The EV market that ‘sucks’

While electric vehicles continue to make progress in their battle against internal combustion engine autos, the lower-cost segment looks to be a tougher nut to crack.

“That market sucks,” Lucid Motors (NASDAQ:LCID) CEO Peter Rawlinson said, referring to cheap EVs on the Wall Street Journal’s Bold Names podcast.

“That market is notorious because you get into mass manufacture — terrible, low margins,” Rawlinson said. “To install the manufacturing base for millions of these units makes little sense to me.”

He added that he would only support a cheap EV by licensing tech to another company.

Rawlinson is not alone in his aversion.

On Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) earnings call, Elon Musk said the idea of a $25,000 regular (as opposed to autonomous driving) EV was now “pointless” and “silly.”

Lucid is now taking orders for its $90K version of the Gravity SUV, the Journal said. It also noted that the average price of a new vehicle sold in October was $48,623, according to Kelley Blue Book. That is about $10K above 2019.

Other EV stocks in include BYD (OTCPK:BYDDF), Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI), Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN), XPeng (NYSE:XPEV), Nio (NYSE:NIO) and PoleStar Automotive (NASDAQ:PSNY), as well as Ford (NYSE:F) and GM (NYSE:GM), which have invested heavily in EV.