Michael O’Brian of the Worldwide Hearth Chiefs Association and volunteer firefighter David Dalrymple go over EV battery fires and why to start with responders are currently unprepared to overcome the very long-burning flames.
A stunning online video displays a row of electrical F-150s bursting into flames right after EV batteries overheated and caught on fire.
Individuals preventing the flames say they are at the moment unprepared to mitigate the looming disaster that could consequence from a escalating number of EVs hitting the highway in the close to upcoming.
David Dalrymple, a volunteer firefighter, and Michael O’Brian of the Worldwide Hearth Chiefs Affiliation say the very long-burning blaze starts off with the vehicles’ lithium batteries and a chemical response that fuels itself.
GM DITCHING CHEVY BOLT, SHIFTING TO Electrical Vans
A row of electric powered F-150s caught hearth just after an EV battery overheated. (Fox News)
“It really is a absolutely unique pathway than most firefighters have to deal with,” Dalrymple stated Wednesday on Fox Information Channel’s “Fox & Friends Initial.”
He stated how the overheated batteries inside the motor vehicles produce a fire that can linger for several hours and is next to unattainable to extinguish.
“Generally, it is a chemical response,” he discussed. “It really is not a typical fire wherever fireplace demands oxygen to burn. This is a chemical reaction that tends to make its possess oxygen. It really is an exothermic response.”
CHEVRON, EXXON Acquiring CLEANER Fuel AS Option TO EVS
Volunteer firefighter David Dalrymple stated Wednesday on ‘Fox & Pals First’ that EV battery fires pose a distinctive issue for initial responders. | Fox Information
O’Brian said he is concerned about initial responders who at the moment absence education and methods to struggle these prolonged-burning fires and avoid decline of lifestyle when seconds count.
In accordance to O’Brian, gasoline-run cars can typically be extinguished inside 5 minutes and the website cleanup time is somewhat quick. Electric autos, even so, can take several hours to rein in due to the fact of their distinctive distinctions.
“We are now dealing with two-moreover-hour incidents, and we can’t actively extinguish this fire when the battery pack is concerned, so hearth crews are seriously compelled with two main selections – do we actively great the battery pack, which is seeking to end that propagation within that battery pack, or do we just let it go?” he reported.
PEPSICO TO USE Above 700 EVS FOR FRITO-LAY DELIVERIES BY YEAR’S Close
The 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning truck is revealed after winning the NACTOY 2023 North American Truck of The 12 months Award at the 2023 North American Automobile, Truck, and Utility Automobile of the Calendar year Awards on Jan. 11, 2023 in Pontiac, Michigan. (Invoice Pugliano/Getty Photographs / Getty Illustrations or photos)
EV battery fires also enhance the need for upticks in fireplace hydrant installations, specifically in locations close to freeways wherever they are considerably less widespread, he extra.
“You can find a great deal of modify that is going to be taking place, and it is really not just our electrified autos. This dialogue is taking place in our structures, it truly is happening in the recycling market, and you are going to see, as we establish much more batteries, as we create a lot more EVs, that implies far more products and solutions are going to be on the highway as we shift to get these to assembly plants… and our hearth crews are likely to be continually challenged every day.”
Automotive professional Mike Caudill discusses the Biden administration’s endeavor to remake the vehicle field on ‘The Major Income Show.’
Aside from combustibility, other electric motor vehicle concerns linger amid critics, which include price and problems that charging the motor vehicles could overwhelm the electrical power grid in some spots.
Fears coincide with an EV thrust from the Biden administration, which include President Biden, Electrical power Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and the Environmental Security Company, who just lately proposed intense restrictions cracking down on fuel-driven motor vehicle emissions, likely impacting future automobile models for the a long time 2027 to 2032.
Click on Right here TO GET THE FOX Enterprise Application
Fox News’ Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.
SHANGHAI — Global and Chinese automakers approach to unveil much more than a dozen new electrical SUVs, sedans and muscle vehicles this 7 days at the Shanghai car clearly show, their very first complete-scale income event in 4 several years in a market place that has turn into a workshop for producing electrics, self-driving cars and other technology.
Automakers are competing to roll out faster, a lot more luxurious, a lot more aspect-drenched electrical automobiles in the technology’s largest, most crowded marketplace. The ruling Communist Occasion has invested billions of pounds in subsidies to invest in an early guide in an rising marketplace. Established world-wide brand names encounter powerful competition from Chinese rivals.
For the very first time due to the fact 2019, executives are traveling in from the United States, Europe and Japan for the world’s largest auto display soon after anti-virus curbs that blocked most journey into China had been lifted in December. Auto demonstrates in the industry’s major marketplace went forward for the duration of the pandemic, but on a more compact scale. World wide brands were represented by staff of their China functions.
Motorists in the world’s major car industry acquired 5.4 million pure-electrical autos past calendar year, or about two-thirds of the world-wide whole of 8 million, as well as 1.5 million gasoline-electrical hybrids. That was additional than a single-quarter of total automobile gross sales of 23.6 million. This year’s EV profits are forecast to rise a further 30{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996}.
“Consumers dropped interest in gasoline cars and trucks. That is the most important challenge for foreign manufacturers to compete in China,” claimed market analyst John Zeng of LMC Automotive. “They are likely to have to demonstrate their most effective EV solutions.”
Beijing is winding down governing administration assist and shifting the stress to automakers by demanding them to earn credits for EV gross sales. Companies are pouring billions of bucks into establishing products that can compete on price tag and features with no subsidies. Several are forming partnerships to share soaring charges.
Auto Shanghai 2023 fills the cavernous Shanghai exhibition heart, a 1.5 million-sq.-meter (16 million-square-foot) subcontinent of a setting up that is between the world’s most significant.
Volkswagen AG, the country’s major-providing model, suggests it plans to display screen 28 styles, 50 percent of them electrified. VW suggests it will debut its ID.7 limousine, which guarantees a 700-kilometer (435-mile) range on a person cost.
China’s BYD Car, which competes with Tesla Inc. for the title of world’s most significant-advertising electric automaker, suggests it will display for the initial time its U9 supercar from its luxurious Yangwang model. The automaker says the U9, with a 1 million yuan ($145,000) sticker cost, can speed up from zero to 100 kph (60 mph) in two neck-straining seconds.
China’s car gross sales peaked in 2017 at 24.7 million but collapsed in 2020 to 20.2 million just after dealerships shut as section of endeavours to contain COVID-19. They are recovering but are nonetheless to return to the pre-pandemic amount.
The ruling party’s guidance for EV enhancement is component of strategies to obtain prosperity and international influence by reworking China into a creator of successful systems.
That campaign has strained relations with Washington and other buying and selling companions, which are reducing off entry to advanced processor chips made use of by makers of smartphones, electric powered cars and trucks and other large-tech items. China’s have foundries can offer very low-conclude chips employed in many cars but not processors for artificial intelligence and other sophisticated functions.
Product sales of gasoline-electrical hybrids and pure-electric motor vehicles rose 26.2{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} around a yr ago in the very first a few months of 2023 to 1.6 million, in accordance to the China Association of Auto Suppliers. Profits of pure electrics rose 14.4{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} to 1.2 million even though hybrids amplified 75.1{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} to 433,000.
Tesla and some other models slice charges by 5{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} to 15{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} starting up in January right after revenue progress slowed, while to even now-sturdy stages as opposed with the slack U.S. and European markets. That prompted warnings the squeeze on an marketplace with dozens of fledgling models could possibly power more compact automakers into mergers or out of small business.
China also is, alongside with the United States, a chief in progress of self-driving taxis and vehicles.
Baidu Inc., ideal identified as a search engine operator, is the most prominent amid developers that also incorporate Pony.ai. Geely Team, proprietor of Volvo Cars and trucks, Lotus and Polestar, has announced ideas for satellite-linked autonomous automobiles. Community devices maker Huawei Technologies Ltd. is performing on self-driving mining and industrial autos.
Baidu and Pony.ai acquired China’s very first licenses to present autonomous experience-hailing providers in Beijing with a security driver aboard to consider about in the celebration of an crisis in 2022. That came 18 months after Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo began driverless trip-hailing service in Phoenix, Arizona.
“We see pretty potent guidance from the governing administration,” stated Jason Small of Canalys.
At the automobile clearly show, Chinese brand name Aito programs to screen its new M5 SUV with autonomous technological know-how developed in an alliance with Huawei Systems Ltd. The telecom equipment maker is increasing into the automobile and other industries just after U.S. sanctions imposed in a feud with Beijing above technologies crushed Huawei’s smartphone enterprise.
China’s marketplace is so substantial that even models whose strongest promoting place is roaring, gasoline-powered engines are embracing electrics.
BMW AG states its full motor vehicle lineup at Automobile Shanghai will be electrified. The German activity luxury brand name claims it will unveil two new types, the i7 M70L and XM Red Label, and exhibit its M760Le in China for the initially time.
Italy’s Maserati, a Stellantis device regarded for making use of higher-effectiveness Ferrari engines, options to unveil its 1st electric powered SUV and says its electric sporting activities auto will get an Asia premiere.
Chinese luxury EV model NIO Inc., which competes with Tesla at the top quality conclude of the current market, strategies to exhibit its most up-to-date SUV, the ES6. It guarantees a 610-kilometer (380-mile) array on one demand.
Mercedes Benz programs to unveil an electrical SUV less than its luxury Maybach manufacturer and two SUVs. The enterprise also has EV joint ventures with BYD Vehicle and Geely Group.
Toyota suggests it designs to unveil two new styles in its bZ line of zero-emissions automobiles. Nissan programs to exhibit its Max-Out electric convertible concept auto. Honda is debuting a new prototype for its China-concentrated e:N electric model.
Despite this kind of investments, Western and Japanese brand names will need to be far more aggressive about EV progress to preserve up with China’s fast evolution, reported LMC’s Zeng. He claimed quite a few get way too prolonged to build types abroad without having Chinese input.
“The design they carry to China lags powering Chinese models by 3 or 4 many years in driving selection and gear,” Zeng reported. “They have to understand to design and take a look at cars in China for China.”
In the ever-evolving technological planet, revolutionary solutions are a main driving pressure across industries. Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE:EMR), a worldwide technology and engineering firm, has been at the forefront of providing these answers to its customers across business, industrial, and shopper marketplaces. Recently, Curbstone Economic Administration Corp took discover and bought a new stake in the business.
According to the most recent Variety 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, Curbstone Financial Administration Corp procured 4,982 shares of EMR inventory valued at somewhere around $479,000. This go has grabbed the focus of investors who are eager on following Curbstone’s economical investments.
EMR gives an amalgam of items and expert services that incorporate engineering with engineering abilities to produce impressive solutions encompassing Automation Alternatives, AspenTech, Professional and Residential Solutions, Local climate Systems, and Instruments and Household Merchandise. The enterprise has been catering to its customers’ needs for several years now.
Shares of EMR opened on Monday at $82.89 with their 50-working day straightforward moving ordinary of $86.08 and their 200-day straightforward transferring typical at $87.73 respectively. It is pertinent to take note that EMR has a debt-to-fairness ratio of .49 alongside with existing ratio metrics standing at 1.10 alongside with brief ratios registering at .86.
Seeking deeper into this financial investment conclusion shows that it was not devoid of risk certainly- any investment carries some diploma of danger! On the other hand EMR offers an beautiful proposition because of to its constant track record as demonstrated by trading metrics involving its higher selling price tag ($100) – which it could quickly exceed- and very low pricing ($72). With these moves in information-backed tactics Curbstone Economic seems to be on training course for successful huge in investing.
Emerson Electric powered Co’s market capitalization is valued near to $47 Billion currently—and rightly so! Its economical indicators continue to be powerful with a P/E ratio of 10.52, PEG ratio of 2.40, beta of 1.39 signifying a powerful keep in the current market.
In conclusion, Emerson Electric Co’s systems and at any time-evolving engineering abilities have positioned them at the forefront of considerable improvements across industrial, industrial and customer markets with good returns for traders who can leverage varied approaches for healthful financial investment yields. Curbstone Economical Administration Corp’s expenditure was well timed and based on an astute evaluation completed on elementary metrics solidifying EMR’s standing as an desirable long-term wager on shares that could exceed its $100 prime pricing degree in the coming quarters.
Emerson Electrical Co. Announces Variations in Shareholdings and Score from Analysts
Emerson Electric Co., a international know-how and engineering organization, lately declared variations to its shareholdings as quite a few massive traders modified their stakes in the corporation. RB Cash Management boosted its stake in shares of Emerson Electric powered by 3.{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} in the initially quarter to own 5,358 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $525,000 following shopping for an supplemental 155 shares in the previous quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. obtained a new stake in shares of Emerson Electric powered in the course of the 1st quarter really worth $116,000 although Prudential PLC acquired a new posture in shares during the exact same time period value $1,215,000. Sequoia Fiscal Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares by 17.5{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} in Q1 to now individual 9,521 shares of the inventory valued at $934,000 following buying an additional 1,418 shares for the duration of the period of time. Ultimately, Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings by 31.8{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} for the duration of Q1 to now possess 3,856 shares of Emerson Electric’s inventory well worth $378,000 following getting an extra 931 shares.
In the meantime a number of equities investigation analysts have issued rankings on EMR stocks with Wells Fargo & Firm boosting their value target from $90.00 to $95.00 and providing the inventory an “equal weight” ranking in a note on Wednesday November 30th while Argus decreased Emerson Electrical from a “buy” score to a “hold” rating on Tuesday February 14th.Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft also slash its price tag focus on to$93 and rated it “hold” while UBS Group lifted Emerson Electric powered from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” ranking but diminished their price concentrate on for the business from $100.00 to $97.00 . Among 13 analysts who rated this stock as a result of Bloomberg.com seven have issued a purchase ranking.
With regards to quarterly earnings outcomes which had been posted last February, Emerson Electric powered reported $.78 earnings for every share for the quarter, lacking analysts’ consensus estimates of $.88 by ($.10). On the other hand, the business had earnings of $3.37 billion for the quarter and its profits was up 6.9{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} on a 12 months-above-calendar year basis.
The organization also just lately introduced a quarterly dividend paid to shareholders of report on February 17th in the total of $.52 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 2.51{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996}. The ex-dividend day of this dividend was Thursday, February 16th.
Emerson Electric remains steadfast and resilient inside of their industry inspite of modern shuffles with their shareholdings and ratings from equities investigation analysts.
‘Mornings with Maria’ panel discusses Fed coverage and the SEC’s get in touch with for transparency from private firms.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk reported that President Biden “is managing the American general public like fools” after Biden met with executives from rival vehicle businesses Normal Motors and Ford Motor previously this 7 days.
Biden invited GM CEO Mary Barra and Ford CEO Jim Farley to the White House along with other business enterprise leaders to explore his administration’s $1.75 trillion Make Back Greater laws, which has stalled in the evenly break up Senate right after U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., refused to support the laws.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is found in Grünheide, close to Berlin, Germany, Aug. 13, 2021. (Getty Images)
The massive investing bill would bump up the $7,500 tax credit history to $12,500 for union-manufactured electric powered automobiles and would also make GM and Tesla qualified for the present tax credit score yet again immediately after they hit the 200,000-car or truck restrict for the credit rating.
Biden touted GM’s latest $7 billion investment decision in Michigan to ramp up electric automobile generation.
“Companies like GM and Ford are setting up much more electric automobiles listed here at house than ever ahead of,” the president tweeted soon after the assembly, prompting the response from Musk that Biden was dealing with the American public “like fools.”
President Biden is witnessed in the South Courtroom Auditorium of the Eisenhower Government Workplace Setting up of the White Property Elaborate. (Getty Photographs)
Musk also tweeted that “Biden is a moist [sock] puppet in human variety” and “Commences with a T, Finishes with an A, ESL in the center.”
Former criticism
It is really not the initial time that Musk has taken shots at Biden. The electrical auto pioneer claimed in September that the administration was “it’s possible a minimal biased” and “seems to be managed by unions.”
The Massive Three U.S. automakers – GM, Ford, and Stellantis – are the premier companies of the United Auto Workers labor union.
The president invited executives from all those a few providers to the White Household in August when signed an government buy with the target of creating all vehicles sold in the U.S. electric powered by 2030, but did not invite Musk.
Tesla vehicle plugged in and charging a Supercharger quick battery charging station for the electric powered motor vehicle corporation Tesla Motors, in Mountain Look at, California. (Getty Photographs)
Tesla noted file yearly income of $5.5 billion on Wednesday, which includes a fourth-quarter financial gain of $2.32 billion. That is up from its previous report of $3.47 billion in income in 2020, which was the firm’s 1st rewarding year.
GET FOX Business enterprise ON THE GO BY CLICKING Listed here
Despite the vivid earnings report, shares of Tesla stock slid 11.55{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} to $829.10 on Thursday amid ongoing supply chain difficulties.
Leading providers have differentiated themselves from the competitors by securing sturdy positions in multiple charging apps in many geographies
BOULDER, Colo., Jan. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — A new report from Guidehouse Insights assesses the tactic and execution of 20 leading suppliers of electric car or truck (EV) cost issue networking providers, with ChargePoint and Enel X ranked as the market place leaders.
(PRNewsfoto/Guidehouse Insights)
The fleet of plug-in EVs is on program to grow massively as governments and businesses employ new targets for greenhouse gasoline (GHG) emissions. Networking platforms are essential to hook up a lot of entities in the EV charging ecosystem by discovering out there demand points, accessing pricing data, taking care of transactions, and collaborating in grid operator demand from customers management courses. According to a Leaderboard report from Guidehouse Insights, ChargePoint and Enel X are the major EV charger networking organizations.
“Estimates display that in excess of 185 million EVs will be in use by 2030 alongside with approximately 170 million charge factors to help this fleet,” suggests Scott Shepard, principal research analyst with Guidehouse Insights. “This desire is making a large prospect for charge position networking platforms.”
A lot of of the businesses that path these leaders are in a strong position to foster solid partnerships with regional industry gatekeepers but have to have to develop their present organization to serve a wider selection of charging programs and achieve a broader international footprint.
The report, Guidehouse Insights Leaderboard: EV Charger Networking Corporations, examines the tactic and execution of 20 major companies of EV demand issue networking corporations. These suppliers are rated on eight conditions: Go-to-Market place Strategy, Associates, Item Method, Geographic Get to, Income, Merchandise Portfolio, Keeping Power, and Innovation. Using Guidehouse Insights’ proprietary Leaderboard methodology, suppliers are profiled, rated, and ranked with the objective of offering field members with an aim evaluation of these companies’ relative strengths and weaknesses in the EV charge position networking current market. An govt summary of the report is accessible for absolutely free obtain on the Guidehouse Insights website.
About Guidehouse Insights Guidehouse Insights, the focused current market intelligence arm of Guidehouse, delivers investigation, data, and benchmarking solutions for today’s fast switching and hugely controlled industries. Our insights are developed on in-depth examination of world clean up know-how marketplaces. The team’s exploration methodology brings together source-aspect sector evaluation, conclude-user most important exploration, and desire evaluation, paired with a deep assessment of technological know-how developments, to give a extensive watch of emerging resilient infrastructure methods. Further info about Guidehouse Insights can be identified at www.guidehouseinsights.com.
About Guidehouse Guidehouse is a top worldwide supplier of consulting products and services to the public sector and professional markets, with broad abilities in management, know-how, and hazard consulting. By combining our general public and non-public sector abilities, we enable clients deal with their most elaborate challenges and navigate important regulatory pressures focusing on transformational improve, enterprise resiliency, and engineering-pushed innovation. Throughout a variety of advisory, consulting, outsourcing, and electronic providers, we develop scalable, progressive methods that enable our customers outwit complexity and placement them for upcoming advancement and achievement. The company has additional than 12,000 professionals in above 50 locations globally. Guidehouse is a Veritas Cash portfolio firm, led by seasoned gurus with demonstrated and numerous knowledge in common and emerging systems, marketplaces, and agenda-location problems driving countrywide and international economies. For far more details, you should take a look at www.guidehouse.com.
* The data contained in this push launch relating to the report, Guidehouse Insights Leaderboard: EV Charger Networking Firms,is a summary and displays the present-day expectations of Guidehouse Insights dependent on market info and trend analysis. Current market predictions and expectations are inherently unsure and actual outcomes could vary materially from those people contained in this press release or the report. Be sure to refer to the complete report for a finish being familiar with of the assumptions fundamental the report’s conclusions and the methodologies employed to make the report. Neither Guidehouse Insights nor Guidehouse undertakes any obligation to update any of the information contained in this push release or the report.
For a lot more facts, make contact with:
Jennifer Peacock +1.404.575.3859 jpeacock@guidehouse.com
For a certain sector of the economy the past week has been electric.
Item 1: Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk polls his Twitter followers if he should sell his Tesla shares. They say yes. TSLA tanks on the news and Musk loses $50 billion. Then Musk sells 5.2 million shares or $5.8 billion of stock (as of Friday.) Tesla shares rally. Musk is still the richest man in the world.
Item 2: On Tuesday, electric truck maker Rivian goes public. Its stock soars 29{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} in the biggest IPO since the company formerly known as Facebook debuted in 2012. Rivian’s (RIVN) market value of $100 billion is bigger than Ford’s or GM’s.
Item 3: Also on Tuesday, Hertz, which had its IPO this week, confirms it is going to buy 100,000 Teslas, highlighted in an ad campaign, “Let’s Go!” featuring Tom Brady.
So the week might sound kind of bananas but in this quarter of the business universe, that’s actually pretty much SOP. It’s also the case that EVs, Elon and all things electric aren’t fringe anymore. They’re a massive, rapidly growing and increasingly core part of our world. This week’s New Yorker cover pretty much sums it up — Don Quixote looking to tilt a cluster of giant wind turbines. You don’t want to fight this.
Welcome then to the new Economy Electric.
What do I mean by that? Simply that there is a revolution happening right now that’s transforming all businesses, which use engines that burn fossil fuel, and forcing them over to electric power. It’s begun with cars, (though we’re still early days at least in the U.S.) “EV sales have been skyrocketing over the last couple years,” says Ram Chandrasekaran, an EV analyst at Wood Mackenzie.
“In the first three quarters, we’ve already exceeded all of 2020 sales. It’s been an exceptionally strong year. 70{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} are coming from China and Europe. In China and Europe they’re firmly in the mainstream now. In the U.S., EV sales have been lagging compared to China and Europe around 6{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} or so,” he said. That will change.
And there’s everything else. Like motorcycles, boats, and some day planes and all forms of transportation. And then there’s generators, farm tractors and so on. It is a massive shift and it’s coming right now.
At this point — Rivian notwithstanding — it’s mostly, one man, one company and one stock: Elon Musk and Tesla. So much has been written about Musk and Tesla, I’ll just boil it down to this: Musk is a visionary. And Tesla is groundbreaking. Those two statements are unassailable and are immutable regardless of what Musk does or what happens to the company, car or stock going forward.
Certainly the market has more than validated this. Beyond the fact that Tesla has cumulatively sold more than 2 million cars, consider that Musk, the personification of the electric revolution, is worth some $294 billion, (way richer than Jeff Bezos — $200 billion), and up $124 billion this year. And of course Musk’s vision and strategy encompass much more than just Tesla, which is an element of an electric ecosystem he’s building including SolarCity and a distributed power grid.
Tesla’s trillion dollar market capitalization — the most valuable car company on the planet — is of course tough to justify. “I don’t want to make any serious comment about Tesla’s market cap — it being higher than the next seven or eight automakers combined is somewhat comical,” says Chandrasekaran. But he adds: “That’s how things are sometimes.” (It’s ironic that Tesla is on this kind of trajectory, while GE, a company rooted in the history of humanity’s taming of electricity, is now a shadow of its former self and being broken up.)
FILE – Tesla and SpaceX Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition in Washington on March 9, 2020. After making a promise on Twitter, the Tesla CEO has sold about 900,000 shares of the electric car maker’s stock, netting over $1.1 billion that will go toward paying tax obligations for stock options. The sales, disclosed in two regulatory filings late Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021, will cover tax obligations for stock options granted to Musk in September. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
But Tesla won’t be the only (dare I say) blue chip e-company forever. In fact one of the most serious parlor games on Wall Street right now is picking which other e-businesses will become dominant tomorrow. I want to go through some of these companies, but before that, some brief history about, yes, electricity.
The word “electric” comes from the Latin word electricus (“of amber” or “like amber,” also the elektron, the Greek word for “amber”) because one way we humans first became aware of electricity was when amber is rubbed it becomes magnetic.
Yes, Ben Franklin was an early pioneer. Some version of the kite and the key story may in fact be true. But no, Franklin didn’t “invent” electricity, (any more than Columbus “discovered” the new world.) Franklin did help harness it and maybe coined the phrase “electric battery.”
Other giants in the history of electricity include the likes of Thomas Edison, (who among many other things, was a co-founder of the aforementioned General Electric company.) His rivalry with George Westinghouse (AC versus DC) makes for an excellent movie, “The Current War,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Edison (I know, really?) There’s also of course the amazing Nikola Tesla, the namesake of two EV makers, which I wrote about here.
Then there’s British physicist Michael Faraday, who in 1850 was asked by William Gladstone, then the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the practical value of electricity was. “One day sir, you may tax it,” was Faraday’s retort.
A quick word about Industrial Revolutions. The first one, from 1760 to 1820, wasn’t about electricity at all and was in fact driven by localized steam engines, textile looms, the cotton gin and other simply powered machines. The Second Industrial Revolution however, from 1870 to 1914, is when electrification began which led to the creation of giant steel, chemical businesses and scores of other industries as well.
Of course electricity was used for cars early on and for rails and buses right through, but the powerful oil and gas industries promoted internal combustion engines at the expense of electrics from the early 20th century right up to, well now. (“Who Killed the Electric Car” is just a recent example of many such stories.)
But now that’s all changing. Why? Awareness of global warming for one. Erika Myers, a senior EV analyst at the World Resources Institute, thinks electrifying the economy is “our best chance” to address climate change. “I would not say EVs are a silver bullet,” she adds. “There needs to be a lot of strategies for transportation. Transport is 25{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of global carbon dioxide emissions and fossil fuels have provided 95{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of transportation fuels up to this point.”
“There’s not enough biofuels — you can’t do enough sequestration to get there,” says Saul Griffith, co-founder and chief scientist at Rewiring America, as well as the author of “Electrify: An Optimist’s Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future.” “80{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} or 90{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of our energy system has to go electric. People say hydrogen but hydrogen starts with green electricity.”
Remember too that technology is driving down the cost of going electric.
Rivian Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe, left, unveils the first-ever electric adventure vehicle before its official reveal at the LA Auto Show at Griffith Observatory on Monday, Nov. 26, 2018 in Los Angeles. (Carlos Delgado/AP Images for Rivian)
Now back to the new electric companies. First, because the first wave of this third revolution has been cars, the category is usually referred to as EVs, (electric vehicles). But when you look up, say a list of best EV stocks, (like this one and this one), they invariably include battery makers and other suppliers as well.
There are a handful of EV ETFs, such as this one and this one that focuses on China plays, but most are still small and not really pure plays, i.e. they hold, say, diversified chipmakers that produce chips for EVs, but also have major other lines of business as well.
Here then are a few categories:
CARS AND TRUCKS
“Even Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which I’d hardly call radical, estimates in 2025, 2026 the electric vehicle will cost less in the showroom than an internal combustion engine,” says Saul Griffith. “When electric vehicles are more cost efficient in 2025 — it has flipped in China, in Norway — then it’s game over.”
There are EV makers selling right now, Tesla but also Lucid and Rivian. (BTW, Musk’s arch rival Jeff Bezos’s company Amazon is a large investor in Rivian.) In China you have NIO, (a very popular ticker here at Yahoo Finance), BYD (which Charlie Munger has invested in), Xpeng and Li. Then there are those that shall we say, are on more extended timelines like Fisker (FSR), Canoo (GOEV), Faraday Future (FFIE), Lordstown (RIDE) and Xos (XOS).
Obviously Rivian has been the talk of the town, which as my colleague Rick Newman notes, is a bit bizarro, “Electric-vehicle startup Rivian [with its giant market cap] has never sold a vehicle until this year. GM sells around 7 million vehicles per year; Ford, 4 million.”
True that Rick. But sometimes Mr. Market likes bizarro.
Another interesting point about Rivian to consider. DataTrek suggests that: “Rivian is the first legitimate competition Tesla has ever had in terms of institutional investor interest. That could pull capital out of TSLA, and therefore the S&P 500.”
Of course Elon couldn’t resist a poke Tweet at Rivian:
Some are saying that now is the time to sell Tesla, as in “Own Tesla Stock? Be Like Elon Musk and Sell” in the Wall Street Journal this week. Who knows, maybe this time the skeptics will be right. Ark Invests’ Cathie Wood is still a believer though, saying the recent dip in Tesla is, “is nothing but a blip,” on the way to her price target of $3,000.
MOTORCYCLES
What makes people love motorcycles; the noise, the vibration, the smell is exactly what electric motorcycles obviate. And of course, any self-respecting Harley rider would scoff at all that. (My colleague Pras Subramanian, who covers EVs and all things electric, details all in this primer on e-bikes.) In spite of or perhaps because of all that, I think e-motorcycles are going to be a home run. Here you have newbies like Zero Motorcycles and NIU (e-scooters) as well as Volcon (VLCN), a manufacturer of electric motorcycles, and ATVs based near Austin, “an area that is poised to become the electric vehicle capital of the world.”
“With our current products, we found out 50{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of people ordering directly from us hadn’t ridden a motorcycle before,” says CEO Jordan Davis. “Our bike doesn’t require a clutch; it doesn’t require a shifting of gears. You don’t need to be mechanically inclined — there’s no spark plug, no oil changes. Maintenance on the bike is very, very low.”
Wouldn’t you kill to be a fly on the wall at Harley-Davidson, which has an electric motorcycle called LiveWire, as they discuss all this?
BATTERY MAKERS
I get out of my depth pretty quickly here, so I’ll keep it short. This article is a great starting point. Bottom line: Most of the know-how and manufacturing is in China, which brings global politics into play as outlined in this New York Times guest essay by Steve LeVine, editor of The Electric, a publication focused on batteries and electric vehicles. His most recent book is “The Powerhouse: America, China and the Great Battery War.” (I’m telling you there is so much here.)
SPACS
Unlike the other categories here, SPACs are an investment vehicle through which many e-companies choose to go public. Kristi Marvin, CEO and founder of SPACInsider.com and her team put together some numbers. Simply put EVs are big on SPACs. Since the beginning of 2020, when SPACs began to boom, 23 EV SPACs have been announced or completed including SPACs for Lordstown, Fisker, Lucid and Nikola, with a total enterprise value today of $67 billion, the second biggest SPAC category after tech.
The Volta, an all electric helicopter takes off at the Paris Heliport in Issy-les-Moulineaux, France, October 19, 2016. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
PLANES AND HELICOPTERS
Even more speculative here. “Right now batteries are just too heavy to be used successfully in commercial flights,” says Erika Myers. (There’s also the question of whether anyone would fly in an electric plane, nevermind helicopter?) Still this too could be coming. There are numerous commercial projects underway, including those by Airbus, Cessna and EasyJet, as well as startups like Wright Electric (“All short flights can be zero-emissions starting in 2026.”) And check out the Pipistrel Velis Electro, plane of the year. As for choppers, going back to 1917 apparently there was an electrically-powered tethered job. (Yikes.) Sikorsky’s been working on the Firefly for a decade. Here too there are myriad projects that include hybrids and unmanned models. (That sounds better to me!)
And that would include GM and Ford, right? It’s kind of funny to put these two legacy giants in an “other” category, but yes, they too could be major EV companies… soon. In fact they better be. There are signs. Ford stock has quadrupled (to $19) since its COVID-19 low in March 2020 based to a large degree over optimism of achieving this transformation. (GM has tripled to $60 over the same time period.) For Ford, developing an electric F-150 is critical. “To take something so central to Ford’s entire brand image and make an electric version and price it at a price point that’s extremely competitive, I think is a great achievement and is going to make a huge impact in the coming years,” says Ram Chandrasekaran.
And then there are the others. Ferrari is going electric, at $320K a pop. (What’s a Ferrari without the VROOM, I wonder…) And so is the aforementioned Hertz. Hertz CEO and former Ford CEO Mark Fields telling Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi: “We are excited about the Tesla relationship. It’s all wrapped around our strategy to lead the adoption of electric vehicles.”
Everybody’s in on the act because, well, you want to be in on the act, but also because you do it or you die.
Sound like an investment slam dunk? Not exactly. I’m sure there are fortunes to be had for VCs and for ordinary people as well, (like buying TSLA two years ago when it was $70 — it’s now $1,045.) But please, please, please caveat emptor here. There’s all kinds of risk. For instance, hydrogen-powered vehicles for instance might make a quantum leap and win out over EVs.
I’m also reminded of something Warren Buffett said back in 1999: “There’s a lot of difference between making money and spotting a wonderful industry.” Here’s how Buffett expounded:
“You know, the two most important industries in the first half of this century in the United States — in the world, probably — were the auto industry and the airplane industry. Here you had these two discoveries, both in the first decade — essentially in the first decade — of the century. And if you’d foreseen, in 1905 or thereabouts, what the auto would do to the world, let alone this country, or what the airplane would do, you might have thought that it was a great way to get rich. But very, very few people got rich by being — by riding the back of that auto industry. And probably even fewer got rich by participating in the airline industry over that time. I mean, millions of people are flying around every day. But the number of people who’ve made money carrying them around is very limited. And the capital has been lost in that business, the bankruptcies. It’s been a terrible business. It’s been a marvelous industry. So you do not want to necessarily equate the prospects of growth for an industry with the prospects for growth in your own net worth by participating in it.”
Meaning in some cases it might be great to be a customer, i.e., to own an EV, but it might not be as great to an EV shareholder. To wit: Living in the electric economy might be more rewarding and enjoyable than investing in it.
This article was featured in a Saturday edition of the Morning Brief on November 13, 2021. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe
Andy Serwer is editor-in-chief of Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: @serwer
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
