Tesla Shows Who's Boss, Rivan's Scaling Challenges, Fisker Tracking To Plans And More: Biggest EV Stories Of The Week

Electric vehicle stocks mostly advanced in the week ended March 3, as positive sentiment seen in the broader market proved contagious. Market leader Tesla, Inc. TSLA, which ran up ahead of its first-ever Investor Day, gave back some of the gains following the event, and the week also witnessed earnings releases from a handful of companies.

Here are the key events that happened in the EV space during the week:

Tesla Investor Day Takes The Spotlight: Tesla’s March 1 Investor Day elicited mixed reactions from analysts, fund managers and the retail crowd. While impressed with the Elon Musk-led company’s lead over the competition in terms of technology, production and costs, most opined that the event was short on details. Future Fund’s Gary Black, for one, said the company did not give details about how to get from the 1.8 million units estimated for 2023 to 20 million units by 2030.

Some were also disappointed by Tesla not giving a timeframe for the launch of a new budget model based on the new drivetrain. Tesla confirmed at the event that Nuevo León state in northern Mexico would house its next Gigafactory. Subsequently, Tesla China head Tom Zhu, who assumed leadership over global manufacturing, reportedly said the Giga Mexico plant would be situated near Monterrey and would come up faster than Giga Shanghai, which took about nine months from the start of construction to delivering the first vehicle.

China Passenger Car Association’s data released Friday showed that Tesla’s sales rose 31.7% year-over-year to 74,402 vehicles. The year-over-year sales pace, however, trailed that of BYD Company Limited BYDDY BYYDF, which saw nearly 110% growth for its battery EVs. Smaller Chinese EV startups Nio, Inc. NIO and Li Auto, Inc. LI reported sales that nearly doubled from a year ago.

See Also: Best Electric Vehicle Stocks

Ford Announces Self-Driving Subsidiary: Ford Motor Co. F announced a wholly-owned subsidiary called “Latitude AI” to work on a “hands-free, eyes-off-the-road automated driving system” for its next-generation vehicles.

Separately, the company announced that its February EV sales jumped over 68% to 3,523 units, outpacing the 21.9% total sales growth. That said, Dearborn’s EV lineups, comprising the F-150 Lightning EV pickup truck, E-transit vans and Mustang Mach-E, accounted for just under 3% of total sales.

The United States Postal Service has placed orders for 9,200 E-Transit vans through 2024, Ford revealed in a separate release.

Ford, which has stalled manufacturing its F-150 Lightning pickup truck since mid-February due to potential battery issues, will reportedly restart production on March 13. A company spokesperson reportedly said this would allow time for its supplier SK On to sort out the issue.

Rivian’s Revenue, Guidance Disappoint: Rivian Automotive, Inc. RIVN reported fourth-quarter revenue that trailed expectations. More worrisome was the company’s 2023 production guidance of 50,000 units, which trailed the consensus expectation of 60,000 units. The company blamed the predicament on supply chain issues. Investors did not take kindly to the number and sent shares down by over 2% for the week even though several of its peers closed higher.

Fisker Affirms Plans: EV startup Fisker, Inc. FSR reported fourth-quarter results below estimates, but it appeased investors by affirming that the first deliveries of its Ocean electric SUV will begin this spring. The company also plans to produce more than 40,000 vehicles in 2023.

Toyota’s Sub-$30K Vehicle Update: Toyota Motor Corp.'s TM joint venture company FAW-Toyota has rolled out its first bZ3 EVs off the production line in China, Car News China reported. The EV is priced between 189,800-219,800 yuan ($27,400-$31,800) and deliveries will likely begin in the first quarter, the report said.

Read next: Tom Zhu…Who? All You Need To Know About The 'Tim Cook' Of Tesla

EV Stock Performances for The Week:

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