What You Missed This Week in EVs and Clean Energy

Tesla Shanghai factory deliveries said to have topped 100,000 in November

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.

SHANGHAI FACTORY DELIVERIES: Cui Dongshu, secretary general of China’s Passenger Car Association, said on Monday that Tesla shipped 100,291 cars from its factory in Shanghai in November, hitting a new record and almost doubling the 52,859 vehicles the EV maker delivered in the same month of 2021, according to Bloomberg. Cui said annual deliveries from Tesla’s Shanghai plant could possibly hit 750,000 units in 2022, the report noted. Some analysts having speculated about waning demand and people familiar with the matter said earlier Monday that Tesla plans to lower production in Shanghai as soon as this week, the report added.

ON THE SIDELINES: Evercore ISI analyst Chris McNally initiated coverage of Rivian Automotive with an In Line rating and $35 price target. Rivian represents the largest and most well-funded company of the 3 new EV entrants he is launching coverage on, with its R1T pickup garnering "rave reviews" and the R1S SUV launch ongoing, McNally said. Though he started the stock with an In Line rating this is "with a positive bias" as he believes a catalyst path exists progressing through 2023.

The analyst also started coverage of Lucid Group (LCID) with an In Line rating and $12 price target. Lucid has both extensive vertical integration and a leading e-powertrain aimed at the ultra-premium EV segment, said McNally, who adds that Lucid epitomizes an "aspirational EV." His In Line rating comes "with a slight negative bias," as Lucid has "a long way to go on both" addressable market expansion and high funding needs, the analyst added.

FISKER SHORT REPORT: Fuzzy Panda Research said it is short Fisker (FSR), stating in a report on its website that, "Henrik Fisker reminds us of Trevor Milton from Nikola and SBF from FTX. All three are charismatic leaders that have shown they are willing to lie and obscure the truth to get what they want. We thought Henrik’s story was too good to be true. And it turns out it is. We learned the truth of what happened to lead to the Henrik’s first bankruptcy. We don’t think he learned from those mistakes and is actually repeating many of the same ones. We think Fisker’s ‘asset-light’ business model could be better described as ‘liability-heavy.

Responding to the report published by Fuzzy Panda Research, Fisker issued a cease-and-desist letter to the firm. Fisker noted that Fuzzy Panda Research released a "purported assessment containing numerous false and misleading allegations about Fisker’s business operations and its relationship with manufacturing partner Magna (MGA)." The company added, "Fisker Inc. does not have a bank guarantee with Magna, and Fisker owns the intellectual property for the Fisker Ocean platform. The Ocean platform does not have 80 percent carryover parts from any other platform." Fisker further said it intends to take immediate and aggressive action to address the "false and misleading" claims made by Fuzzy Panda Research.

Earlier in the week, Evercore ISI analyst Chris McNally initiated coverage of Fisker with an Outperform rating and $15 price target. The analyst noted Fisker operates a different, asset-light structure compared to EV rivals Rivian and Lucid given how its vehicles are developed and designed in-house but then built via a contract manufacturer. He sees 40%-50% upside to 2023 revenue consensus and a path to about 40,000 deliveries.

DELIVERIES: Nio (NIO) announced that it delivered 14,178 vehicles in November, a new record-high monthly delivery, representing an increase of 30.3% year-over-year. The deliveries consisted of 8,003 premium smart electric SUVs including 4,897 ES7s, and 6,175 premium smart electric sedans including 3,207 ET7s and 2,968 ET5s. Cumulative deliveries of Nio vehicles reached 273,741 as of November 30. Nio will further accelerate the production and delivery in December. On November 28, NIO and Tencent (TCEHY) entered into a strategic cooperation agreement to further deepen partnership in the areas of autonomous driving related cloud services, intelligent driving maps and digital ecosystem to provide users with experiences beyond expectation.

Meanwhile, Li Auto (LI) announced that the company delivered 15,034 vehicles in November, achieving record-high monthly deliveries and representing a 11.5% year-over-year increase. The cumulative deliveries of Li Auto vehicles reached 236,101 as of the end of November.

XPeng (XPEV) also announced its vehicle delivery results for November. In November, the company delivered 5,811 Smart EVs to customers as it mitigated challenges brought by COVID-related restrictions and disruptions. The company delivered 1,546 G9 SUVs to customers in November against a challenging operating backdrop which affected G9’s production ramp-up and delivery services in certain areas. As of November 30, year-to-date deliveries reached 109,465, representing a 33% increase year-over-year. The company expects that deliveries will significantly increase in December as G9’s production ramp-up accelerates under normalized operating conditions.

MORE BEARISH AFTER RESULTS: China Renaissance analyst Yiming Wang downgraded XPeng to Hold from Buy with a price target of $11.30, down from $40.50, after the Q3 net loss widened and Q4 revenue guidance came in below the firm’s expectations. Wang cut 2022-2024 delivery and earnings forecasts and roll forward valuation to 2023 following XPeng’s Q3 results and Q4 guidance.

MACH-E PRODUCTION: Ford has produced its 150,000th Mustang Mach-E since starting production nearly two years ago, a significant milestone as the company scales EV production to a rate of 600,000 annually by late 2023 and more than 2M annually by 2026. Almost all of Mustang Mach-E’s growth to date is coming from customers replacing an internal combustion vehicle with electric – 8 in 10 U.S. customers and 9 in 10 European customers – proving that Ford is creating electric vehicles that meet broad customer needs. The Mustang Mach-E is available in 37 countries across the world for 2023, up from 22 in the vehicle’s first year. New Zealand, Brazil and Argentina are among the latest markets added to the Mustang Mach-E stable. Global growth comes as Ford upgrades Cuautitlan Stamping and Assembly Plant – which built the 150,000th vehicle – to support even more customers.

U.S. TARIFFS: Four Chinese solar-cell manufacturers circumvented U.S. tariffs by routing some of their operations through Southeast Asia, The Wall Street Journal’s Yuka Hayashi reports, citing the results of a Commerce Department investigation. The companies found to have circumvented the tariffs are Canadian Solar (CSIQ), Trina Solar Science & Technology (TSL), BYD, and Vina Sola, according to people familiar with the matter. The outcome of the probe won’t lead to immediate increases in solar tariffs because in June the president implemented a two-year suspension of duties to give importers time to make adjustments, the report notes. Other publicly traded companies in the space include Array Technologies (ARRY), FTC Solar (FTCI), First Solar (FSLR), JinkoSolar (JKS), Maxeon Solar (MAXN), ReneSola (SOL), Shoals Technologies (SHLS), SolarEdge (SEDG) and SunPower (SPWR).

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