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.

BEARISH FRESH PICK: Baird designated Tesla as a bearish Fresh Pick as a court decision ruled to strike down Elon Musk’s pay package which was initially drafted in 2018. The firm believes this will create a negative overhang on the stock until additional clarity is given and expects shares to trade down on this news. Baird maintains its Outperform rating and $300 price target on Tesla shares.

PROBE: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration upgraded its investigation into Tesla’s steering control to an engineering analysis. The agency’s investigation identified 2,388 total complaints regarding alleged loss of steering control in model years 2023 Tesla Model 3 and Y vehicles. The engineering analysis has been opened to characterize the conditions leading to- and stemming from failures with steering rack parts, the NHTSA announced.

RECALL: Tesla has begun releasing an over-the-air update for 2.2M cars, nearly all of its vehicles in the U.S., after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, warned the company that an issue with the cars’ warning lights could make them more likely to crash, Tom Carter of Business Insider says. The NHTSA said an incorrect font size was displayed on the instrument panels for the brake, park, and antilock brake system of the affect systems. The recall applies to certain X, S, Y, and 3 Models along with Tesla’s Cybertruck.

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

JANUARY DELIVERIES: XPeng (XPEV) announced its vehicle delivery results for January. In January, XPeng recorded monthly deliveries of 8,250 Smart EVs, representing a 58% increase year-over-year. In early January, the company launched its X9 Ultra Smart Large Seven-seater MPV, followed by immediate deliveries across more than 100 cities in China. In January, 2,478 X9s were delivered and orders for X9 Max trim accounted for approximately 70% of total X9 orders. The X9 has showcased its outstanding product competitiveness and cutting-edge smart technology, catering for the needs of families. The company is currently ramping up its production capacity for the X9 and accelerating the delivery for customers. Xpeng aims to extend its end-to-end XNGP coverage to major urban road networks, parking spaces, and private roads nationwide by 2024. Additionally, the company plans to initiate R&D on Highway NGP for overseas markets this year and on XNGP in 2025.

Meanwhile, Li Auto (LI) announced that the company delivered 31,165 vehicles in January, up 105.8% year over year. The cumulative deliveries of Li Auto vehicles reached 664,529 as of the end of January.

Nio (NIO) also announced its January delivery results. Nio delivered 10,055 vehicles in January, increasing by 18.2% year-over-year. The deliveries consisted of 6,307 premium smart electric SUVs, and 3,748 premium smart electric sedans. Cumulative deliveries of Nio vehicles reached 459,649 as of January 31. Nio has opened up its power swap network to the entire industry. In January, Nio signed strategic partnership agreements with JAC Group and Chery Automobile on battery swapping, following the previously announced cooperation with Changan Automoile and Geely Group. Additionally, Nio, along with other investors, jointly established Zhongan Energy, a company dedicated to advancing the establishment of an open and shared charging, swapping and energy storage network, in January 2024. Zhongan Energy targets to build 1,000 battery swap stations in China in the upcoming years. Moving forward, Nio expects to join hands with more partners to collectively contribute towards the development of power network and the wider adoption of battery swapping.

BUY PLUG POWER: Roth MKM upgraded Plug Power (PLUG) to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $9, up from $4.50. The firm cited the recent visit to the Georgia green hydrogen plant providing confidence that the facility is ramping smoothly and that all major technical issues are handled, addressing the firm’s prior concerns about backlog and margin visibility. Roth MKM added that it sees the first liquid hydrogen delivery from the facility taking place imminently.