Running Out Of Fingers And Toes: Tracking The EV Manufacturers -- November 21, 2020

Running out of fingers and toes: EV manufacturers.

• eleven start-ups: update. The WSJ.
• from the blog, September, 2020;
• from the blog, October, 2020;
• from the blog, November, 2020;
• EV tag;
  

The WSJ has a great update on eleven EV startups chasing Tesla (linked above).

Some data points:

• Tesla, now part of the S&P 500, or soon to be; not quite sure; don't care;
• Tesla: more valuable than the following companies combined:
• Toyota
• VW (largest car manufacturer in the world?)
• GM
• F
• GM: this past week said it would spend $27 billion over the next four years of development of electric and driverless vehicles
  
• my hunch: driverless vehicles will be banned from school zones

The eleven start-ups covered by The WSJ, with capital raised (prices all before tax incentives):

Rivian: $5.35 billion in five funding rounds in the past two years

focus: an all-electric pickup; start at $67,500; goes on sale June, 2021

sales model: like that of Tesla

can't wait to see this compete with Ford

Lucid Motors, Inc: "more than $1 billion raised

notable backers: Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia

first Airs will cost $169,000; to go on sale next year

entry-level model promised at $77,400

hunch: will fail. High-end auto makers like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche are rolling out their own luxury EVs

Lordstown Motors, Ohio; $4.2 billion

the Endurance: a pickup truck marketdd to commercial fleet operators; 

starting price: $52,500

has to hire 1,000 more workers and re-tool a massive plant before entering highly competitive field, including Ford's F-150 -- the best-selling vehicle in the US -- not just the best-selling pickup truck, but the best-selling vehicle

Ford will also target fleet buyers starting in 2022

Nikola; $10 billion

I won't waste my time on this one

Fisker, $4.7 billion

first attempt by Henrik Fisker to go EV back in 2007: went broke, as in bankrupt

Canoo, $2.4 billion

will probably go nowhere

NIO

market valuation: $66 billion

ES6: a five-seat SUV; $52,000

NIO's stock gains outpaced Tesla's share-price surge last year

NIO's market value eclipsed that of GM this past week;

sounds exciting, huh? despite a strong 2020, it posted a loss of $1.6 billion in 2019, and laid off roughly a fifth of its employees

got a $1 billion lifeline from Chinese state investors this past spring

main competitor: Tesla which just opened its first Chinese factory last year

Li Auto

market valuation: $31 billion

plug-in hybrid luxury SUV; uses a small gasoline engine (a lawn motor engine, I suppose) to generate power for lithium-ion batteries

$50,000

I'm excited. Not.

XPeng

market valuation: $35 billion

huge, deep-pocket backers: Alibaba; Chinese phone company Xiaomi; Qatar Investment Authority;

Faraday & Future

nothing known about valuation and funding

another luxury entrant

Faraday Future has spent more than $2 billion and has yet to sell a single vehicle, after originally targeting 2017 to bring first model to market

not interested

Arrival Ltd., London

market valuation: $5.4 billion

major backers: Hyundai, Kia, BlackRock, and UPS

small EV delivery vans

UPS has ordered 10,000 vans

Facts and comments:

• China and India are the big markets of which I know nothing
• US market:
• 40% of American do not own their own homes
• about 20% of Americans live in apartments or condos
• minimal transparency on number of EVs actually sold
• huge opportunities for those focused on infrastructure
• why didn't US Post Office switch to EVs decades ago?
• why did the US military not focus on EVs for stateside operations?