Tesla Stock-Price Rout Overshadows Rivian, Lucid Collapses

(Bloomberg) — While Tesla Inc.’s epic stock-price collapse dominated headlines over the past yr, for some smaller electric-vehicle corporations the rout has been even worse, an indication that investors see few attractive alternatives within the sector.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Two of essentially the most outstanding recent EV makers — Rivian Automotive Inc. and Lucid Group Inc. — have lost roughly 90% of their equity values from their bull-market peaks, compared with a 69% drop for Tesla. The businesses have struggled to ramp up output of vehicles amid supply-chain woes just as investors grew leery of highly valued corporations with no earnings.

“Tesla’s stock performance has actually had an impact on the group, and this group’s own production issues have also weighed,” said Canaccord Genuity analyst George Gianarikas.

A Rivian representative declined to comment on the stock-price decline, while Lucid didn’t reply to a request for comment. Each stocks were trading lower in Recent York on Thursday, Rivian slid as much as 3% and Lucid fell 3.4%.

The staggering 740% climb for Tesla shares in 2020 helped spur investor euphoria across the sector. EV stocks of all types — whether the businesses were making passenger cars, business vehicles, buses or area of interest autos — exploded as well, with even the tiniest names commanding valuations of several billion dollars. Rivian and Lucid were touted as potential “next Teslas,” with valuations larger than century-old legacy automotive corporations.

Lucid began trading in July 2021 and its equity value topped out at $91 billion in November that yr. Rivian shares peaked just days after its November 2021 initial public offering, valuing the corporate at $153 billion — greater than Volkswagen AG, despite Rivian having zero revenue on the time.

Rising rates of interest over the past yr and fears of a recession have curbed investors’ risk appetite, causing them to flee unprofitable corporations with high expected growth. Rivian is now value $14.8 billion, while Lucid is valued at $13.7 billion. Even Tesla, which is profitable, plunged, casting a shadow over the remainder of the industry.

Lucid built 7,180 Air Sedans in 2022, a far cry from its projection of 20,000 vehicles originally of that yr, because it struggled with supply-chain snags and logistics problems. Rivian also narrowly missed its annual production goal of creating 25,000 cars.

Their sinking share prices will raise the fee of equity financing for the carmakers, that are still investing heavily of their businesses.

Lucid, which had $3.3 billion of money, said in November it could raise as much as $1.5 billion in equity in subsequent months. For now, Rivian has no immediate have to tap capital markets —- the corporate had about $13.2 billion in money as of Sept. 30, which it said is enough until 2025, though it’s been spending loads to bring models to market and expand production.

“Individuals are nervous that given the pace of production, they are going to not find a way to make cars fast enough to achieve that time where they are going to not need to boost money anymore,” Canaccord’s Gianarikas said of Rivian.

The EV startups appear increasingly dangerous at a time when investors are searching for protected assets. Automotive manufacturing was already a capital-intensive, supply-chain-focused business. On top of that, the industry is very sensitive to economic swings and climbing borrowing costs that drive up the fee of financing a automotive purchase. And as consumers tighten their purse strings, EVs which can be typically dearer than gasoline-powered vehicles are sure to take a harder hit.

“Most unprofitable technology stocks got hard hit last yr on account of tightening Fed policies and commensurate impact on rates of interest,” said Ivana Delevska, chief investment officer at SPEAR Invest. “But along with that, fundamentals for EVs deteriorated within the fourth quarter because it became clear that an excessive amount of supply was coming available on the market.”

For Rivian, the selloff has been especially ugly. It has performed worse than Tesla and Lucid, in addition to other EV makers reminiscent of Nikola Corp., Fisker Inc., Polestar Automotive Holding UK Plc, Workhorse Group Inc. and Lordstown Motors Corp.

The disadvantages of being a smaller EV maker in these times became clearer last week when Tesla announced a price cut across its product lineup, a move that analysts said could come as a much bigger blow to its competitors who might be forced to follow. On Friday’s trading session after the cut was announced, Rivian and Lucid shares dropped greater than Tesla’s.

Shrunken equity values and price cuts aren’t the one risks the startups face. The pace of EV sales also is predicted be slower than previously expected. In accordance with BloombergNEF, while the adoption of electrical cars will proceed to rise in 2023, it is going to be at a more tepid pace than the last two years.

“Even with out a recession, the chance for the ‘next Teslas’ is elevated,” SPEAR’s Delevska said. “Tesla now has scale and profitability, and while we expect significant downside to that profitability, we don’t think Tesla will exit of business. Most of the newcomers will.”

Tech Chart of the Day

Netflix Inc. stock has almost doubled from its 2022 low because the streaming giant inches closer to Walt Disney Co.’s market value. The Los Gatos, California-based streaming company has not been more beneficial than the Mouse House for greater than a yr now because the streaming company’s stock was hit by back-to-back earnings disappointments in the primary half of 2022. Netflix has since launched into some major changes, including the introduction of a less expensive ad-supported tier to draw recent subscribers and retain old ones. The corporate is slated to report fourth-quarter results after the market closes on Thursday.

Finapress

Tesla Stock-Price Rout Overshadows Rivian, Lucid Collapses

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply