Electric-vehicle shares finished the week on a mixed note, with market leader Tesla rising over 8% ahead of crucial Q2 deliveries. Shares of Rivian reported a weekly gain of 30% after the company announced a joint venture partnership with German legacy automaker Volkswagen AG.
Here are the key events that happened in the EV space during the week:
Can Tesla Clear Lowered Bar? Tesla investors will be on pins and needles, as the company prepares to release its second-quarter deliveries, most likely on Tuesday. Future Fund’s Gary Black said he sees a decent chance of upside surprise given the muted expectations. He noted that the consensus calls for a 6% year-over-year decline in deliveries to 440,000 units, while whisper numbers are around 420,000 units.
The fund manager attributed his positive expectations to recently strong weekly registrations data in China and the last two days of the quarter being over the weekend, which offer an opportunity to pull in deliveries.
RBC Capital Markets analysts this week reduced their deliveries estimate from 533,000 units to 410,000 units, basing their prediction on the analysis of vehicle registration data and Tesla app downloads. Wedbush’s Daniel Ives believes the company may have seen a “mini rebound” in 2Q which should help it come close to the Street’s estimate. The focus going forward will likely be on a second-half unit recovery, price stabilization, China growth, and a “historic Robotaxi Day” scheduled for Aug. 8.
Rivian Stock Takes Off On Financing Deal: Shares of Rivian reported a weekly gain of 30% after the company announced a joint venture partnership with German legacy automaker Volkswagen AG. The German company has agreed to infuse up to $5 billion cash into the cash-strapped Irvine, California-based EV startup. Analysts scrambled to raise their price targets for the stock following the deal.
Rivian also held its 2024 Investor Day, during which it reaffirmed its guidance for a positive gross profit in the fourth quarter and a production of 57,000 units. The company also preannounced second-quarter deliveries of 13,000-13,300 units.
Nikola Delivers To Walmart Canada: Close on the heels of Nikola giving effect to a reverse-stock split, the company announced that Walmart Canada became the first major retailer in Canada to deploy its hydrogen fuel-cell electric semi-truck.The Class 8 tractor has a range of about 800 kilometers and, on average, can avoid 97 metric tons of CO2 tailpipe emissions annually, Nikola said. A Reuters report said Tesla’s loss may be Nikola’s gain, as the Elon Musk-led company is finding it difficult to ramp up production of its Tesla Semis to meet demands of customers such as PepsiCo. and Walmart.
BYD’s Uzbekistan Plant Now Operational: Warren Buffett-backed Chinese EV startup BYD Co. Ltd. has begun manufacturing at its plant in Uzbekistan, having rolled the first mass-produced vehicles off the production line, CnEVPost reported, citing a Weibo post by the company. The company will reportedly produce the plug-in hybrid models Song Plus DM-i and Chazor DM-i rom at the factory, which will have an estimated annual capacity of 50,000 units.
Separately Buffett’s Berkshire continued its profit taking in BYD shares, having taken down its stake below 6% this week.
Ford’s $30k EV Plan: A low-cost EV at a sub-$30,000 price point could be coming out from Ford Motor’s stable in about two-and-a-half years, CEO Jim Farley said at the Aspen Ideas Festival, CNBCreported.The vehicle is reportedly being developed by a Ford “skunkworks” team.
“You have to make a radical change as an [automaker] to get to a profitable EV. The first thing we have to do is really put all of our capital toward smaller, more affordable EVs,” Farley said in an interview. “That's the duty cycle that we've now found that really matches. These big, huge, enormous EVs, they're never going to make money. The battery is $50,000. … The batteries will never be affordable.”