation. Right now, it is primarily focused on the North American market, but the sky is the limit as the pressure to go green grows. GreenPower has been on the frontlines of the electric movement, manufacturing affordable battery-electric busses and trucks for over ten years. From school busses to long-distance public transit, GreenPower’s impact on the sector can’t be ignored.
NFI Group (TSX:NFI) is another one of Canada’s most exciting electric mass-transit makers. Though it has not yet rebounded from January highs, NFI still offers investors a promising opportunity to capitalize on the electric vehicle boom at a discount. In addition to its increasingly positive financial reports, it is also one of the few in the business that actually pay dividends out to its investors. This is huge because it gives investors an opportunity to gain exposure to this booming industry while the stock is cheap and hold steady until the market finally discovers this gem.
Another way to gain exposure to the electric vehicle industry is through AutoCanada (TSX:ACQ), a company that operates auto-dealerships through Canada. The company carries a wide variety of new and used vehicles and has all types of financial options available to fit the needs of any consumer. While sales have slumped this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, AutoCanada will likely see a rebound as both buying power and the demand for electric vehicles increases. As more new exciting EVs hit the market, AutoCanada will surely be able to ride the wave.
Westport Fuel Systems (TSX:WPRT) is a unique way to get in on the green boom in the auto-industry.. It helps build the tools needed for carmakers to incorporate less damaging fuels like natural gas. Though natural gas doesn’t get quite the attention as electric vehicles do,, there are over 22.5 million natural gas vehicles on the road across the globe. And that market is expected to grow as the energy transition really takes off.
Magna International (TSX:MG) is a great way to gain exposure to the EV market without betting big on one of the new hot automaker stocks tearing up Robinhood right now. The 63 year old Canadian manufacturing giant provides mobility technology for automakers of all types. From GM and Ford to luxury brands like BMW and Tesla, Magna is a master at striking deals. And it’s clear to see why. The company has the experience and reputation that automakers are looking for.
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ElectReon - >>> Israeli Startup Sees Electricity Paving Road to the Future
ElectReon uses induction technology to recharge batteries on the go
Bloomberg Green
July 6, 2021
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-06/israel-s-electreon-charges-electric-car-batteries-on-the-go?srnd=premium
Oren Ezer insists that the road to the electric-vehicle future will be paved with ... well ... asphalt, just like today’s highways. But beneath the surface, Ezer says, will be conductive coils that can wirelessly charge battery-powered cars, buses, and trucks, offering a fix for the biggest hurdle in the emerging EV industry: range anxiety. ElectReon Wireless Ltd., the company Ezer co-founded in 2013, has lined 6 kilometers of roads in Israel and Sweden to prove the viability of the idea, and it’s working on similar projects in Germany and Italy.
ElectReon uses 1.2-meter-long coils buried fist deep in the road to deliver power to vehicles. To test the technology, ElectReon equipped a bus with three receivers under the chassis to pick up the charge on the go, using induction technology similar to plug-free phone-charging mats. The layer of asphalt zeros out the chance of passersby getting electrocuted, Ezer says. “There are no pyrotechnics,” he says while riding the bus on the 2-km stretch of a road in northern Tel Aviv where the technology is installed in 100-meter-long sections spaced about 200 meters apart. “You get on the road. You get your charge. You keep moving.”
The potential for such systems is huge as electric vehicles accounted for less than 5% of new car sales globally last year—and 2% in the U.S.—in large part because would-be buyers fret about the hassles of refueling. President Joe Biden wants to build 500,000 charging stations across the U.S. by 2030 at a cost of $15 billion. Germany, which is testing electric highways around Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Stuttgart, expects as many as 10 million electric vehicles on its roads by the end of the decade, about 20 times the current figure. Sweden, aiming for zero net emissions by 2045, plans to build 2,400 kilometers (1,491 miles) of electric roads by 2037.
ElectReon is facing some formidable rivals. Germany’s Siemens AG has developed catenaries—the spring-loaded systems atop many trains—that attach to wires strung above roads to give trucks a boost. French transport giant Alstom SA is among multiple companies that are working on street-level rails that deliver power through a sliding contact below the vehicle, which proponents say is safe because the systems are activated in short bursts or only when cars drive over them. But when Sweden wanted to test the idea on a 2.5-mile shuttle bus route to the airport on Gotland Island two years ago, it chose ElectReon, largely because any unsightly equipment is hidden beneath the pavement.
The Swedish Transport Administration says ElectReon’s system in Gotland costs about €1 million ($1.2 million) per kilometer, slightly more than half the price of a catenary network. But ElectReon’s coils deliver about a quarter of the electricity—energy travels more efficiently when the power source is in direct contact with the battery—so the company would require more infrastructure to achieve the same level of charging. The ElectReon system “is easy to deploy and has almost no visible parts and hopefully also low maintenance costs,” says Jan Pettersson, director of strategic development at the Swedish Transport Administration. But reaching Sweden’s climate goals will require “a whole palette of solutions,” including fast-charging stations or heavy trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells, which promise much longer ranges, he says.
ElectReon has increased the amount of energy it can transfer, to 25 kilowatt hours per receiver—almost 10 times what it was a few years ago—and it aims to hit 45 kWh by next year. At the current rate, the average city bus could run a full day on two hours of charging, says Ezer. It’s testing the technology with Renault on the compact electric Zoe and on buses and trucks with Volkswagen, Jeep, and China’s Higer. ElectReon is nearing deals with two other car manufacturers that it aims to conclude by December, and it expects to begin highway projects in Germany and Italy in the coming months. “There’s an almost limitless market,” Ezer says.
Skeptics say the technology risks being rendered obsolete by improvements in battery performance. Volvo Group AG, which recently teamed up with Daimler Truck AG on hydrogen-fuel-cell trucks after passing on an electric roads partnership with Alstom, says such systems would cost taxpayers 10 times as much as fixed charging stations. The “costs, benefits and uncertainties clearly speak against a large-scale electric road investment,” says Claes Eliasson, a senior vice president at Volvo.
Ezer maintains that the viability of his system isn’t threatened by better batteries. ElectReon’s on-the-go charging would allow vehicles to have much smaller power reservoirs, which means an electric bus using the technology could cost significantly less than one with a full-size battery. Similar math applies to private cars, according to Martin Gustavsson, project coordinator at Swedish Electric Transport Laboratory. “It’s become more and more apparent that with electric roads,” Gustavsson says, “cars could drive very long distances without large, heavy, and expensive batteries.”
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>>> Where We Are on the Road to Electric Vehicles
Bloomberg
By Elisabeth Behrmann
June 26, 2021
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-26/where-we-are-on-the-road-to-electric-vehicles-quicktake?srnd=premium
Are we there yet? No, but we’re definitely on the road. After decades of doubt, the world’s automakers have made up their minds about electric vehicles. The car world was rocked in January by General Motors Co.’s pledge to stop selling gas-burning cars by 2035, and industrywide EV investment plans now top $230 billion, according to AlixPartners, a consultancy. With governments wielding carrots for consumers and sticks for producers, EVs jumped to 11% of new car sales in Europe in 2020 and reached nearly 15% in the first quarter of 2021; in the same period, EV sales in China went from 4.8% to 8%. But there are big obstacles to the breakneck transition scientists say is needed to limit climate change, including plain old inertia. When it comes to cars, said Gina McCarthy, President Joe Biden’s top climate adviser, lots of people “just want ’em to be what they used to be.”
1. What’s ahead for drivers?
According to projections by BloombergNEF, falling battery prices mean that larger electric cars will reach price parity with their fossil-fuel counterparts in the U.S. and Europe in 2022, with parity reached in most other segments and regions by the end of the decade. Improvements in battery technology are set to boost potential driving ranges. More importantly, a global rollout of public fast-charging points should dissipate concerns about being stuck for hours. Analysts predict that EVs will prove more reliable, since they have many fewer parts.
2. Why are Europe and China ahead?
Governments there have made ambitious climate pledges and put in place a range of measures to force the auto market to meet them:
In the European Union, carmakers are reacting to the prospect of stiff fines if they don’t cut the average carbon emissions per kilometer of the vehicles they sell by 50% from 2021 to 2030. For consumers, Germany offers rebates of as much as 9,000 euros ($11,000) for a fully battery-powered car and Norway’s EV owners don’t pay 25% value-added tax or road taxes. In the U.K., there are government grants of as much as 8,000 pounds ($11,300) for plug-in hybrid vans; fully electric cars are exempt from London’s daily 15-pound congestion charge. London, Rome and Amsterdam plan to deny gas-powered cars entrance by the end of the decade, while the U.K. plans to ban their sales entirely in 2030.
China has a credit system, similar to cap-and- trade carbon schemes, meant to force manufacturers to increase production of low or no-emission vehicles. Subsidies to buyers can reach 18,000 yuan ($2,800). In some cities, getting a parking permit for a conventional car has become nearly impossible. And the country had 1.68 million charging points at the end of 2020, compared with 72,000 at the end of 2019 in the U.S.
3. What’s happening in the U.S.?
Biden wants to speed up a stalled transition to EVs. He rejoined the Paris Agreement on climate change, which his predecessor, Donald Trump, rejected. Biden also reversed Trump’s efforts to weaken gas mileage requirements for vehicles. He’s also proposed spending $174 billion to support EV production and purchases, plus charging stations.
4. What’s convinced carmakers?
There’s fear of regulators who have grown more serious about meeting Paris Agreement pledges on carbon reductions. And there’s fear of being punished by investors who sent EV-maker Tesla Inc.’s stock price soaring and are bankrolling an ever-growing swarm of EV startups. Volkswagen AG’s dramatic humbling by a 2014 scandal over its cheating on diesel emissions tests led to its headlong charge into electric cars, with the goal of becoming the global leader by 2025.
5. Who’s joining the field?
China’s Nio Inc. isn’t a newcomer, but its market value swelled in 2020 and now is greater than that of Ford Motor Co. A host of electric-vehicle startups like Fisker Inc. and Lordstown Motor Corp. were launched with the help of a flood of money from special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), though some, including Lordstown, saw their shares drop sharply later. Among tech companies, Apple Inc. has long been working on a car project and Alphabet Inc. has its autonomous-driving unit, Waymo. Amazon.com Inc. is backing Rivian Automotive Inc., which plans to debut its R1T pickup and R1S SUV in 2021. In China, Baidu Inc. is spending $7.7 billion over five years on developing innovative cars and Huawei Technologies Co. is spending $1 billion this year on developing components for such vehicles.
6. What are the hurdles to EV growth?
They include the challenge of building out charging infrastructure, the possibility that governments might roll back costly incentives, and the potential for shortages of critical battery minerals. Outside of Europe, China and the U.S., EVs are barely registering so far, including in India. Inertia remains the biggest threat, in the form of potential consumer resistance. That’s why ad campaigns by some legacy carmakers focus on electric versions of iconic vehicles like Ford’s F-150 pickup and Mustang Mach-E and GM’s Chevrolet Silverado and Hummer.
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>>> Toyota Warns (Again) About Electrifying All Autos. Is Anyone Listening?
BY BRYAN PRESTON
MAR 19, 2021
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=164453757
Depending on how and when you count, Japan’s Toyota is the world’s largest automaker. According to Wheels, Toyota and Volkswagen vie for the title of the world’s largest, with each taking the crown from the other as the market moves. That’s including Volkswagen’s inherent advantage of sporting 12 brands versus Toyota’s four. Audi, Lamborghini, Porsche, Bugatti, and Bentley are included in the Volkswagen brand family.
GM, America’s largest automaker, is about half Toyota’s size thanks to its 2009 bankruptcy and restructuring. Toyota is actually a major car manufacturer in the United States; in 2016 it made about 81% of the cars it sold in the U.S. right here in its nearly half a dozen American plants. If you’re driving a Tundra, RAV4, Camry, or Corolla it was probably American-made in a red state. Toyota was among the first to introduce gas-electric hybrid cars into the market, with the Prius twenty years ago. It hasn’t been afraid to change the car game.
All of this is to point out that Toyota understands both the car market and the infrastructure that supports it perhaps better than any other manufacturer on the planet. It hasn’t grown its footprint through acquisitions, as Volkswagen has, and it hasn’t undergone bankruptcy and bailout as GM has. Toyota has grown by building reliable cars for decades.
When Toyota offers an opinion on the car market, it’s probably worth listening to. This week, Toyota reiterated an opinion it has offered before. That opinion is straightforward: The world is not yet ready to support a fully electric auto fleet.
Toyota’s head of energy and environmental research Robert Wimmer testified before the Senate this week, and said: “If we are to make dramatic progress in electrification, it will require overcoming tremendous challenges, including refueling infrastructure, battery availability, consumer acceptance, and affordability.”
Wimmer’s remarks come on the heels of GM’s announcement that it will phase out all gas internal combustion engines (ICE) by 2035. Other manufacturers, including Mini, have followed suit with similar announcements.
Tellingly, both Toyota and Honda have so far declined to make any such promises. Honda is the world’s largest engine manufacturer when you take its boat, motorcycle, lawnmower, and other engines it makes outside the auto market into account. Honda competes in those markets with Briggs & Stratton and the increased electrification of lawnmowers, weed trimmers, and the like.
Wimmer noted that while manufacturers have announced ambitious goals, just 2% of the world’s cars are electric at this point. For price, range, infrastructure, affordability, and other reasons, buyers continue to choose ICE over electric, and that’s even when electric engines are often subsidized with tax breaks to bring pricetags down.
The scale of the switch hasn’t even been introduced into the conversation in any systematic way yet. According to FinancesOnline, there are 289.5 million cars just on U.S. roads as of 2021. About 98 percent of them are gas-powered.
Toyota’s RAV4 took the top spot for purchases in the U.S. market in 2019, with Honda’s CR-V in second. GM’s top seller, the Chevy Equinox, comes in at #4 behind the Nissan Rogue. This is in the U.S. market, mind. GM only has one entry in the top 15 in the U.S. Toyota and Honda dominate, with a handful each in the top 15.
Toyota warns that the grid and infrastructure simply aren’t there to support the electrification of the private car fleet. A 2017 U.S. government study found that we would need about 8,500 strategically-placed charge stations to support a fleet of just 7 million electric cars. That’s about six times the current number of electric cars but no one is talking about supporting just 7 million cars. We should be talking about powering about 300 million within the next 20 years, if all manufacturers follow GM and stop making ICE cars.
Simply put, we’re gonna need a bigger energy boat to deal with connecting all those cars to the power grids. A LOT bigger.
But instead of building a bigger boat, we may be shrinking the boat we have now. The power outages in California and Texas — the largest U.S. states by population and by car ownership — exposed issues with powering needs even at current usage levels. Increasing usage of wind and solar, neither of which can be throttled to meet demand, and both of which prove unreliable in crisis, has driven some coal and natural gas generators offline. Wind simply runs counter to needs — it generates too much power when we tend not to need it, and generates too little when we need more. The storage capacity to account for this doesn’t exist yet.
We will need much more generation capacity to power about 300 million cars if we’re all going to be forced to drive electric cars. Whether we’re charging them at home or charging them on the road, we will be charging them frequently. Every gas station you see on the roadside today will have to be wired to charge electric cars, and charge speeds will have to be greatly increased. Current technology enables charges in “as little as 30 minutes,” according to Kelly Blue Book. That best-case-scenario fast charging cannot be done on home power. It uses direct current and specialized systems. Charging at home on alternating current can take a few hours to overnight to fill the battery, and will increase the home power bill.
That power, like all electricity in the United States, comes from generators using natural gas, petroleum, coal, nuclear, wind, solar, or hydroelectric power according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. I left out biomass because, despite Austin, Texas’ experiment with purchasing a biomass plant to help power the city, biomass is proving to be irrelevant in the grand energy scheme thus far. Austin didn’t even turn on its biomass plant during the recent freeze.
Half an hour is an unacceptably long time to spend at an electron pump. It’s about 5 to 10 times longer than a current trip to the gas pump tends to take when pumps can push 4 to 5 gallons into your tank per minute. That’s for consumer cars, not big rigs that have much larger tanks. Imagine the lines that would form at the pump, every day, all the time, if a single charge time isn’t reduced by 70 to 80 percent. We can expect improvements, but those won’t come without cost. Nothing does. There is no free lunch. Electrifying the auto fleet will require a massive overhaul of the power grid and an enormous increase in power generation. Elon Musk recently said we might need double the amount of power we’re currently generating if we go electric. He’s not saying this from a position of opposing electric cars. His Tesla dominates that market and he presumably wants to sell even more of them.
Toyota has publicly warned about this twice, while its smaller rival GM is pushing to go electric. GM may be virtue signaling to win favor with those in power in California and Washington and in the media. Toyota’s addressing reality and its record is evidence that it deserves to be heard.
Toyota isn’t saying none of this can be done, by the way. It’s just saying that so far, the conversation isn’t anywhere near serious enough to get things done.
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Alternet Systems >>> ALYI Expands African Electric Motorcycle Program for $4 Billion Ride Hail Market to Include Self-Drive Rentals
Newsfile Corp.
May 13, 2021
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/alyi-expands-african-electric-motorcycle-144300199.html
Dallas, Texas--(Newsfile Corp. - May 13, 2021) - Alternet Systems, Inc. (OTC Pink: ALYI) today announced expanding its plans to deliver its first rideshare electric motorcycles to Kenya to go into service by July of this year to include additional electric motorcycles for the self-drive rental market.
ALYI has an order to deliver 2000 electric motorcycles in Kenya to be deployed into the motorcycle taxi (boda) market. The first delivery schedule for July is intended to support a first phase, pilot rollout of the rideshare service. The motorcycle ride hail market in Africa is estimated at $4 billion.
Now, in addition to its pilot rideshare service rolling out this summer, ALYI plans to also introduce a self-drive rental program. Similar to the way Bird (the shared electric scooter company scheduled to go public through a merger with the SPAC, Switchback II valued at an implied $2.3 Billion) rents electric scooters available in urban areas and unlocked via a mobile phone app, ALYI plans to rent Electric Motorcycles in Kenya that can be unlocked via a mobile phone app.
ALYI's Electric Motorcycle Program is only a small part of the company's comprehensive strategy to build a far-reaching electric vehicle ecosystem.
The success of any electric vehicle will depend on the simultaneous availability of an entire network of solutions necessary to support the electric vehicle.
For example, the electric vehicle support network ranges from the availability of power, to charging stations where power can be accessed, to long-range batteries to make electric vehicles efficient modes of transportation, to connectivity so software updates for motor synchronization and battery optimization applications can be continuously updated along with other electric vehicle user support applications.
ALYI's primary business focus is on its overall electric vehicle ecosystem strategy out of which electric vehicles will be just one component.
ALYI is building its electric vehicle ecosystem in a region with one of the lowest per capita transportation ratios in the world, Sub Saharan Africa.
To both attract industry leading talent to collaborate in ALYI's electric vehicle ecosystem, and to provide an opportunity to prove innovations coming out of the electric vehicle ecosystem, ALYI is launching an annual electric vehicle race in partnership with a brand name racing organization. The annual race event will be hosted simultaneously with an electric mobility symposium and expo.
ALYI is setting itself apart from the rest of the electric vehicle industry not only through its electric vehicle ecosystem strategy, but also through its commitment to democratize the electric vehicle ecosystem.
ALYI's financing partner and electric vehicle ecosystem collaborator, RevoltTOKEN, has already provided key funding to advance ALYI's business plan to its current stage. To learn more about RevoltTOKEN and how to participate in ALYI's electric vehicle ecosystem through the purchase of Revolt Tokens, vist www.revolttoken.com.
For more information and to stay up to date on ALYI's overall latest developments, please visit www.alternetsystemsinc.com.
<<<
>>> How to Kill the Great American Highway
Proposals to fund new infrastructure through public-private partnerships and user fees could strangle roadside businesses and limit new construction.
Bloomberg
By Noah Smith
May 23, 2021
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-05-23/republican-toll-road-proposals-shouldn-t-go-anywhere
Just you, the great open road, and a toll booth.
As President Joe Biden and the Republicans haggle over the real definition of infrastructure, some in the latter camp have raised the possibility of using public-private partnerships to pay for new projects. The government would get new roads and bridges funded by private companies, which would then collect a share of the "user fees" charged to people who drive on them. But the proliferation of toll roads across some parts of the U.S. is already doing damage to the national freeway system.
The U.S. interstate highway system is one of the marvels of the modern world. You can question whether it was a good idea to base transportation in this country around automobiles, but the sheer scale of the achievement, and the economic activity it generated, is not in doubt. Yet it’s only one piece of our vast network of highways.
Americans have gotten used to thinking of those highways as something you can enter and exit at will. The romance of the open road — hopping into your car and setting off across the country — has been immortalized in novels like Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road.” As a young person, I lived that reality, road-tripping with my friends across Texas and the Southwest, stopping off at roadside towns, never even thinking about who built the road under my wheels.
Mostly, this is still how things are; as of the mid-2010s, only about 5,000 miles of U.S. roads were toll roads, compared to 95,000 miles of highway in total. But toll roads are proliferating fast, growing at double-digit rates since the turn of the century while public freeways have increased far more slowly. In some states like Florida, toll roads are already commonplace, while in others like Texas they’re becoming more numerous.
There are some good reasons for toll roads; the main one being to relieve congestion by raising the cost of driving individual cars. (This is why bridges, or the highways going into New York City, have lots of tolls). But across much of America’s sprawling territory, where roads are less congested, tolls are mainly for another purpose: to save the government money. So-called public-private partnerships allow companies to contribute to the financing of highway construction and maintenance, in exchange for being paid back from tolls. With state governments strapped for cash in the wake of the Great Recession, and the federal government increasingly unwilling to fund infrastructure due to bitter partisan political battles, so-called P3s have become more financially attractive. Libertarians find P3s attractive because they represent a diminution of government’s role, while some liberals relish the idea of making road travel more expensive.
But there are some serious drawbacks to this trend. First of all, private companies don’t have the same incentives that the government does. The latter generally wants to facilitate the growth of the regional economy, while the former simply want to extract as much profit from the highway as they can. That affects which projects get funded.
A private company that builds a road won't capture the full value of the economic activity that gets generated by the road’s existence. Because of network effects, each road that gets built makes all the other roads more economically productive; an isolated highway is less valuable than a highway that connects to lots of other highways. But since each private company only builds one piece of the network instead of the whole thing, it will tend to neglect this extra value, since it’s unable to extract it via tolls. Thus, relying on P3s will tend to mean too few roads.
On top of that, there is the hassle cost of using toll roads. Electronic toll collection has made using this somewhat less onerous, but you still have to slow down to drive through the toll stations. Also, with freeways, you never have to think very hard about when to get on and off the road; with tolls, every route choice becomes an economic calculation. For low-income people for whom tolls are a significant burden, that just adds stress in a country where the poor are already overwhelmed with a million hassles.
Express lanes, which are becoming more common, come with their own drawbacks. They cause visible inequality on the road, with lower-income people relegated to traffic jams while the toll-tag elite whiz by unimpeded. And because there are times when not many people use the express lane, they can represent an inefficient use of space. Even to the people with the money to use the lanes, they’re very confining; you have to stay in the lane for a long stretch of travel time.
Finally, toll roads could concentrate economic activity in big cities even more than it already is. Making it costly for people to stop on the side of the road can choke the economic lifeblood out of small roadside businesses and towns, depriving rural regions of revenue (the interstate system already did some of this, but toll roads would make it even worse). Toll roads could thus exacerbate the regional inequality that Americans have become increasingly worried about in recent years.
So the U.S. should think twice before killing off the Great American Road. Yes, it can be politically difficult to fund highway maintenance out of taxes. But once people experience the alternative — a driving experience full of constant hassles and restrictions and fees — they might start to remember the value of government.
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Nowwhat2, >> Canadian plays <<
There are some here(link below), although the lists haven't been updated recently -
https://investorshub.advfn.com/Best-Foreign-Stocks-22332/
With Canadian stocks, there are lots of cannabis plays, gold/silver miners, railroads, natural resources, some 'psych-med' biotech related, etc.
There is a Canadian software company called Open Text (OTEX) that has been a great long term buy/hold stock -
>>> Open Text Corporation (OTEX) provides a suite of software products and services. The company offers content services; business network that manages and connects data within the organization; Cyber Resilience, a solution for defending against cyber threats and preparing for business continuity and response in the event of a breach; OpenText security solutions that addresses information security and digital investigations; AI and analytics that leverages structured or unstructured data; and OpenText Information Management software platform that provides multi-level, multi-role, and multi context security information platforms. It also offers digital process automation, which enables organizations to transform into digital data-driven businesses through automation; Customer Experience Management, a set of processes used to track customer interactions throughout the customer journey; and Discovery suite that provides forensics and unstructured data analytics for searching, collecting, and investigating enterprise data to manage legal obligations and risk. In addition, the company offers customer support programs that include access to software upgrades, a knowledge base, discussions, product information, and an online mechanism to post and review trouble tickets. Further, it provides professional services, such as consulting and learning services relating to the implementation, training, and integration of its licensed product offerings, as well as cloud services. The company serves organizations, enterprise companies, mid-market companies, and public sector agencies worldwide. It has strategic partnerships with SAP SE, Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Salesforce.com Corporation, Google Cloud, Amazon AWS, Accenture plc, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Tata Consultancy Services, ATOS, ATOS International S.A.S., Capgemini Technology Services SAS, and Cognizant Technology Solutions U.S. Corp. The company was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Waterloo, Canada.
<<<
Boy, there're just SO many more investment vehicles available down that way......
Any Canadian plays that ya'll know of ?
Thanks for that article - Barrons proves helpful
>>> 4 Electric-Vehicle Charging Stocks at Fire-Sale Prices
Barron's
By Al Root
Updated April 21, 2021
https://www.barrons.com/articles/4-electric-vehicle-charging-stocks-at-fire-sale-prices-51618619555?siteid=yhoof2
For investors with hardy constitutions, the recent plunge in SPAC prices has opened opportunities in a fast-growing sector: electric-vehicle charging companies.
Special purpose acquisition companies, and companies recently merged with SPACs, are getting crushed. Those losses are shaking investor confidence in many of the hot new technology start-ups—such as EV charging companies—which chose to go public by merging with a SPAC.
EV charging stocks are intriguing for three reasons. First, the stocks of the four main companies are down more than 43% from their 52-week highs, on average. Second, the business models are sound. And third, the government is coming to help.
President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan contains roughly $300 billion for EVs in the form of purchase incentives, clean-energy infrastructure, and clean-energy manufacturing. Of course, the plan has to get passed, and the dollars have to get paid out.
Fortunately, the EV-charging sector has more going for it than just the American Jobs Act. The business model is, perhaps, the strongest reason to be bullish on the stocks. “Looking back to the days of Henry Ford, the gas stations are the ones that consistently made money, while hundreds of auto start-ups went out of business,” says Roth Capital analyst Craig Irwin.
There are more EVs coming. By 2030, if the car business hits projections, there will be roughly 15 million or more battery-powered EVs on U.S. roads, up from roughly 1.5 million today. Public EV chargers will get busier, and station economics will get better, as the utilization of EV “pumps” goes up.
The four main EV charging stocks come with slightly different investment angles.
ChargePoint Holdings (CHPT), the most valuable EV charging company by market cap, has already completed its SPAC merger and trades under its own name. Its stock is valued at about $6.8 billion, based on 305 million fully diluted shares outstanding and a recent price of $22.27.
The company has roughly a 70% market share of networked Level 2 charging in North America. Level 2 refers to a 240-volt plug, similar to the kind that is needed to run a large appliance at home. Level 3, or direct-current, charging is the fastest option.
ChargePoint doesn’t own the charging stations, but it provides the hardware and software. The company projects about $200 million in sales for fiscal year 2022, ending in January 2022, growing to about $1.4 billion by fiscal year 2026. It already has four ratings from Wall Street analysts, according to Bloomberg—all Buys. The average analyst price target is about $45.
Although ChargePoint sells Level 3 chargers, another company, EVgo, is aggressively building out its own network of fast-charging stations, which it will also operate. It boasts the largest network of Level 3 stations, with more than 800.
EVgo has an impressive list of partners helping build out its network, including Lyft (LYFT), General Motors (GM), and Tesla (TSLA). EVgo’s stock is worth $2.9 billion based on 363 million fully diluted shares outstanding when its merger with the Climate Change Crisis Real Impact SPAC (CLII) is wrapped up. EVgo projects it will generate $20 million in 2021 sales and about $600 million in sales by 2025.
No analysts cover EVgo or Climate Change yet. That’s not uncommon for companies that haven’t completed their SPAC mergers. That’s also the case for the third and fourth EV charging stocks.
Volta is merging with Tortoise Acquisition Corp II (SNPR). It envisions building charging stations on prime retail estate with partners, then generating sales from ads and direct payments from the retailers that benefit from EV drivers stopping and shopping.
Volta has about 1,500 charging ports and plans to generate about $47 million in sales in 2021. The company projects that will grow to about $800 million by 2025. The stock is valued at about $2 billion, based on 203 million fully diluted shares when the SPAC merger wraps up.
The final of the four EV charging options is EVbox, the largest charging-solutions company in Europe. Like ChargePoint, it produces equipment, and it has shipped 190,000 charging ports. It projects about $84 million in 2021 sales and about $450 million in 2023 sales. The company’s projections don’t go out to 2025. EVbox is merging with TPG Pace Beneficial Finance (TPGY). Its shares are valued at about $2 billion, based on 139 million fully diluted shares outstanding when the merger wraps up.
Of the four stocks, Barron’s likes EVbox best. It’s the least expensive of the group, and EVs are more popular in Europe than they are in the U.S. But cheapness isn’t always the best reason to buy a stock, and all four companies have potential.
The total market value of the EV charging stocks amounts to roughly $15 billion, a tiny fraction of the near-trillion-dollar market valuation of all the EV maker stocks combined. That seems like an anomaly.
If the auto makers deliver all the EVs projected—a necessary feat to justify all EV-related valuations—then there should be plenty of business, and profits, for the EV charging companies.
Corrections & Amplifications
ChargePoint projects about $200 million in sales for fiscal year 2022, growing to about $1.4 billion by fiscal year 2026. An earlier version of this article referenced fiscal year 2021 sales of about $135 million, though fiscal year 2022 is more comparable to calendar year 2021.
<<<
$TPII Breakthrough EV-Storage-Tech in production: Replacing Lithium!
http://www.TriadProInc.com
Watch the Video: http://www.TriadProInc.com/
$NGA Lion Electric - Transaction Summary
Transaction
~ Northern Genesis Acquisition Corp. (“Northern Genesis”) (NYSE: NGA) is a publicly listed special purpose
acquisition company with ~$320mm cash held in trust
~ The Lion Electric Co. (“Lion”), a designer, manufacturer and distributor of all-electric medium and heavy-duty
urban vehicles, to combine with Northern Genesis
~ Lion to be the surviving entity; name to be The Lion Electric Company upon closing of the transaction
Listing / Ticker
~ Pro forma company expected to trade on the NYSE under the new ticker symbol “LEV”
Valuation
~ Transaction values the combined entity at an enterprise value of ~$1.5bn
Transaction Proceeds
~$500mm(1) of cash to pursue Lion’s growth strategy based on cash held in trust and PIPE proceeds
~ $200mm fully committed PIPE offering to close concurrently with business combination
~ Growth strategy includes expansion of manufacturing capacity in the U.S., development and automated
assembly of advanced battery systems and other general corporate purposes
~ Expected Closing: Q1 2021
$TPII EV Battery Combo - Triad Pro eCell plus Lithium-Ion
Check out the research on the 'graphene supercapacitor battery' technology (which is what the Triad Pro eCell is; from a competitor's website:
$TPII breakthrough energy storage technology for EV, trucks, fixed-location, etc.
$TPII Multiple Applications for EV Tech:
They are in production!
Watch the Video: http://www.TriadProInc.com/
>>> Triad Pro Innovators, Inc. (TPII) operates as a renewable energy producer and storage provider. It owns and operates combined heat and power renewable energy facilities in California and the Western United States. The company is also involved in the purchase and sale of power generation equipment, as well as in the operation, repair, and maintenance of power generation equipment for other energy facility owners. In addition, it offers energy storage solutions for residential, small business, industrial, and utility applications. The company was formerly known as Shing-Mei International, Inc. and changed its name to Triad Pro Innovators, Inc. in January 2012. Triad Pro Innovators, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is based in La Quinta, California.<<<
>>> Batteries have long been the big issue in the electrical vehicle market. Traditional batteries have high energy density, that is, they can release energy for a long time. But these batteries charge very slowly. Batteries have relatively few charge/discharge cycles, which reduces their lifespan and eliminates using a solar panel to charge. Using a solar panel to recharge actually shortens the batteries’ useful life. So batteries, whether flooded or sealed lead acid, or lithium, cannot independently repower using only the sun.<<<
>>> The Golf cart industry has changed very little over the years with the development of new technologies. A brand new golf cart today looks much the same as one produced many decades ago. While some manufactures have recently partnered with lithium battery companies to extend the life of batteries, none of the manufacturers have ventured away from the usual large heavy 3.5 horsepower electrical motor, nor have they innovated with other energy storage alternatives. To this day, all electric golf carts spend five or more hours each day plugged in to recharge, and the entire battery bank must be replaced every few years.
Triad Pro Innovators has completely redesigned the golf car mechanically and electrically. Starting with the Triad Pro eCell which has high power density, that is, it can take up and release energy very fast. The Triad Pro eCell with its million charge/discharge cycles unlocks the full potential of a roof mounted solar panel. In addition, the Triad Motor array’s efficiencies complement the eCell’s lack of energy density. By using the lighter, more efficient Triad Motor array, and minimizing the weight of the entire golf car, we can leverage the synergistic strengths of all three components, the solar panel, the Triad Motor array and the Triad Pro eCell. Our patented and proprietary controller circuit board drives the efficiencies of the entire system. There is nothing like the SPREE golf car on the market today. <<<
https://triadproinc.com/spree/
$TPII showing promise with EV technology, solid gains.
$TPII Video of New EV Storage Tech:
$TPII Website: http://TriadProInc.com
Spree Golf Car Website (Order Online): https://SpreeGC.com
Watch the Video: http://www.TriadProInc.com/
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Apple Inc | AAPL | 3.87% |
NVIDIA Corp | NVDA | 3.81% |
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd | 005930.KS | 3.33% |
Intel Corp | INTC | 3.23% |
Alphabet Inc A | GOOGL | 3.15% |
Microsoft Corp | MSFT | 3.07% |
Qualcomm Inc | QCOM | 3.02% |
Toyota Motor Corp | 7203 | 3.00% |
Cisco Systems Inc | CSCO | 2.25% |
Tesla Inc | TSLA | 2.21% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Tesla Inc | TSLA | 4.51% |
Intel Corp | INTC | 4.49% |
NVIDIA Corp | NVDA | 4.45% |
Airbus SE | AIR.PA | 4.40% |
Alphabet Inc A | GOOGL | 4.26% |
Baidu Inc ADR | BIDU | 4.20% |
Siemens AG | SIE.DE | 4.11% |
Honda Motor Co Ltd | 7267 | 4.03% |
Daimler AG | DAI.DE | 3.96% |
Toyota Motor Corp | 7203 | 3.76% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Tesla Inc | TSLA | 3.88% |
Advanced Micro Devices Inc | AMD | 3.83% |
NVIDIA Corp | NVDA | 3.70% |
General Motors Co | GM | 3.59% |
Texas Instruments Inc | TXN | 3.57% |
Analog Devices Inc | ADI | 3.54% |
Alphabet Inc A | GOOGL | 3.48% |
Daimler AG | DAI.DE | 3.46% |
Volkswagen AG Participating Preferred | VOW3.DE | 3.45% |
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG | BMW.DE | 3.44% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Tesla Inc | TSLA | 3.30% |
Skyworks Solutions Inc | SWKS | 3.25% |
Ansys Inc | ANSS | 3.09% |
NVIDIA Corp | NVDA | 3.07% |
ON Semiconductor Corp | ON | 3.07% |
Lear Corp | LEA | 3.02% |
Tianneng Power International Ltd | 00819 | 3.01% |
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd ADR | TSM.TW | 2.98% |
Autohome Inc ADR | ATHM | 2.94% |
Volvo AB B | VOLV B | 2.92% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Tesla Inc | TSLA | 6.00% |
Apple Inc | AAPL | 4.40% |
Intel Corp | INTC | 4.35% |
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd | 005930.KS | 4.34% |
NVIDIA Corp | NVDA | 4.30% |
Alphabet Inc A | GOOGL | 4.15% |
Qualcomm Inc | QCOM | 3.94% |
Toyota Motor Corp | 7203 | 3.81% |
Siemens AG | SIE.DE | 3.72% |
Schneider Electric SE | SU.PA | 3.64% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
China Molybdenum Co Ltd Class H | 03993 | 4.04% |
Nanjing Hanrui Cobalt Co Ltd A | 300618 | 3.99% |
Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co Ltd | 603799 | 3.78% |
Katanga Mining Ltd | KAT | 3.77% |
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co Ltd | 5713 | 3.76% |
Livent Corp | LTHM | 3.67% |
Glencore PLC | GLEN | 3.61% |
PT Vale Indonesia Tbk | INCO | 3.44% |
Tianqi Lithium Industries Inc | 002466 | 3.20% |
First Quantum Minerals Ltd | FM.TO | 3.12% |
Name | Symbol | % Assets |
---|---|---|
Albemarle Corp | ALB | 19.24% |
Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA ADR | SQM | 13.12% |
Tesla Inc | TSLA | 6.79% |
Varta AG | VAR1.DE | 6.06% |
GS Yuasa Corp | 6674 | 5.31% |
Livent Corp | LTHM | 5.22% |
EnerSys | ENS | 4.90% |
Panasonic Corp | 6752 | 4.82% |
Simplo Technology Co Ltd | 6121.TW | 4.78% |
Samsung SDI Co Ltd | 006400.KS | 4.68% |
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