The Tesla Competitors Are Coming: Three Little-Known EV Stocks Investors Should Watch

?? EVs will be mainstream in 2021

?? Investors have numerous investment opportunities
?? Little-known Tesla hunters with ambitions

The electric car industry picked up speed in 2021, and vehicles with alternative drive systems arrived in the mainstream last year at the latest. The prospects for the sector are also good for the new year, which can also be deduced from the growing number of companies that are becoming active in the electric car sector. For investors, this means a variety of investment alternatives – even beyond the market leader Tesla. Chinese competitors like NIO, Li Auto, Xpeng and BYD are all listed and vying for the attention of buyers, investors and investors. And traditional car manufacturers such as Volkswagen, BMW, GM and Ford have also significantly expanded their EV activities and are increasingly relying on alternative forms of drive. Additionally, companies like Lucid and Rivian have also garnered tremendous attention. Here, too, investors who want to bet on the EV market will find what they are looking for. But by no means all companies in the industry are already established market players, and investors should also keep an eye on these little-known representatives of the electric car segment.

fisherman

The US joint venture Fisker is one of the new Tesla challengers. The group does not yet have a vehicle on the market, but it has ambitious plans: the SUV called “Ocean” is to be built in Austria from 2022, the Fisker vehicle will be produced by Magna in Graz: initially two vehicles a day will roll off the assembly line there run, from November Fisker then wants to deliver the Ocean to customers. Fisker itself markets the vehicle under the keywords: “Dynamic. Driver-oriented. All-electric.” and scores particularly well with a solar roof that is supposed to generate free energy for the battery-powered vehicle engine.

By outsourcing production to Magna, Fisker saves money, and the company also plays the environmental aspect in two ways: In addition to the electric motor and the solar energy source on the vehicle roof, the production of the vehicle body is also environmentally friendly – it should be made of recycled materials.

The Americans have probably identified buyers of Tesla’s Model 3 as their target group, because with a planned sales price of 40,000 US dollars, the Ocean is in a similar price league as the Musk Group’s vehicle. In the middle of last year, there are said to have been 17,000 pre-orders for the Fisker EV, and a few more may have been added in the meantime. This also gives investors hope, even if the stock market performance of Fisker shares is still lagging behind that of other industry representatives: within the last three months, the US market has risen by around 19 percent.

Sonos Motors

Sono Motors is also one of the previously little-known Tesla challengers, the German company wants a piece of the EV cake with the minivan Sion. Sono has been in trouble recently, linked to the troubles at Chinese real estate developer China Evergrande, which is struggling to pay off. Because a subsidiary of the Chinese, the contract manufacturer Nevs from Sweden, was originally supposed to take over the production of the Sion, but there has not yet been a production agreement with Sono, the Sono founders said at a question and answer event in late 2021. Should the cooperation burst, alternative partners were contacted: the company “spoke to several European contract manufacturers at a high level”.

Despite the currently tense situation in which Sono finds itself, the company is confident of being able to get its minivan onto the roads in the near future. The Germans are relying on an unusual concept for their vehicle: Solar technology is installed in the body of the Sion, so the vehicle could “under ideal conditions achieve an additional range of 112 kilometers per week on average (maximum 245 km on a sunny week) solely through solar energy generate,” promises the car manufacturer. This ensures “full self-sufficiency over short distances”.

Sono’s recent IPO on the US stock exchange NASDAQ brought around 135 million US dollars into the group’s coffers, which keeps hopes alive that the Sion will be realised. “Yes, the proceeds help us to ensure our continued existence and help us to make additional investments for series production,” said founder and CEO Laurin Hahn to the dpa.

For investors, Sono is still more of a speculative investment given the continued uncertainty about a possible production partner. This is also reflected in the share price development: within the last month, the Sono share certificate on the US stock exchange has lost around a quarter of its value.

Canoo

With Canoo, another company from the EV segment is stepping up to follow in the footsteps of market leader Tesla. The US electric car maker – like Fisker and Sono – decided not to set up its own production plant, at least in Europe, and instead planned to produce its van and delivery truck EVs with the help of VDL Nedcar in the Netherlands. But the plans fell through at the end of December, and talks about the planned contract manufacturing of Canoo’s lifestyle vehicle were stopped, according to a press release from the Americans. “We appreciate VDL Nedcar’s months of effort in providing us with a contract manufacturing option, but we have decided that manufacturing in America is more in line with our mission and current focus,” said CEO Tony Aquila quote in the message. However, possible plans by competitor Rivian may also have contributed to the decision, which is said to be planning to take over the Dutch production facility VDL Nedcar.

The focus on domestic production should now ensure an increase in production at the manufacturing facilities in Arkansas and Oklahoma. The market launch of the lifestyle vehicle is still planned for the fourth quarter of 2022.

Canoo, which went public in 2020 as part of a merger, has already come under scrutiny from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which is investigating the company. In addition, there have been massive changes in management in recent months and the group’s orientation has also changed: instead of being a contract manufacturer, Canoo only wants to use its flat skateboard platform for models from its own company, and selling it to third parties is no longer planned.

The developments around the still young EV group make investors at least skeptical. Canoo shares have lost more than 40 percent within a year on the US stock exchange NASDAQ.

Editorial office finanzen.net

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