To The Moon

The EV market has been weighed under a triple whammy of softening demands, prospects of higher-for-longer interest rates amidst a sticky inflation and prevailing price war among the EV makers that is not helping the margins for all stakeholders in the EV industry.

$Rivian Automotive, Inc.(RIVN)$  is not spared either with its lackluster business outlook and concentration risk given its narrow customer base, as the EV maker is heavily dependent on its investor and sponsor Amazon which unfortunately has fallen short of its orders and failed to live up to its commitment to electrify its delivery fleet. The EV startup has so far not yet been able to generate sufficient operating cash flows, so that its cash reserve has continued to bleed in order to sustain operations. Until there are signs of operational and sales improvements, I'll refrain from investing in Rivian.

An increasing competitive domestic market is also adding to the woes of the Chinese EV trio $NIO Inc.(NIO)$  , $XPeng Inc.(XPEV)$  and $Li Auto(LI)$  , as more players jump onto the EV bandwagon, most notably Xiaomi. With a stagnant pie and more trying to snatch a bigger slice of it, competition is likely to stay intense. As the trio struggles to find enough buyers to drive growth, the weak demands will continue to weigh on their stock prices.

Elon Musk should now be relieved that his $45 billion pay package has won support from $Tesla Motors(TSLA)$ 's shareholders in a vote of confidence of his leadership to steer the EV market leader amidst prevailing macro headwinds and slowing demands. Tesla is now commencing its fight for legal recognition of the shareholder vote to reinstate his record compensation. Meanwhile, with the overwhelming support, Elon Musk should now be motivated to refocus his attention on the EV maker and drive it to regain its past glory to reward his shareholders back for their support.