Sunnova CEO tries to reassure rattled investors after stock plunged 26% in worst day since March 2020
John Berger, chairman and chief executive officer of Sunnova Energy Corp., speaks during the 2019 CERAWeek by IHS Markit conference in Houston, Texas, U.S., on Thursday, March 14, 2019.
Aaron M. Sprecher | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The residential solar company Sunnova Energy took a beating this week as investors dumped their shares after the announcement of a stock offering plan rattled confidence in the company.
Sunnova shares plummeted 26.7% Thursday after the residential solar company announced a $100 million at-the-market stock offering program. Sunnova’s market cap declined by $382 million in the worst day for the company since March 2020 and the second worst day since its initial public offering in 2019.
CEO John Berger tried to reassure investors that Sunnova’s finances are sound and the company does not intend to sell its stock to raise capital anytime soon.
“This is just an arrow in the quiver just in case and the ratings agencies like to see it,” Berger told CNBC in an interview Thursday. “We don’t need to deal with the ratings agencies anytime soon, but it’s a smart thing to have — but we don’t need it.”
“I’m going to focus on generating our own cash rather than tapping into an equity, particularly something that’s now 25% discounted,” Berger said. Sunnova had a total of $494 million in cash as of Dec. 31, 2023, according to its quarterly report.
The announcement came after Sunnova posted a net loss that deepened to $234 million in the fourth quarter, compared to $62 million in the year ago period. Residential solar companies have struggled in the face of high interest rates that have made installations more costly to households.
Berger and Sunnova CFO Robert Lane described the stock offering as “good housekeeping.” Sunnova does not see a need to raise capital through 2026, Lane told analysts during the company’s earnings call Thursday.
Berger said in retrospect he would have waited on the stock offering plan: “Good housekeeping sure was expensive,” the CEO told CNBC after Thursday’s selloff.
Sunnova is also exploring asset sales and slashing costs using automation and artificial intelligence to keep the company’s headcount from growing, Berger said on the company’s conference call.
Solar under pressure
Sunnova is just the latest residential solar company to take a beating after its quarterly report. Its competitor Sunrun is down 22% this week after company posted another quarterly loss. SolarEdge has tumbled nearly 18% this week after issuing weak guidance for the first quarter.
Sunnova shares over the past year
The solar market faces an uncertain outlook this year. Investors had hoped aggressive interest rate cuts would act as a catalyst for the sector but that now seem less likely. Federal Reserve officials have made clear they are in no hurry to cut rates, with the market expecting the first reduction in June at the earliest rather than previous forecasts of March or May.
Berger does not see interest rates affecting Sunnova this year. He said the major utilities, which are also rate sensitive, are charging their customers more, which has allowed Sunnova to increase its prices without impacting demand.
“We have pricing power I’ve never seen this strong,” Berger said.
The CEO also addressed a December report that consumers have filed complaints in Texas alleging predatory sales tactics against the elderly. Two Republican members of Congress sent a letter on Dec. 7 to the Department of Energy calling for more scrutiny of Sunnova’s business practices. Sunnova’s stock dropped 16% after the lawmakers sent the letter.
“Whether our dealers did something or not, we typically have gone through and made sure that we’ve made good with the customer. In some of these cases, it’s difficult to find injury,” Berger said. The CEO said it is illegal to decline to sell to someone because of their age.
“There’s a lot of alternative facts that have been put forth in those cases, but it doesn’t excuse us from continuing to try to do better and we’re going to continue to do that,” Berger said.
— CNBC’s Pippa Stevens and Chris Hayes contributed to this report.
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Environment
Tesla’s Robyn Denholm made 5x more than next best-paid chair, a role Musk said was usefuless
Robyn Denholm, Tesla’s chairwoman, made five times more money than the next best-paid board chair, a role Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk said was useless.
In 2018, Musk settled with the SEC for falsely claiming he had secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 a share, he was forced to resign as chair of Tesla’s board.
Musk basically handpicked Robyn Denholm to become the new chair, which he then called a useless “honorific” titled:
“Chairman’ is an honorific, not executive role, which means it’s not needed to run Tesla. Will retire that title at Tesla in 3 years.”
Denholm made a lot of money in this useless honorific role.
She has made over $530 million, almost entirely through stock option compensation, since becoming Tesla’s chairperson.
Most of her stock sales happened over the last year:
The New York Times released a new report looking into Denholm’s compensation and found that she was paid about 5 times more than the next best-paid nonexecutive chair.
Tesla paid its chair about 5 times more than UnitedHealth’s:
The nonexecutive chair with the next-highest profit from selling shares in the company he oversees was Stephen Hemsley of UnitedHealth Group. Mr. Hemsley has earned more than $100 million from the sale of UnitedHealth shares since November 2018, though he received all of that stock while he was chief executive of the health care company.
To Musk’s point about the role being honorific, it’s not clear what Denholm accomplished during her time as chair.
She and the rest of Tesla’s board oversee Tesla’s executive management, led by Musk, but Musk has been allowed to do whatever he wants for years.
They have backed his every move, granted him a $55 billion CEO compensation package, and remained silent when he threatened Tesla shareholders that he would not develop AI products at Tesla unless given a larger, more controlling share of the company, or decided to fire Tesla’s entire charging team to make an example out of the head of the team.
Most recently, they have not addressed the protests at Tesla stores and product boycotts, which are attributed to Musk’s involvement in politics, angering a significant portion of the population and Tesla’s consumer base.
Only recently was there a report suggesting the board floated the idea of replacing Musk to gain leverage in forcing him to spend more time at Tesla. Even then, the board quickly denied the report, which only claimed that they were doing their jobs in planning the CEO succession.
Electrek’s Take
Based on Musk’s comment, Denholm was paid half a billion dollars to do nothing. That’s literally all that was required of her after replacing Musk as chair of the board: nothing.
Musk is in charge. She is just an “honorific” figurehead that is required to back his every move.
Just as Tesla’s then-third-largest individual shareholder, after Musk, Leo KoGuan, told Electrek last year, when he couldn’t get his concerns about Musk heard by the board, Tesla is “a family business masquerading as a public company.”
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Environment
UrbanLink nearly doubles order of REGENT electric seagliders to transport over 4M passengers a year
Less than a year after announcing an order for 27 electric seaglider planes from REGENT Craft, advanced air mobility (AAM) specialist UrbanLink has nearly doubled that order size to support plans for high-frequency commercial flights around the southeastern United States.
While advanced air mobility may be a nascent industry, companies around the globe are continuously gearing up to establish commercial networks that support air taxi travel and other sustainable commercial operations. In the US, particularly Southern Florida, UrbanLink has been making tons of moves to establish itself as a major player in that space when it happens.
UrbanLink has already been working for years to enable zero-emission, end-to-end travel within a 500-mile range by 2028 before expanding that range to 1,000 miles by 2030, beginning with its hub cities of Miami, Los Angeles, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The company believes its actions have adequately positioned it to become the first airline in the US to integrate electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft into its fleet. Fellow eVTOL network Archer Aviation is also in the race, so it’s exciting times for commercial air taxi development.
UrbanLink has committed to purchasing from several eVTOL and electric plane developers, including Artemis Sea Crafts, Eviation Aircraft, and Lilium, as we reported back in June 2024. Last fall, the AAM operator announced it was adding more vessels to its growing fleet in South Florida, committing to purchase 27 electric seagliders from REGENT Craft.
Today, UrbanLink and REGENT announced an expansion of their existing partnership in which the former has upped its purchase order to 47 electric seagliders.
UrbanLink ups seaglider order to support FL, Puerto Rico
REGENT Craft and UrbanLink shared details of the expanded partnership this morning, in hopes of establishing Florida as the bona fide leader in sustainable coastal aerial mobility.
Per the company, the nearly doubling of the existing order for REGENT’s Viceroy electric seagliders will support a more rapid rollout of UrbanLink’s aerial operations between the southern Florida and Puerto Rico regions. REGENT co-founder and CEO Billy Thalheimer spoke about the expanded seaglider order:
UrbanLink’s expanded order is a clear vote of confidence in REGENT’s seaglider technology and is testament to our continued timely execution certification and product development milestones. Together, we’re building a more convenient and connected future for coastal communities.
As the map above shows, electric sea glider travel can cut the travel time from Miami to West Palm Beach by nearly 75%. This single route represents a growing demand for convenient and more sustainable alternatives for short-haul travel in the US, and UrbanLink hopes to provide that to Florida visitors and beyond.
For example, the company shared that it anticipates that its seaglider operations in Miami alone could provide more sustainable travel options to up to 4.3 million passengers per year when commercial operations begin. UrbanLink founder and chairman Ed Wegel also spoke:
We’re proud to expand our partnership with REGENT and bring this revolutionary technology to more passengers traveling high-demand routes across Florida and Puerto Rico. This partnership propels Florida to the forefront of global innovation in advanced, all-electric mobility.
REGENT’s full-scale Viceroy electric seaglider prototype is currently in the process of successful sea trials en route to certification from the US Coast Guard. These 12-passenger vessels can reach up to 180 mph and travel up to 180 miles on a single charge.
First deliveries of the Viceroy seagliders to UrbanLink are expected to begin sometime in 2027.
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It’s official. Toyota is finally launching a new EV in the US. The C-HR will return in what’s expected to be an affordable electric SUV. Here’s our first look at the 2026 Toyota C-HR, a surprisingly stylish EV with nearly 300 miles of range.
Meet the 2026 Toyota C-HR electric SUV for the US
Who could forget the original Toyota C-HR? The funky-looking compact SUV was priced under $25,000 but was discontinued in 2022 to make way for the more efficient Corolla Cross hybrid.
The C-HR will make a comeback in the US as a fully electric SUV with nearly 300 miles of range. After revealing the electric SUV in Europe earlier this year, Toyota confirmed on Wednesday that the C-HR will, in fact, arrive in the US.
Outside of a “+” added at the end of the name (C-HR+), the US and European versions look nearly identical. The electric version is a drastic upgrade over the retired gas-powered model.
Toyota gave it a stylish new look with an updated design closer to its new Corolla and Crown. The smaller SUV features Toyota’s “hammerhead front end” with slim LED headlights and distinct character lines.
The C-HR EV is 177.9″ long, 73.6″ wide, and 63.8″ tall, or about the size of the Kia Niro EV (174″ long, 72″ wide, and 62″ tall). It’s also a bit smaller than the bZ4X SUV, Toyota’s first EV, at 185″ long, 73″ wide, and 65″ tall.
Powered by a 74.7 kWh battery, Toyota expects the 2026 C-HR will get up to 290 miles of driving range. It will also be equipped with an NACS port to access Tesla’s Supercharger network. Using DC fast charging, the electric SUV can recharge from 10% to 80% in about 30 minutes.
The 2026 C-HR will come with standard AWD with up to 338 hp. Toyota said the added power is good for a 0 to 60 mph sprint in around 5 seconds.
Stylish new design inside and out
Toyota’s new EV will be available in SE and XSE trim with “great interior features.” These include a 14″ touchscreen infotainment system with Toyota Audio Multimedia system (with Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support), a digital driver display, wireless phone chargers, and the Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 system.
Other standard features include a power liftgate, low-profile roof rails, and rain-sensing wipers. You can also choose from 18″ or 20″ wheels and several different paint colors.
The XSE model gains 20″ gun metal finished wheels, SofTex and synthetic suede-trimmed seats, a Digital Rearview Mirror with HomeLink, a Panoramic view Monitor, and more.
Toyota will offer the 2026 C-HR in fully electric (EV), Hybrid, Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV), and Fuel Cell powertrain options. The new electric SUV is expected to arrive at dealerships across the US in 2026.
The new C-HR debut comes just a day after Toyota revealed its new bZ electric SUV for the US. Toyota is dropping the “bZ4X” name and giving it some significant upgrades, including more range (now up to 314 miles), a built-in NACS port, and more.
Although Toyota has yet to reveal prices, since the C-HR is smaller than the bZ4X, it’s expected to start at around $35,000.
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