While we are impatiently waiting for Tesla, Rivian, and others to bring their electric pickup trucks to market here in North America, China is already getting some.
Nissan is launching a new electric pickup truck through a Dongfeng joint venture in China: the Dongfeng Rich 6 EV.
With its aggressive zero-emission mandate, China has forced automakers to accelerate their deployment of all-electric vehicles in the country.
Several of them are now making EVs just for the Chinese market.
July 1 (Reuters) – Lucid Motors said on Monday it hired Tesla Inc’s former vice president of production at its Freemont factory, Peter Hochholdinger, as vice president of manufacturing.
The Newark, California-based electric carmaker in April also named Peter Rawlinson, former chief engineer of Tesla’s Model S, as its chief executive officer.
Lucid, which has more than $1 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, was founded in 2007 as Atieva by Sam Weng and Bernard Tse, a former vice president of Tesla.
The company positions itself as being less of a direct competitor to Tesla than with luxury car makers such as Audi or BMW, Rawlinson had said.
Hochholdinger, a former production executive at Volkswagen AG, left Tesla last week after three years with the company. At Tesla, he was tasked with improving production for Tesla’s luxury Model S sedan and Model X sport utility vehicle as well as helping build a cost-effective manufacturing program for the Model 3 sedan.
He was the latest high-profile executive to leave Tesla in the past two years, as the automaker struggles to ramp up production of Model 3, which is seen as crucial for its long-term profitability.
Rawlinson said Hochholdinger’s experience in manufacturing would help the company in launching Lucid Air and other future models.
Tesla is expected to report its second-quarter delivery and production numbers this week.
(Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A company backed by tech billionaire Elon Musk has been awarded a nearly $49 million contract to build a transit system using self-driving vehicles underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The board of directors of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority approved the contract Wednesday with The Boring Company, the Musk-backed enterprise based in Hawthorne, California.
People would be transported underground on self-driving electric vehicles from three types of Tesla Model X chassis. The system will be capable of transporting up to 16 people at time through parallel tunnels, each running in a single direction. The twin tunnel system will run less than a mile (1.6 kilometer) long.
The system also will include a pedestrian tunnel and three underground stations accessible from convention center’s halls.
The company plans to immediately pursue permits to start construction in September. It aims to debut the system by December 2020.
“The first thing that’s important is to get it right,” Authority President and CEO Steve Hill told the Las Vegas Review-Journal . “We want to do it as quickly as possible, but we want our customers to be comfortable with it.”
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman cast the only vote against the project. At a meeting last week, she cited concerns about hiring a company that has yet to deliver a transit system.
The authority will reimburse the company as it completes certain stages of the project, like completing excavation for the first station and digging the first 100 feet (30.5 meters) of the first tunnel. Full payment is contingent on the company demonstrating that the system can support an average of 4,400 passengers per hour.
Construction will be able to proceed without disruption to traffic or other surface activity, Hill said. The system also could be expanded, which could be part of the solution to the city’s transportation problems, he said.
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Tesla shares extended their recent sell-off on Wednesday after Citi cut its price target on the struggling electric car maker, leaving buyers of its recent share offer, including Chief Executive Elon Musk, $175 million in the hole.
Tesla’s stock dropped 5.5% to $193.88, on track to close below $200 for the first time since late 2016. It has lost a fifth of its value since the company sold a $1.84 billion convertible bond and almost $900 million of stock on May 2 to raise fresh capital and give it more time to stop losing money.
Citi analyst Itay Michaeli, who has a “sell” rating on Tesla, cut his price target to $191 from $238. He pointed to a an email Musk sent to employees last week, telling them he would increase cost-cutting, and that the $2.7 billion in recently raised capital would give Tesla just 10 months to break even at the rate it burned cash in the first quarter.
“The recent reported internal memo, which seemingly called into question prior guidance, didn’t help the risk/reward calculus. The implications can be serious, since an automaker’s balance sheet is always subject to the confidence ‘spiral’ risk,” Michaeli wrote in a client note.
Consumer Reports warned on Wednesday that a recent update to Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance software does not work well and could be unsafe.
“It doesn’t appear to react to brake lights or turn signals, it can’t anticipate what other drivers will do, and as a result, you constantly have to be one step ahead of it,” Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports’ senior director of auto testing, said in a news release.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On April 22, Musk told investors that driverless Tesla “robotaxis” would be available in some U.S. markets next year, a claim met by skepticism by some self-driving experts.
UPPING HIS STAKE
Musk is battling to convince investors that demand remains high for the Model 3, the sedan targeted to propel Tesla to sustainable profit, and that it can be delivered efficiently and swiftly to customers around the world. Tesla lost $702 million in the first quarter and warned that profit would be delayed until the latter half of the year.
On Monday, Musk exercised options to buy 175,000 Tesla shares at $31.17 per share, increasing his indirect stake in the company to 34,102,560 shares, according to a filing. With Tesla’s stock down 41% year to date, Musk’s shares, including 102,880 he bought in this month’s capital raise, were worth $6.6 billion on Wednesday.
Tesla’s debt has stalled at lows hit earlier this week. Its recently issued convertible bond due in 2024 priced at 89.09 cents on the dollar, a record low. Its $1.8 billion junk bond traded at 82.5 cents on the dollar, slightly up from the all-time lows it hit on Monday and Tuesday.
The cost to insure Tesla’s debt, as measured by its credit default swap, edged up to roughly 28% of the face value of Tesla’s 2025 bond, from 27.6 % the day before.
(Reporting by Noel Randewich; additional reporting by Kate Duguid in New York and Vibhuti Sharma in Bengalaru; editing by Nick Zieminski and Jonathan Oatis)
FILE PHOTO: A Tesla logo is seen at a groundbreaking ceremony of Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory in Shanghai, China January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
(Reuters) – Tesla Inc shares fell more than 8 percent on Thursday after a bigger-than-expected drop in first-quarter deliveries, led by waning demand for its luxury Model S and X vehicles, added to worries about the electric carmaker’s finances.
At least four Wall Street brokerages cut their price targets on the company’s stock, citing concerns about profitability and revenue after deliveries of the higher-priced luxury cars more than halved compared to the fourth quarter.
RBC analysts called Model S/X deliveries “very disappointing” and estimated the numbers would translate to a more than $1 billion shortfall in revenue compared to previous estimates.
The company had already flagged in February that it expected to post a first-quarter loss as it launched its cheaper $35,000 version of the Model 3 sedan.
In the quarter, Tesla delivered 50,900 Model 3s, the linchpin of its growth strategy, falling short of analysts’ estimates of 58,900, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Tesla also pinned the blame for the first-quarter delivery drop to longer transit times, which analysts said could impact cash flow, even though the company claimed it had sufficient cash on hand.
The company said it had delivered only half of the quarter’s numbers by March 21, with 10,600 vehicles still in transit at the end of the quarter. By comparison, only 1,900 vehicles were in transit at the end of the fourth quarter.
Cowen and Co analysts said that the delivery and transit details suggested “cash was likely dangerously low” after Tesla paid off a $920 million convertible bond obligation in cash in the beginning of March.
Still, there were no new downgrades by brokerages on Tesla shares. The company is currently rated “buy” or higher by 12 of the 30 brokerages covering the company, 7 “hold” and 11 “sell” or lower.
The carmaker reaffirmed its forecast to deliver between 360,000 and 400,000 vehicles this year, and said U.S. orders for the new Model 3 outpaced what the company was able to fulfill in the quarter.
Nord LB analyst Frank Schwope called the numbers “more shocking than disappointing” and said there remain doubts whether Tesla could deliver 400,000 cars this year.
Lawyers for Tesla chief Elon Musk will argue on Thursday that he did not violate a fraud settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and should not be held in contempt, the latest twist in a high-profile battle between the billionaire and the government.
Musk’s fight with the SEC, to play out in a Manhattan federal court hearing, has raised investor worries that it could lead to restrictions on his activities or even his removal from Tesla, while distracting him at a pivotal point in the company’s expansion.
(Reporting by Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
FILE PHOTO: Electric cars are seen at Tesla charging station in Gulsvik, Norway March 17, 2019. REUTERS/Terje Solsvik/File Photo
OSLO
(Reuters) – Almost 60 percent of all new cars sold in Norway in March
were fully electric, the Norwegian Road Federation (NRF) said on Monday,
a global record set by a country seeking to end fossil-fueled vehicles
sales by 2025.
Exempting
battery engines from taxes imposed on diesel and petrol cars has
upended Norway’s auto market, elevating brands like Tesla and Nissan,
with its Leaf model, while hurting sales of Toyota, Daimler and others.
In
2018, Norway’s fully electric car sales rose to a record 31.2 percent
market share from 20.8 percent in 2017, far ahead of any other nation,
and buyers had to wait as producers struggled to keep up with demand.
The
surge of electrics to a 58.4 percent market share in March came as
Tesla ramped up delivery of its mid-sized Model 3, which retails from
442,000 crowns ($51,400), while Audi began deliveries of its
652,000-crowns e-tron sports utility vehicle.
(Editing by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos and Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche)
(Reuters) – Tesla Inc will unveil its Model Y on March 14 at an event in LA Design Studio, Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Sunday.
“Model Y, being an SUV, is about 10 percent bigger than Model 3, so will cost about 10 percent more & have slightly less range for same battery,” Musk said in a tweet. https://reut.rs/2EvYrUU
The Shanghai Gigafactory, based in eastern China, aims to manufacture Model 3 and Model Y cars, with annual capacity of 250,000 vehicles.
Tesla earlier this week offered a $35,000 version of its Model 3 sedan and said its global sales would now be online-only, steps designed to increase demand and cut overhead costs for the electric vehicle maker.
(Reporting by Rishika Chatterjee and Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
(Bloomberg)
— It’s all-electric like a Tesla. It’s priced like a Ford Fiesta. It’s
one of the oddest-looking vehicles you’ve ever seen — and it may just
redefine the commuter car.
As
General Motors Co. prepares to shut the plant near Toronto that got
car-making started in Canada more than a century ago, a new model is
taking shape in a tiny production facility in Vancouver’s outskirts.
Meet the Solo — a one-seater vehicle made by Electra Meccanica Vehicles Corp. that costs $15,500. By December, 5,000 will be zipping around the streets of Los Angeles, with an additional 70,000 to be delivered over the next two years across the West Coast. Electra Meccanica may have a market value of just $80 million, yet it has $2.4 billion in pre-orders. The stock almost doubled in New York Wednesday.
(Reuters) – Tesla Inc has agreed to buy energy storage company Maxwell Technologies Inc for $218 million in an all-stock deal that could help the electric car maker produce batteries that hold more energy and last longer at a time when it needs to cut costs and faces growing competition.
Tesla is rapidly increasing production of its Model 3 sedan and needs to lower the price to reach a broader customer base than its pure luxury vehicles.
Maxwell executives told investors in January that it had developed and patented a “dry electrode” technology that could significantly increase the driving range and reduce the cost of electric vehicle batteries. In a presentation, Maxwell said it expected strategic alliances “within six months” centered around this technology.
The company also makes ultracapacitors, which discharge energy faster than batteries and are seen as complementing battery technology.
Ultracapacitors, combined with the energy of batteries, can enable rapid response times, function across a broader temperature range and lengthen battery life by up to two times, according to a blog post on Maxwell’s website.
Volvo-owner Geely Holding Group last May announced a deal with Maxwell and described the company’s ultracapacitor technology as helping to deliver “peak power” for hybrid cars.
“Tesla needs Maxwell’s solvent-free battery electrode manufacturing for a viable path to lower battery costs,” said Craig Irwin of Roth Capital Partners. “Real competitors are coming now, so Tesla needs to move fast.”
Maxwell’s customers also include General Motors and Lamborghini.
The offer values each Maxwell share at $4.75, representing a 55 percent premium to the stock’s closing price on Friday, the companies said. Maxwell shares rose to trade at $4.58.
Currently, Japan’s Panasonic Corp is the exclusive battery cell supplier for Tesla cars.
Tesla chief Elon Musk had highlighted the importance of ultracapacitors back in 2013.
Tesla also sells power storage, often in conjunction with its solar power business, and ultracapacitors could be used in backup systems for homes and for utility power grids.
Maxwell expects the deal, which has already been approved by its board, to close in the second quarter of 2019, or shortly thereafter.
DLA Piper was Maxwell’s outside legal counsel, while Barclays Capital was the independent adviser. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represented Tesla as outside legal counsel.
(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee, Peter Henderson and Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and by Joe White and Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
(Reuters) – Shares in Tesla Inc fell nearly 4 percent on Thursday as Wall Street analysts following up on its fourth-quarter results questioned underlying demand for its crucial Model 3 sedan and the electric car maker’s ability to make inroads in China.
Tesla reported quarterly profit below analysts’ expectations on Wednesday and surprised investors by announcing that Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja, 56, would leave and handover the reins to 34-year-old Zach Kirkhorn, its vice president of finance.
JPMorgan analysts were among those warning that Ahuja’s leaving deprived the company of long automotive industry experience and relative stability in a company which has seen a steady stream of senior staff come and go since 2016.
Analysts were also concerned by Tesla’s indication that it is only making cars for China and Europe right now, and expects a gap of about 10,000 vehicles between production and deliveries due to vehicles in transit at the end of the first quarter.
“This is a strong indication that demand in the U.S. for both the mid-range and long-range Model 3 versions has largely been exhausted, and the company is still working through the estimated ~6.8k of unsold Model 3 inventory,” Cowen analysts said.
Still, the fall in Tesla shares was less than that suggested by initial pricing after Wednesday’s results and also far smaller than some of the swings in one of the past year’s most volatile Wall Street stocks.
The company, which is striving to stabilise production and deliver consistent profit, ended the quarter with $4.3 billion in cash and said it had “sufficient cash on hand” to pay a $920 million convertible bond maturing in March.
Of the 31 brokerages covering Tesla, 10 have a “buy” or higher rating, 10 “hold” and 11 have a “sell” or lower rating and their median price target is 327.50.
Only four changed their price targets on the stock on Thursday, with two raises and two cuts. Wedbush cut its price target by $50 to $390 (297 pounds).
While Tesla is pumping money into a Shanghai factory, which it hopes to bring on line around the end of this year with a target of producing 500,000 vehicles a year, several analysts questioned whether that investment will pay off.
“Tesla serves the purpose of a ‘stalking horse’ to the fast growing domestic Chinese EV industry, but we believe it has limited to zero terminal value in a region where a number of domestic champions should emerge,” Morgan Stanley analysts said.
(Reporting by Sonam Rai and Jasmine I S in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)
