What You Missed This Week in EVs and Clean Energy

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.

OUTPUT TARGET: Tesla production target at its German facility has been reduced to 4,350 a week in July and August after hitting 5,000 a week in March, and more planned cuts are expected, Reuters says, citing a report by Business Insider that relied on the company’s internal documents and anonymous sources. The 5,000 weekly output was a “one-off” in March, and the average output since then has been “much slower”, the report stated.

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IMPORT TAXES: India is developing a new electric vehicle policy that would reduce import taxes for car makers that commit to some local manufacturing, following a proposal by Tesla, which is weighing entering the domestic market, Reuters’ Aditi Shah, Aditya Kalra, and Nikunj Ohri report, citing people with direct knowledge. The policy being weighed could allow car makers to import fully-built EVs into the South Asian country at a lowered tax as low as 15%, the authors note.

DIDI PARTNERSHIP: XPeng (XPEV) announced its strategy to “accelerate the adoption of Smart EVs and technologies” through a strategic partnership with DiDi Global (DIDIY). XPeng plans to launch an all-new EV brand in 2024, currently being developed under the project name “MONA.” The company said it will leverage the new brand to expand in the mass market segment of RMB150,000 price range and “accelerate the adoption of Smart EV and technologies in this segment with enormous market potential.”

An A-class Smart EV model will be launched in 2024 as the debut product of the company’s new brand. DiDi will provide support from its mobility ecosystem for the “MONA” project with access to its nationwide shared mobility market, XPeng said in a statement, “This partnership will pave the way for the Company to build highly popular Smart EV models for the mass market segment in the RMB150,000 price range,” it added. XPeng will issue class A ordinary shares of the company, representing approximately 3.25% of its outstanding share capital upon completion of the issuance, to acquire assets related to DiDi’s Smart EV project. DiDi will thereby become a strategic shareholder of the company, with a lock-up period of 24 months after the initial closing.

According to the agreement, XPeng will become the first automotive manufacturing company with “comprehensive support from the ecosystem” of DiDi, the company said. Both parties will “explore strategic cooperation in a number of areas, including marketing, financial and insurance services, charging, Robotaxi and international market expansion.”

HERTZ, REVEL PACT: Car rental company Hertz (HTZ), which is looking to become more electrified, is in a pact with electric ride sharing company, Revel, wrote Lydia Moynihan for the NY Post. The car rental firm will provide Revel with “several hundred electric cars in a lease agreement.” added the story. New York-based Revel, which also runs “an Uber (UBER)-like car service” as well as a scooter service, is planning to create new charging stations it calls “super hubs,” added the NY Post story.