What You Missed This Week in EVs and Clean Energy

Tesla CEO says "Master Plan 3" to be presented next month, Ford’s stake in Rivian falls to $1.15%

Institutional investors and professional traders rely on The Fly to keep up-to-the-second on breaking news in the electric vehicle and clean energy space, as well as which stocks in these sectors that the best analysts on Wall Street are saying to buy and sell.

From the hotly-debated high-flier Tesla (TSLA), Wall Street’s newest darling Rivian (RIVN), traditional-stalwarts turned EV-upstarts GM (GM) and Ford (F) to the numerous SPAC-deal makers that have come public in this red-hot space, The Fly has you covered with "Charged," a weekly recap of the top stories and expert calls in the sector.

MASTER PLAN 3: Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that his so-called "Master Plan 3," which he describes as the "path to a fully sustainable energy future for Earth," will be presented at the company’s March 1 Investor Day.

Click here to check out Tesla’s recent Media Buzz Sentiment as measured by TipRanks.

VEHICLE FLEET: Hertz (HTZ) disclosed that during the year ended December 31, 2022, it operated a peak rental fleet in the Americas of 428,700 vehicles. Of that total, Tesla made up 11% of the vehicles, according to Hertz. The rental car company had under 50,000 Tesla at the end of 2022, less than half the 100,000 vehicles Hertz said it would order by the end of the year, Bloomberg points out. Hertz added that it is assembling a "diverse fleet" of electric vehicles "through large-scale acquisition agreements" with Tesla, Polestar and General Motors, starting with an initial order of Teslas made in 2021. "We have established a goal for 25% of our fleet to be electric by the end of 2024. In collaboration with bp pulse, we are also investing in EV infrastructure across our global operations by installing charging stations throughout our network to power our fleet and support customer adoption of EVs," the company said in its annual filing.

RIVIAN STAKE: Ford disclosed in a 13G regulatory filing, from earlier, that it currently owns 1.15% or 10,502,427 shares of Rivian stock down from 87M shares or 9.7% stake, reported in May of 2022. The Fly notes that the sale comes a week after Ford reported a $7.3B write-down on its Rivian investment. Ford sold over 90M shares of Rivian in 2022, according to regulatory filings.

MOVING TO THE SIDELINES: JPMorgan downgraded Bloom Energy (BE) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $27, down from $29. The company reported Q4 results above expectations but the 2023 guidance was mixed, the firm notes. With the stock up 24% year-to-date, JPMorgan is moving to the sidelines. However, the firm’s positive outlook for Bloom’s long-term growth is unchanged.

BUY BEAM GLOBAL: Northland initiated coverage of Beam Global (BEEM) with an Outperform rating and $25 price target. Beam provides solar powered charging solutions that are easily deployable and the firm expects the company to succeed as grid-ready locations become scarce in public parking spaces. Northland thinks Beam offers a differentiated proposition and sees an attractive entry point given the "recent rout" in the EV charging space.

HIGH EXPOSURE TO CALIFORNIA: Janney Montgomery Scott initiated coverage of SunPower (SPWR) with a Neutral rating and $16 fair value estimate. SunPower, a U.S. residential solar installer that offers its customers cash sales, loans, and leases/PPAs, does not hold any assets on its balance sheet and in the case of leases and PPAs sells those systems to its joint venture with Hannon Armstrong (HASI), SunStrong, in which SunPower owns 51%, the firm explains to investors. When arriving at its valuation, the firm said the "most consequential" factor is the outlook for gross margin improvement throughout 2023, but it also cites SunPower’s relatively high exposure to California, the new homes market and cash sales and loans.

Keywords: charged, ev, electric vehicles, clean energy, solar, batteries