With all the well-deserved hype surrounding EV automobile startups fueled by near global zero emissions mandates and the success of Tesla, many investors are trying to figure out where and how best to invest in the paradigm shift. Although there are many companies focusing on the supporting infrastructure and technologies, today we focus on pure EV Auto plays defined as companies making or developing actual vehicles.
THE GOOD
One cannot begin any discussion on the subject without including Tesla (TSLA) who’s pioneering success in technological advancements, and performance as a business catapulted its stock to absurd evaluations making its founder Elon Musk the richest man in history. There is no argument that Tesla has proven its ability to develop, manufacture, and deliver desirable vehicles setting new industry standards while generating operational profits. It is also not likely that any lack of resources nor delays in production will cause it to disappear in the near future. That being said, its high stock price and absurd (by any method) valuation, coupled with a wave of new competitors has caused caution by many investors, exodus by others, and even extreme short positions are being taken by major players.
In fact, Bill Gates himself has been reported to have taken more than a 1 billion dollar short position in Telsa causing many other big players to follow suit and other investors to remove or at least thin out their Tesla holdings. Also of note is that investors simply do not like Elon’s purchase of Twitter citing that Elon already runs Space X and Tesla. If he is going to make the changes needed at Twitter his time and resources will be diluted, and there is fear that Tesla will suffer. This among other factors has caused Tesla (TSLA) to have fallen $66.04 Year to Date (YTD) from $864.37 to $734.00 declining 8.25% so far in what appears to be a steady selloff.
Despite this, because Tesla is executing its business plan, has capital to continue to develop new vehicles and or acquire other companies, and is the best known of all EV Auto companies we still believe that (TSLA) is a good investment long term. Just do not expect to buy stock today and get a return any time soon.
One should also take note that YTD most all other major EV Auto companies such as Lucid, Rivian, and Nikola have also suffered from YTD stock price reductions, yet none have the cache that Tesla does and therefore none made our GOOD designation, yet none qualify as TERRIBLE either.
THE TERRIBLE
It may go without saying but in case anyone is unaware or uninformed, our picks for the most terrible EV Auto Investments are very clear. Without a doubt the worst of all possible investment opportunities are with companies that are not currently publicly traded yet are accepting investment from Reg A exemptions. Under Reg A companies can raise money from the public in small increments such as $500.00 and can even advertise for people to invest via social media. The two most active companies raising money in this manner are https://www.atlismotorvehicles.com/ and Battle Approved Motors (BAM) https://battleapproved.com/
Atlis may actually build a vehicle that the market may actually buy but they appear to be spending the majority of the money raised on Facebook ads and other shady methods geared at milking investors of their money. They also claim to be focusing on building their own batteries and investing in other capital-intensive fools’ folly that along with its amateur videos turn away any sophisticated investors while preying on the inexperienced.
BAM is even more hopeless. Not only are they using notorious scammers “Start Engine” to handle their Reg A but their business plan is at best pure fantasy. According to BAM (with zero experience or track record) they plan on being the Ferrari meets Tesla in the dirt. Essentially, they will be building a Utility Terrain Vehicle “UTV” that is not street legal, but can be taken to the dunes, raced, or used on a farm, yet is expected to cost more than $250,000. Most high end UTVs cost between$20,000 and $60,000 new and used examples proliferate the classifieds between $5,000 and $10,000. Even if they do manage to actually get a product built which is impossible with their current resources, we just do not see the market for a quarter of a million dollar plus “Ferrari meets Tesla” when one could buy both a street legal Ferrari and a Tesla for much less.
The bigger problem however for both of these terrible investments is that the likelihood that any investor will ever get even a single penny back is very slim due to the inherent nature of the Reg A structure. Many novice investors do not understand that they have no way to sell their investment unless the company happens to get acquired by a public company or goes public itself. There is virtually zero chance of that ever happening with BAM. Atlis is recently claiming that they are planning on listing on NASDAQ but that is likely just more hyperbole geared at providing false hope to their investors who have suddenly realized that their money is sunk in a Reg A offering. What they are misleadingly not telling their mostly amateur investors as they raise money based on an announcement that they plan a NASDAQ listing is that that is a very difficult process even for non-tainted companies. The fact that they are currently tainted by raising money under Reg A specifically compounds the issues and makes that task exponentially more difficult and unlikely at best.
If you plan on getting any kind of return do not ever invest in any company that raises money under Reg A.
THE AMAZING
One new company that we have just recently discovered with great anticipation is E-Cite Motors Group trading under the symbol “VAPR”. If you have never heard of them, you are not alone. Although E-Cite has only been around for a few months its’ stock has outperformed every other EV Auto Company Year to Date “YTD” and other juggernauts such as Bitcoin. It has also made unparalleled progress in the development of its vehicles almost instantly when compared to any other. This is due to a few but very significant advantages that separate it from all other EV Companies.
Firstly E-Cite is publicly traded now like Tesla so anyone can buy stock in the open market and sell it at any time. Investors are free to buy any amount of stock at any time during market hours and can take profits or return their capital at any time (No shady Reg A here). The founders purposely did not price the stock as is done in an IPO but simply took it public quietly earlier this year via a merger with an existing company without fanfare allowing the starting price to begin at basically zero “$0.005” to allow early investors the maximum possible return. During the past 6 months VAPR has successfully acquired E-Cite Motors, Acclaimed Automotive and the assets of renowned N2A motors. It brought in legendary automobile designer Gene Langmesser as the COO. In addition to leading design and product development teams and prototyping for automobile manufacturers such as Porsche, Mercedes, Lexus, Ford, Hyundai, and others, he has also created or built many movie cars or props. Most notably the futuristic Lexus 2054 driven by Tom Cruise in “Minority Report”, Queen Latifa’s transforming taxis in “Taxi”, fighter ships in “Battlestar Galactica”, the Batmobile driven by George Clooney in “Batman and Robin”, and the Terminators bodies in Terminator 3. Furthermore, in 2016 Gene and N2A were task to design and build the first ever Hydrogen Hybrid Semi-Truck, by Nikola Motors which they completed.
Another big advantage is that due to a special government exemption, unlike competitors Tesla, Nikola, Polestar, Lucid, VW, Ford, Jaguar, and others, E-cite is not required to meet any of the safety or other costly certifications of a traditional auto manufacturer making the ease and timeline of offering new vehicles to market significantly more favorable. Whereas the initial timeline to be able to deliver a production vehicle to market generally exceeds 3 years and is often much longer and at a very high cost, E-Cite expects to be delivering its first production vehicles for the 2023 model year. That is less than 12 months from inception to the showroom. That may sound crazy but within three months, E-Cite has completed development and assembled its modular chassis that will be used as the base for its new vehicles. This is a task that would take much longer for any traditional manufacturer. The chassis can be easily configured to a variety of wheelbases making it suitable for a wide range of vehicles. The first chassis No. 001 was delivered to its newly acquired 2.2-million-dollar facility in Bothell, WA where the suspension, motors, batteries, and other mechanicals are to be installed on the prototype
As more and more investors begin to become aware of “VAPR” there will continue to be opportunities for investors to reap the rewards of getting in early, and unlike the minor league Reg A companies that prey on the uninformed, Investors in E-Cite can take their exits in full or part anytime they wish for as little or as large of an investment that they choose.
