Toronto, Ontario — In this week’s Tuesday Ticker, B.C. electric vehicle startup ElectraMeccanica sees an end-of-week upswing, Lyft unveils better-than-expected Q3 results and rumours of a rekindled partnership between General Motors and Nikola Corp. results in surges for the EV manufacturer.
Solo surges
British Columbia EV startup ElectraMeccanica saw its shares surge last week, despite a less-than-favourable take from a well-known short-seller.
ElectraMeccanica shares reached new all-time highs last week, seeing a near 40 percent increase to its shares on Friday, closing its Thursday out at US$9.64 and reaching US$12.76 come Friday morning.
One short-seller had some words for the Canadian company.
“$SOLO is a COMPLETE JOKE,” tweeted Citron Research, an online stock commentary. “Where other EV[s] might be overvalued, this is laughable. Under $6 mil R&D last 12 months and six cars delivered in two years…Nothing here…company run out of an apartment building.”
ElectraMeccanica builds the three-wheeled Solo EV—and has delivered six units since the company unveiled the model in 2016.
The company has a market cap of US$851.33 million.
As of 10:30 a.m. ET on Nov. 23, ElectraMeccanica shares sat at US$11.04—a 2.1 percent increase from Friday’s close of US$9.27.
Lyfted up
Ridesharing company Lyft recently announced financial results for its third quarter, surprising stakeholders with better-than-anticipated revenue and resulting in a six-percent surge to the company’s shares.
Lyft posted revenue of US$499.7 million, beating out the Zacks Consensus estimate of $497.4 million. The results mark a 47 percent increase from 2020’s second quarter, but a 48 percent decrease year-over-year.
Regardless, the ridesharing company saw its stock rise about 5.5 percent in after-hours trading following the release of its earnings report.
What’s next for Nikola
Last week, stock of both Nikola Corp. and General Motors spiked after rumours began circulating that the two companies had signed a deal in which GM would make Nikola’s heavy-duty electric pickup using its Ultium battery technology.
The rumours began when a press release referencing Nikola was spotted on GM’s website. However, GM spokesperson Jim Cain said “the transaction had not closed,” while Nikola spokesperson Colleen Robar echoed his statement.
Nonetheless, Nikola’s shared surged as much as 21 percent last Wednesday as investors searched for clues that a deal had been reached.
GM and Nikola first agreed to work together to develop battery and fuel cell electric vehicles in early September. GM was set to receive a US$2 billion equity share in Nikola and invest $4 billion in battery and powertrain costs over the next 10 years.
That deal, announced in September, was put on hold following a report from Hindenburg Research that alleged Nikola and its co-founder Trevor Milton committed fraud and deceived investors. The report labelled the automaker “an intricate fraud” and revealed it had been misleading in its vehicles’ displays.
Afterward, CEO Trevor Milton stepped down from his post, and the partnership between the two companies was put into question.
As a result of the delayed talks, speculation persists that the two companies may have trouble finding common ground on what the advantages may be moving forward.
