Tesla Stares At Q3 Deliveries Miss, Rivian Not Losing Sleep Over Cybertruck, Nio's Rumored German Tie-Up And More: Biggest EV Stories Of The Week

Electric vehicle stocks ended mostly higher in the week that ended on Sept. 29, even as the broader market showed muted sentiment despite the oversold levels. Tesla, Inc. TSLA stock bounced around its recent bottom and yet closed slightly higher for the week.

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

Tesla Q3 Delivery Expectations, Musk’s Warning On UAW Strike And More: As Tesla prepares to release its third-quarter deliveries, sell-side made eleventh-hour adjustments to its estimates to discount production suspension at the Giga Shanghai and Giga Texas plants. The former plant was gearing up for the manufacturing of the Model 3 refresh and the latter for the Cybertruck.

Company-compiled consensus shared by Tesla puts deliveries at 455,000 units compared to the Bloomberg-compiled consensus of 457,000 units, said Future Fund’s Gary Black. Black estimates a more modest deliveries of 445,000 units.

“We continue to expect investors to overlook any reasonable miss (445K-455K) given the well-documented M-3 Highland transition (likely cost 15K-20K) and downtime for factory upgrades (likely cost ~10K),” the fund manager said.

On Friday, Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter lowered his estimates by 70,000 units to 445,000 and expressed a similar opinion regarding stock reaction.

As the United Auto Workers’ strike plays out, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk issued a stark warning. “They want a 40% pay raise *and* a 32 hour workweek. Sure way to drive GM, Ford and Chrysler bankrupt in the fast lane,” said Musk in a post.

Cybertruck continues to make buzz ahead of its launch. A 2024 model Cybertruck will be auctioned off at the Petersen Automotive Museum’s annual gala on Oct. 7, according to a post on X by a Tesla influencer.

See also: Best Electric Vehicle Stocks

Rivian Scaringe Shrugs Off Cybertruck Rivalry: Speaking at the Code Conference 2023, Rivian Automotive, Inc. RIVN CEO R.J. Scaringe said there wasn’t much of an overlap between the R1T electric pickup truck and Tesla’s Cybertruck. "If we truly want to electrify everything that's produced – to give us some scale – there are one-and-a-half billion cars on the planet, and we as a planet produce 90 million a year,” he said.

The Rivian executive also hinted at the likelihood of launching affordable EVs, and suggested the company would strive to bring costs down over time.

Lucid’s Saudi Factory: EV startup Lucid Group, Inc. LCID said its first international manufacturing plant has opened in Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah. The company, in 2022, signed an agreement with the country to sell up to 10,000 EVs over 10 years.

Faraday Future Plummets On Proposed Stock Sale: Shares of Faraday Future, which is in the process of marketing its FF 91 luxury performance EV, came crashing down this week, as the EV maker said it has entered into an “At-the-Market” equity offering that would allow it to sell its Class A common stock with an aggregate value of up to $90 million from time to time.

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Nio Gains On Partnership Rumors: Chinese EV startup Nio, Inc. NIO is rumored to have explored a partnership with German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz Group AG MBGAF. The collaboration could witness the German automaker investing in Nio, with the rumored deal also involving technology exchange. Incidentally, speculation regarding a partnership between these companies did the rounds earlier this year, after Nio’s peer XPeng, Inc. XPEV stitched a deal with Volkswagen AG VWAGY.

The KraneShares Electric Vehicles and Future Mobility Index ETF KARS ended the week up 0.73% at $27.54, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Read Next: Tesla Analyst Sees No Stock Sell-Off Even After Slashing Q3 Delivery Estimates, Bear Asks If This Is ‘High-School Cheerleading?’

EV Stock Performances for The Week:

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