The electric vehicle industry is back on the upswing. In fact, after a dismal 2022, EV stocks saw far stronger returns in Jan. Industry leader Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), for example, has seen its stock price run up more than 50% over the past month. Tesla’s headline-grabbing rebound breathed new life into many of the smaller EV stocks as well. However, there are still several EV stocks to sell immediately.
Many of the electric vehicle firms that plunged in value in 2022 did so with good reason. Across the industry, firms have struggled to generate meaningful revenues, maintain strong balance sheets, or otherwise position their businesses for long-term success. As such, with some top EV stocks surging, it’s time to consider some of the top EV stocks to sell, too. These seven EV stocks, in particular, seem primed for significant declines after the recent rally.
| SOLO | Electrameccanica Vehicles | $1.14 |
| FFIE | Faraday Future Intelligent Electric | $0.85 |
| MULN | Mullen | $0.34 |
| LCID | Lucid | $11.69 |
| ARVL | Arrival | $0.40 |
| GOEV | Canoo | $1.20 |
| GP | GreenPower Motor | $3.67 |
EV Stocks to Sell: Electrameccanica Vehicles (SOLO)
Electrameccanica Vehicles (NASDAQ:SOLO) is a company seeking to develop a three-wheeled electric vehicle. The company markets this as being appealing to folks with short commutes that just need a small cheaper electric vehicle to cover urban areas. In addition, the smaller battery makes charging easier compared to other electric options.
In theory, this might make sense. However, there’s been limited demand for three-wheel vehicles, historically. Electrameccanica isn’t just trying to break into the competitive electric vehicle industry, it’s also trying to do so with a vehicle model that itself hasn’t demonstrated much commercial success.
So far, Electrameccanica has struggled to sell many vehicles. The company is only generating about $6 million in annualized revenues, which hasn’t been nearly enough to match its costs. The company just laid off 98 people in Dec. to address its overhead costs given that sales haven’t ramped up in-line with the company’s prior hopes.
Despite the company’s struggles, traders have moved back into SOLO stock in 2023. Shares have bounced from a low of 57 cents back to a dollar now. Unfortunately, as the company’s fundamentals haven’t notably improved over the past month, this rally is likely to be fleeting.
EV Stocks to Sell: Faraday Future Intelligent Electric (FFIE)
Faraday Future Intelligent Electric (NASDAQ:FFIE) is a Los Angeles-based firm that was hoping to grab a big piece of the electric SUV market. However, the firm has been undercapitalized after coming public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
In July, Faraday announced that it would have to delay the launch of its FF 91 SUV once again due to running low on funds. This was hardly a surprising development. After all, Faraday has been trying to start production of the FF 91 since as early as 2018 but has run into hurdle after hurdle. Later in 2022, Faraday’s CEO was removed from the company amid intense corporate drama. Shares dipped to as low as 25 cents each. This made sense, given that the company has repeatedly been unable to hit its production timeline, and now key leadership has left the company as well.
Regardless, thanks to the recent rally we’ve seen in EV stocks, Faraday shares have recovered to 85 cents each. At this price, incredibly enough, the market is valuing the firm at about $500 million. That seems awfully generous given its internal struggles and lack of funding to bring the FF 91 into production. As such, this is a great time to take profits on FFIE stock and move to the sidelines.
EV Stocks to Sell: Mullen Automotive (MULN)
Mullen Automotive (NASDAQ:MULN) has become a leading meme stock within the EV space. The company has been a whirlwind of news, constantly announcing new acquisitions, hires, and plans for new businesses. However, as is often the case for penny stocks which issue numerous press releases, Mullen hasn’t managed to turn any of this activity into profit. In fact, as Mullen’s own 10-K notes: “We do not currently generate any revenue.” It’s easy to talk about potential products or strategic partnerships. It’s significantly harder to turn that talk into profitable commercial activity.
And, unfortunately for Mullen shareholders, they are suffering from heavy dilution to pay for all of management’s plans. Specifically, Mullen previously had fewer than 25 million shares outstanding, but this has now jumped to an eye-popping 1.7 billion. Even with Mullen’s rock bottom stock price, the company still has a market capitalization of more than half a billion dollars thanks to this outrageous dilution.
The bottom line on Mullen is simple. The company has not generated much of anything to date, aside from share dilution. And, given its weak balance sheet, Mullen seems likely to run out of cash well before it can turn any of its plans into actual economic reality.
Lucid Group (LCID)
Lucid Group (NASDAQ:LCID) is in a different place than most other electric vehicle firms. While Lucid is still an early-stage electric vehicle company, it is ramping up far more quickly than most of its rivals. Analysts see it growing sales to $2.4 billion in 2023, and more than $4 billion in 2024. It remains to be seen whether Lucid will be able to carve out a profitable long-term niche within the EV market. However, the company has adequate financial resources and consumer buzz now to have a serious chance at success.
That said, Lucid, as a stock, is on less secure footing. Shares had fallen to as low as $6 late last year amid Lucid’s sizable operating losses and strategic challenges going forward.
Now, shares have doubled off the lows, including a stunning 43% one-day rally on Friday. The issue with that rally, however, was that it was based on unverified rumors about a potential buyout from Saudi Arabian strategic investors. But, in the event that the Saudi Arabian speculation don’t turn into a concrete deal, Lucid could quickly give back a large portion of those recent gains.
Arrival (ARVL)
Arrival (NASDAQ:ARVL) is an EV company that has started out going after the van market. It claims to have a variety of innovative technologies and ideas which will allow it to revolutionize the EV industry. However, it has struggled to transform these possibilities into commercial revenues or a proven business model.
Arrival was originally planning to launch with vehicles in the United Kingdom and European markets. However, apparently due to regulatory issues, Arrival has withdrawn from that original plan. Now, the company is trying to launch in the United States, instead.
Unfortunately, Arrival has a weak balance sheet and seems unlikely to have enough funds to make it until it could potentially start selling products in the United States. As of Sept., the company had just $330 million of cash left.
Arrival warned that this cash wouldn’t be enough to fund its operations for another 12 months, suggesting it will need to raise cash by mid-2023. However, the company now doesn’t expect to start generating revenues until 2024 at the earliest. This mismatch could force Arrival to issue many millions of shares of stock to try to bridge the gap, if it is able to raise new funding at all. Arrival may have cool technology, but unless it can raise more cash in a timely fashion, shares are little more than a lottery ticket.
Canoo (GOEV)
Canoo (NASDAQ:GOEV) is another EV company that went public via SPAC and immediately missed expectations. When it was going public, Canoo offered huge revenue projections based on its engineering services and potential for subscription revenues.
Soon after completing its SPAC, however, the company pivoted its business model and admitted that much of its initial SPAC projections were no longer feasible. Key members of management left Canoo as well. The company has tried to turn things around by focusing on building its own vehicles rather than providing services to others. The company has secured some significant orders. However, it has consumed tons of capital to try to get its manufacturing capabilities up to speed, and profitability appears to remain years off.
Indeed, Canoo didn’t manage to generate meaningful revenues in 2022. It hopes to begin bringing in sales in 2023, but with the stock at just over $1/share and the balance sheet not in great shape, it remains to be seen how Canoo will raise more funds necessary to try to scale up its business.
GreenPower Motor (GP)
Rounding out the list, we have electric bus maker GreenPower Motor (NASDAQ:GP). The company isn’t in as bad a shape as many of the other electric vehicle companies profiled here. GreenPower has some revenues coming in already, and it has no long-term debt. That gives it more of a base to build off of then some other EV firms.
However, there are still real issues here. GreenPower has lost money each and every quarter of recent years. Its gross profit margin has been fairly modest and drifting lower in recent quarters. The company faces intensive competition in the school bus market, and it is much smaller than several of its rivals. The company’s relatively small size and low profitability to date may prove a challenge in trying to overtake its peers.
GP stock was arguably a decent idea a month ago when shares were under $2. Now, though, the stock has nearly doubled, pushing its market cap to $86 million. That’s too high a price tag for a company expected to generate just $33 million of revenues in fiscal year 2023 while running significant operating losses.
On the date of publication, Ian Bezek did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.