Lotus in ‘a good place’ to go public, valued at $5.4b
After a series of terrible news coming from EV players Polestar and Renault’s Ampere, Lotus is feeling confident and ready to roll with listing its shares on Nasdaq by the end of March. The EV arm of the company is valued at $5.4 billion.
Automotive News Europe reports that the Geely-owned company is merging with “blank check” company L. Catteron Asia Acquisition in the first quarter, according to company head Mike Johnstone.
While its EV arm Lotus Tech was scheduled to be listed at the end of last year, that plan was delayed for “no specific reason,” according to Johnstone, who spoke with Automotive News Europe.
“We feel we are in a good place,” he said. “We delivered the volume of cars that we expected to, and we put in place a really pragmatic plan in terms of growth and gross margin.”
The timing of the listing comes right after Volvo stopped funding struggling luxury EV maker Polestar and handed full responsibility for the brand over to Geely, which is based in China. After Polestar was listed in the US in 2022, but it has continually struggled with poor stock performance and has had to rely on funding from Volvo and Geely for funding to stay in the game.
Also, French automaker Renault just canceled its planned IPO for its EV spinoff Ampere. While the IPO was scheduled for the first part of this year with an expected valuation of up to €10 billion ($10.47 billion), Renault says that market conditions aren’t optimal to make the move.
Adding to the grim mood, Volkswagen pushed back an IPO on its PowerCo. battery unit and plans to seek outside investors.
But Lotus says none of that will factor into their decision, with Johnstone saying that the brand’s high-end positioning puts them in a better place to ride out tough EV market conditions, said the report.
Lotus is aiming to reach 76,000 annual volume by 2025, and that’s based on sales of the Eletre SUV, Emeya sedan, and its Emira ICE sports car, at least that’s what the company said back in October. Lotus aims to go all-electric by 2028 once it replaces its Emira with an electric sports car (covered in-depth by Electrek) in 2027.
In 2026, the company also plans to release an electric SUV mysteriously dubbed Type 134 to rival the Porsche Macan. The brand expects to sell around 80,000 units of the Type 134 by 2027, which will be built in Wuhan, China, where Lotus builds its SUVs and sedans, reports Automotive News Europe.
Despite all the bad buzz in the media around electric vehicles at the moment, it won’t last, Johnstone said. The tide has already turned toward electric vehicles, and there is no going back. “You will see an increase in EV adoption driven by consumers and driven by regulators.”
Not that we’re not seeing some pushback on that. German automakers are stirring up news that Europe may push back its 2035 ban on ICE vehicles due to slow EV demand.
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A massive Tesla Megapack project with 1.3 GWh of energy storage capacity is coming online in Arizona – making it one of the largest battery systems.
Salt River Project (SRP) and Plus Power LLC are behind the massive project.
Yesterday, they announced that it is coming online and should provide enough power for 76,000 homes:
Salt River Project (SRP) and Plus Power LLC today celebrated two new grid-charged battery storage systems, Sierra Estrella Energy Storage and Superstition Energy Storage. Together, these facilities will add 340 megawatts (MW) / 1,360 megawatt-hours (MWh) of additional battery storage capacity to SRP’s system – enough to power 76,000 residential homes for a four-hour period. The batteries will absorb excess energy when customer demand is lower and store it for use during times of peak demand.
By being turned on, it automatically became the largest standalone battery system in Arizona and one of the biggest in the US.
Plus Power has been using Tesla Megapacks in many of its energy storage projects, like the one that replaced Hawaii’s last coal power plant.
The Megapack has quickly become the go-to solution for large-scale energy storage projects.
Last quarter, Tesla deployed a record amount of energy storage, 4 GWh, and most of that is believed to be Megapacks.
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EV maker Rivian (RIVN) reaffirmed its plans to build 57,000 vehicles this year during its 2024 Investor Day. More importantly, Rivian still expects to achieve a positive gross profit by the end of the year.
Rivian still on track for positive gross profit in Q4 2024
Rivian gave us a sneak peek into what we can expect as the EV maker transitions to its next growth stage during its first Investor Day on Thursday.
After launching not one but three products (R1T, R1S, and Commercial Van), Rivian lost over $139,000 on every vehicle built in the third quarter of 2022.
Since then, Rivian has made drastic progress in cutting costs. In the first three months of the year, Rivian lost $38,784 per EV built, an improvement of over $100,000. However, that number is still up from the $32.5K and $30.5K losses in Q2 and Q3, 2023.
| Q3 ’22 | Q4 ’22 | Q1 ’23 | Q2 ’23 | Q3 ’23 | Q4 ’23 | Q1 ’24 | |
| Rivian loss per vehicle | $139,277 | $124,162 | $67,329 | $32,594 | $30,500 | $43,372 | $38,784 |
Rivian shut down its Normal, IL, manufacturing plant in April for a host of upgrades. According to CEO RJ Scaringe, the changes have resulted in “significant” cost reductions.
As a result, Rivian expects to achieve its first positive gross profit in the fourth quarter of 2024. On Thursday, Rivian reaffirmed that it’s on track to hit the milestone by the end of the year.
Rivian believes that, between significant material and labor cost reductions, it will be enough as it strives to earn a profit.
2024 production goal in sight
Rivian also confirmed it’s on track to build 57,000 vehicles this year. Despite production slipping in Q1 (13,980 vs 17,541 in Q4 2023), Rivian expected a slowdown with the planned plant shutdown.
The EV maker expects lower production in Q2 between 9,100 and 9,300 units. Second-quarter deliveries are forecasted to be between 13,000 and 13,300, slightly lower than the 13,588 handed over in Q1.
Rivian expects to ramp production in the second half of the year. Following the R2 launch in early 2026, it expects production capacity to reach 215,000 units.
The smaller, more affordable R2 is expected to represent 155,000 of the total 215,000 production capacity.
Once Rivian’s Georgia plant opens, output is expected to surge with 200,000 production capacity on line 1 and another 200,000 on line 2.
Rivian’s new partnership with Volkswagen earned it new confidence as its stock surged over 20%. Several analysts praised the move, including Dan Ives from Wedbush. Ives said the deal can “change the game for Rivian” on its path to profitability.
Source: Rivian
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