Tesla Stock Dives After ‘We, Robot’ Event, Lucid’s Q3 Deliveries Beat, GM Reworks Battery Strategy And More: Biggest EV Stories Of The Week

Most electric-vehicle stocks declined in the week ended Oct. 11 as challenging economic data and negative reaction to market leader Tesla, Inc.’s TSLA “We, Robot,” event weighed down on the space.

Here’s a rundown on what happened in the EV space during the week:

Tesla’s Tall Promises Fail To Impress Investors: The “We, Robot” event proved to be a flop for Tesla as the stock tumbled nearly 9% following the event. The Elon Musk-led company’s product announcements wowed analysts and its fans, with specifically the Cybercab’s design coming in for special praise. The Cybervan announcement came in as a surprise for most. Investors, however, were worried about the production timeline hinted by Musk.

The billionaire said the Cybercab, the company’s sub-$30K purpose-built autonomous vehicle, lacking a steering wheel or pedals, would go into production by 2026 or even 2027.

In another development, Tesla announced a major production milestone for its Giga Shanghai. The factory, which is located in China and makes nearly half of the company’s EVs, produced its 3 millionth vehicle. Tesla Asia’s X handle posted the feat on the social-media platform.

Lucid Q3 Deliveries: Luxury EV maker Lucid Group, Inc. LCID reported third-quarter deliveries of 2,781 vehicles, exceeding estimates of most analysts. This marked a quarter-over-quarter increase of over 16% and year-over-year growth of 91%. The strong number came on the back of strong discounting. Production fell sequentially, declining from 2,110 in the second quarter to 1,805 in the third quarter. The company’s full-year production guidance of 9,000 units leaves it with the onus of producing 3,358 units if it were to meet the target.

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GM Ditches Ultium Concept: Legacy automaker General Motors Corp. GM, which once vouched by the concept of a unified battery system across all of its EVs, has decided to move away from the approach. At an investor event held this week, GM’s Vice President of Batteries Kurt Kelty said, “It now makes business sense to transition from one-size-fits-all to new program-specific batteries.” The company plans to move away from nickel cobalt manganese chemistry to lithium iron phosphate battery tech, which has the potential to reduce EV costs by $6,000.

The company also announced it will start building a battery cell development center at its Global Technical Center in Warren, with the team exploring cylindrical and prismatic cells in addition to the pouch format.

GM CEO Mary Barra said the company’s EV losses peaked this year and profitability will improve significantly next year, and that it is on track to manufacture its 200,000th EV in North America this year.

XPeng Launches P7+ EV Sedan: Chinese EV startup XPeng, Inc. XPEV unveiled the p7+ all-electric sedan, with the company calling it its first artificial intelligence-defined vehicle. “Plus stands for more – more technology, more space, more for your family,” it said. Presales of the the model will begin at the 2024 Paris auto show on Oct. 14, with deliveries starting in China in early November. The company has been quick with its product launches even as it navigates through a challenging demand environment in China.

China-EU Standoff Continues: As the stalemate over European Union tariffs on China EV import continues, a Reuters report, citing sources, said Brussels rejected a proposal by the Chinese government for imported made-in-China EVs to be sold at a minimum price of 30,000 euros ($32,946). A separate Reuters report published Saturday said China urged the European Union not to conduct separate negotiations over the price of made-in-China EVs sold in the EU, warning that this would “shake the foundations” of bilateral tariff negotiations.

The KraneShares Electric Vehicles and Future Mobility Index ETF KARS slipped 0.19 on Friday before ending at $22.88, according to Benzinga Pro data. For the week, the ETF fell 3.74

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Here’s how the EV stocks fared this week: