Rivian and Lucid Are Toast

The discussion shifts to the EV market, highlighting significant sales increases for GM (NYSE: GM), Ford (NYSE: F), Hyundai-Kia, BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche in May. Ford, in particular, is gaining traction with the F-150 Lightning and Mustang Mach-E. Smaller players like Lucid (NASDAQ: LCID) and Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) are struggling, and their future seems bleak unless acquired. Despite improvements, widespread adoption remains limited, with only 21% of people considering an EV for their next purchase. Charging infrastructure and potential spikes in electricity prices are additional concerns. The entry of larger car companies into the market intensifies competition, making it harder for smaller companies to survive.

Transcript:

Let’s turn to the EV market, which we seem to do all the time.

Something interesting happened. I know Tesla has been soft.

GM and Ford both came out with double digit increases in EVs and hybrid sales recently during May.

It seems that Ford is finally getting a modest amount of traction with the F-150 Lightning pickup and their sort of crossover named for a sports car, Mustang Mach-E.

They had good sales there. Very good. They had them good there.

And I’ve also noticed that Hyundai-Kia starting to get very, very good sales out of their EV divisions.

And BMW, Mercedes and Porsche, they’re starting to get very strong sales in the United States out of their EVs.

So one of the things that’s happened is I don’t think you want to be one of the little guys in this business.

And you’ve got two of them right now people know about, but still lose gobs of money. And those are Lucid and Rivian.

So do you want to be a little guy in this market where really big guys are starting to do well?

No, they’re toast.

I can’t, I can’t, unless somebody goes in and buys either one of them and why would they, when they can vulture through the, you know, pieces.

Yeah, I think they’re toast. And I think that, in the long run, the EV sales will work because they’ll figure out a way to offer something at $25,000 or something like that.

But a lot of people just don’t trust it.

So yeah, I think sales will continue to be better than they were, especially for the big three.

But I don’t think they’ll ever be dominant, at least not in my lifetime.

Well, AP did a study in the last couple of days. And one of the points that came out is that only 21% of the people asked said that they would consider strongly an EV as their next car purchase.

Yeah, well, I think that gives you all the data you need because plain and simple, people don’t trust it.

And, you know, where I live here in southeast Louisiana, I know where there’s one charging place, one.

And it’s over near a shopping center that’s in Covington, Louisiana. That’s the only one I even know of.

And generally, when I drive by it, there’s one car there.

And I know a lot of people that have EVs can charge them at home.

But as we have talked about recently, if electricity prices start to spike, charging that car is not going to be that easy, especially if gas prices start to come down.

Yeah.

One of the other reasons I don’t want to be Lucid or Rivian is that people used to look at EVs in the United States as a one-horse race.

You had Tesla way out in front. You had people sort of on horses that never got out of the gate.

You actually now do have some traction among larger car companies, and that means that you are now fighting for a smaller and smaller piece of the pie.

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