What You Missed This Week in EVs and Clean Energy

Tesla said to be recalling 1.1M in China over potential safety risks, Musk announces t new Twitter CEO

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.

TESLA RECALL IN CHINA: Tesla will recall more than 1.1M cars in China due to potential safety risks, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement. "Starting from May 29, 2023, some imported Model S, Model X, Model 3 and domestically produced Model 3 and Model Y vehicles with a production date between January 12, 2019 and April 24, 2023 will be recalled, totaling 1,104,622 vehicles," the regulator said. It added: "The vehicles within the scope of this recall do not allow the driver to choose the energy recovery braking strategy; at the same time, there may not be enough reminders for the driver to depress the accelerator pedal deeply for a long time. The superposition of the above factors may increase the probability of mistakenly stepping on the accelerator pedal for a long time, which may increase the risk of collision and pose a safety hazard."

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

NEW TWITTER CEO POSITIVE FOR TESLA: Wedbush keeps an Outperform rating on Tesla (TSLA) with a $215 price target after Elon Musk announced that a new Twitter CEO will take over the position. The news finally ends some of the distraction risk around the Tesla story and will be a positive for the stock, the firm tells investors in a research note. Wedbush believes Tesla’s stock should start to "finally remove this lingering albatross from the story."

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a tweet that, "I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter! @LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology. Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app."

PRODUCTION DELAY: Tesla battery supplier Panasonic (PCRFY) has rescheduled the mass production of 4680 battery cells to next year, DigiTimes’ Peng Chen reports. The delay will help Panasonic introduce performance improvement measures to enhance competitiveness further, Chen says. Meanwhile, Nio (NIO) has filed to equip its models with semi-solid-state batteries, aiming to offer a better driving range. Huzhou WeLion Technology, a Beijing WeLion New Energy Technology subsidiary, will supply the semi-solid-state batteries to Nio, Chen adds.

BUY BORGWARNER: Morgan Stanley upgraded BorgWarner (BWA) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $50, up from $49, following a transfer of research coverage at the firm. The stock has moved lower over recent weeks, which Morgan Stanley cites in addition to a constructive view on BorgWarner’s ICE portfolio as it increasingly questions whether legacy OEMs will be able to hit their EV targets in the face of slowing EV adoption in more saturated markets, such as China, and Tesla’s "seemingly never ending price cuts."

NIKOLA UNDER PRESSURE: Shares of electric heavy truck maker Nikola (NKLA) were under pressure on Tuesday after reporting a first quarter net loss of 26c, in line, on revenue of 11.12M against consensus of $12.15M. " Also, prior to its earnings release the EV maker said that the Iveco Group will assume full ownership of the joint venture in Ulm, Germany. The company will now focus on the North American market, hydrogen fuel cell trucks, the HYLA hydrogen refueling business, and autonomous technologies.

2023 PRODUCTION: Alongside quarterly results, Lucid (LCID) also said that the company is “on track to produce over 10,000 vehicles in 2023, with company-wide initiatives ongoing that will enable Lucid to pivot to higher volumes as market conditions allow." "We continue to grow our brand awareness and I’m proud to say that the Lucid Air was recently awarded a number of prestigious industry accolades. We will unveil our Gravity SUV later this year ahead of its launch in 2024 and we cannot wait for everyone to experience it. The Lucid Air redefined the luxury sedan category and we believe the continuing advancements of our in-house technology position our Gravity SUV to do the same in the SUV category – game-changing range, driving experience, charging speed, voluminous interior space, and an unrivaled combination of luxury and performance," said Peter Rawlinson, Lucid’s CEO and CTO.

Meanwhile, and also along with its Q1 report, Fisker (FSR) stated that, "Four-stage supplier ramp up and vehicle assembly plan moves to right on updated homologation timing. Fisker expects to produce 1,400-1,700 vehicles in Q2, provided Fisker’s suppliers and partners can support this volume and ramp; Fisker also revises calendar 2023 production volume guidance to 32,000-36,000 vehicles. The following information reflects Fisker’s expectations for key non-GAAP operating expenses and capital expenditures for full-year 2023. Fisker is projecting the total of these items to be within a range of $535M-$610M, consistent with its prior expectations last provided in the Q4 and Full Year 2022 Earnings Release. Fisker anticipates an 8-12% gross margin range for full year 2023 and potentially positive adjusted EBITDA, provided input costs do not change dramatically."

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