zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Tech
/
The Electric Vehicle Startup Bubble Keeps Getting Bigger
The Electric Vehicle Startup Bubble Keeps Getting Bigger-April 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:10:32

Image for article titled The Electric Vehicle Startup Bubble Keeps Getting Bigger

Tesla, you might have heard/noticed, , with its stock surging in recent weeks to make it, on paper, the most valuable automaker in the world. That has been a boon for Tesla, but it’s also helped attract millions to Tesla’s would-be rivals, too.

Take Karma, which our sources (something the company denied) but seem to be in a little better shape today, with Bloomberg that it has received $100 million in new financing.

Karma Automotive, maker of the Revero plug-in hybrid luxury car, has raised $100 million from outside investors as the company and its parent seek to tap into an electric-car stock surge by seeking an additional $300 million.

[...]

Hoping to capitalize on soaring valuations of EV makers such as Tesla Inc. and newer entrants like Nikola Corp. and Workhorse Group Inc., Wanxiang is selling stakes in Karma to private equity partners. The Hangzhou, China-based company is committed to Karma and sees the boom in EV-maker shares as an opportunity to attract other investors, said Pin Ni, president of Wanxiang’s U.S. business.

“Karma has real production, real technology and real dealers,” Ni said in a phone interview. “Look at Tesla’s value and you see Workhorse with their stock going up ten times recently.”

So that’s $100 million for a company whose president has to insist in an interview that it’s real. Normal stuff.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg today that Fisker—the EV car startup founded by Henrik Fisker, who used to be with Karma in a former incarnation—got $50 million, at a valuation of $1.6 billion.

Electric-vehicle maker Fisker Inc. has raised $50 million from hedge fund veteran Louis Bacon, with the money going toward engineering for the SUV it aims to roll out in 2022, the company said.

The deal, done through Bacon’s private investment vehicle Moore Strategic Ventures LLC, values Fisker at more than $1.6 billion according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.

[...]

“We are radically challenging the conventional industry thinking about developing and selling cars,” [founder Henrik Fisker] said in a statement. “This capital will allow us to execute our planned timeline to start producing vehicles in 2022.”

Both of these cases pale compared to Nikola, the truck startup currently worth around $19 billion, .

You can expect even more money to be dumped into this space if Tesla announces a second-quarter profit in a few weeks. That would send Tesla shares soaring even higher. It would also make Tesla profitable for four quarters in a row for the first time, the benchmark many have used in evaluating whether Tesla has “made it” as a company, a feat that would have only taken over a decade-and-a-half.

That’s also the kind of timeframe every car startup should have in mind when they decide to go down this road—until somebody else beats it—with many bubbles and bursting bubbles along the way.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Tech
GM Says It's Dropping Apple CarPlay And Android Auto Because They're Unsafe (Update)
GM Says It's Dropping Apple CarPlay And Android Auto Because They're Unsafe (Update)
GM is still dealing with the fallout of its decision to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in favor of developing its own in-house system. In the last eight months, the company has had to deal with while still maintaining its in-house system will be “.” Since neither of...
Apr 23, 2025
Truck Fans Would Rather Wait For A Toyota Tacoma EV Than Buy A F-150 Lightning Or Cybertruck
Truck Fans Would Rather Wait For A Toyota Tacoma EV Than Buy A F-150 Lightning Or Cybertruck
fans are already cooling on despite more options on the market and news of upcoming models from the likes of Chevy and Ram. The and have yet to be released, while the has recently joined the and for sale in the U.S. And, yet, all of these current and...
Apr 23, 2025
Biden’s First EV Charging Station Goes Online After $7.5 Billion In American EV Investments
Biden’s First EV Charging Station Goes Online After $7.5 Billion In American EV Investments
Despite in investments for the development of in the , not a single charging station had gone live thanks to — until now. The first EV charger paid for by Biden’s Bipartisan deal has come online in Ohio, according to , which marks the operational start of what the...
Apr 23, 2025
Danish Investors Dump Tesla Shares After Elon Musk Calls Strikes In Sweden 'Insane'
Danish Investors Dump Tesla Shares After Elon Musk Calls Strikes In Sweden 'Insane'
Danish pension fund PensionDanmark is dumping all of its stock and putting the U.S. EV maker on its exclusion list of the companies it chooses to invest in – or not. The fund is selling all of its shares due to Elon Musk’s refusal to enter into labor agreements...
Apr 23, 2025
Volkswagen EVs Can Now Power Your House For Two Days (Update)
Volkswagen EVs Can Now Power Your House For Two Days (Update)
Experts have said that one of the ways to speed up EV adoption is for them to support . The ability for owners to power their house off their car or from the grid is vital. Just nine EVs on the market currently support bidirectional charging, but now VW...
Apr 23, 2025
Costco Will Sell The Chevy Blazer EV At A Discount To Go With Your Rotisserie Chicken
Costco Will Sell The Chevy Blazer EV At A Discount To Go With Your Rotisserie Chicken
knows that you keep coming back for the and Kirkland brand, but you can now also buy a cheaper at your local warehouse. Chevy notified its dealers that members are eligible for a $1,000 rebate on the through January 2, according to . The discount is part of ,...
Apr 23, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved