Tesla's Double Miss Spooks Investors, Rivian CEO Allays Liquidity Concerns, Lucid's Underwhelming Q3 Deliveries And More: Biggest EV Stories Of The Week

Benzinga – by Shanthi Rexaline, Benzinga Editor.

Electric vehicle stocks fell across the board in the week that ended on Oct. 21 amid the broader market weakness and a disappointing earnings report from frontrunner Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA). Shares of the company closed at their worst level since June 1.

Here are the key events that happened in the EV space during the week:

Tesla Disappointing Q2, Price Tinkerings, Cybertruck News And More: Tesla’s third-quarter earnings and revenue missed expectations, sending its stock sharply lower. The third-quarter marked the first time since the second quarter of 2019 that the company has missed both earnings and revenue expectations. Auto margin, excluding regulatory credits, a key operating metric analysts focus on, came in at 16.3%, well below the consensus estimate of 17.7%.

Future Fund’s Gary Black called the quality of earnings poor, given that the regulatory credits were notably higher than expected and that the tax rate was less than expected.

More importantly, Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s comments on the earnings call did not go down well with investors. He harped on the economic conditions and the difficulty in ramping up Cybertruck production, while failing to offer any clarity on the margin outlook. The company did, however, affirm its long-term delivery growth target of 50%+.

Following the quarterly results, Tesla made price adjustments in several regions. While the company raised the prices of its Model X Plaid all-wheel drive trim by 5.6% to $94,990 in the U.S., it cut prices of some Model 3 and Model Y variants in Canada.

Separately, Musk said in a post on X on Friday that the Cybertruck was absolutely bulletproof during testing. He noted that an “entire drum magazine of a Tommy gun” was emptied into the driver door ‘Al Capone style.’”

“No bullets penetrated into the passenger compartment,” he added.

We emptied the entire drum magazine of a Tommy gun into the driver door Al Capone style. No bullets penetrated into the passenger compartment.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 20, 2023

See also: Best Electric Vehicle Stocks

Scaringe Shrugs Off Liquidity Concerns: EV startup Rivian Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ:RIVN) CEO R.J. Scaringe told Reuters that the company’s recent $1.5 billion convertible green note offering does not reflect issues with its financial health. The new capital raise is meant to create an additional buffer ahead of the investments the company is planning for the manufacture of its smaller R2 family of EVs. Additionally, the company is looking to steer clear of the risk of having an overly constrained or over tight balance sheet, the executive said.

Lucid Q3 Deliveries Disappoint: The delayed third-quarter deliveries report from Lucid Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:LCID) dropped this week. The company only mustered deliveries of 1,457 EVs compared to the 2,000-unit consensus estimate, while producing 1,550 EVs. Over 700 additional vehicles were in transit to a new facility in Saudi Arabia for final assembly, the company said.

Lucid has a guided production of over 10,000 units for the year, leaving the company with a tall target of 3,263 units to meet for the final quarter of the year.

Faraday Future Shares Gain Following Non-Dilutive Capital Raise: Shares of Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIE) bucked the industry-wise downtrend this week, after the company said it exercised its option to purchase its Hanford, California manufacturing facility and completed a sale leaseback. This transaction is expected to generate up to $12 million of non-dilutive capital that the company hopes to use for the completion of plant improvements and infrastructure enhancements to facilitate FF 91 2.0 Futurist Alliance production ramp-up, it added.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

Toyota Joins Tesla Bandwagon: Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE:TM) confirmed this week that it has agreed to adopt Tesla’s North American Charging Standard for its battery EVs, beginning in 2025. “In line with Toyota’s vehicle electrification strategy that offers a plethora of options for electrified powertrains, Toyota and Lexus customers will have convenient access to more than 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across North America,” the company said in a statement.

The KraneShares Electric Vehicles and Future Mobility Index ETF (NYSE:KARS) ended the week down 1.67% at $24.66, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Read Next: Tesla’s ‘50% Growth Mirage’ Over, Says Bearish Analyst On Key Data Showing ‘Underwhelming’ Demand For Cybertruck, Refreshed Model 3

EV Stock Performances for The Week:

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