Auto Stock Roundup: Takeaways From NIO Annual Day, New Logo of GM & More
Last week, most of the auto biggies released full-year 2020 sales report. While auto sales recovery continued in fourth-quarter 2020, the full-year results were negatively impacted by weakness in first-half 2020, thanks to coronavirus woes. Importantly, the disruption caused by the deadly contagion snapped the five-year record of annual U.S. auto sales, which topped 17 million units. U.S. auto sales for 2020 declined 15% year over year and marks the lowest sales level since 2012. (Sneak Peek Into 2020 U.S. Auto Sales and 2021 Outlook)
Meanwhile, auto sales in U.K. for 2020 tanked to the lowest level since 1992, marking the biggest annual slump in new car sales since World War II despite surging sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in the country. Per the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders, sales in the country plummeted to 1.63 million cars in 2020, marking a year-on-year decline of 29.4%. In fact, the nation’s car industry endured a total turnover loss of £20.4 billion, with demand tumbling across all segments other than specialist sports. (UK 2020 Auto Sales Derail on Coronavirus Mayhem, '21 Prospects Dim)
(Read the Last Auto Stock Roundup here).
Flashback to the Week’s Top News
NIO Inc. NIO hosted annual day on Jan 9, which was quite an event with major breakthrough announcements. The firm unveiled a new luxury ET7 sedan, with a base price of around $69,000, which can go up to more than $80,000, depending upon the configuration. NIO announced the 150kWh solid-state battery technology, which would increase energy density by 50%. The China-based EV also provided updates on its next generation battery swapping stations and driverless technology. NIO targets to deploy 500 stations of next-gen Baas (Battery as a Service) by year-end. Notably, the company’s autonomous vehicle technology will be powered by NVIDIA microprocessors. NIO currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
General Motors GM rolled out a new marketing campaign to underscore its commitment to accelerate mass adoption of EVs. The "Everybody In" marketing campaign is a call to action aimed at showcasing an EV movement that's all inclusive and accessible. As part of the “Everybody In” campaign, it unveiled a new GM logo, meant to amplify the automaker’s renewed commitment to production and sale of EVs. This is the fifth logo revision in the company’s 113 years of existence and a new brand identity designed for a digital-first environment. The latest campaign and brand identity mark the beginning of a new era in its history. With two new EVs expected to be launched by 2021-end, hopefully the New Year will kick-start a fresh chapter for General Motors, triggered by new campaign and remodeled brand identity.
Workhorse Group Inc. WKHS announced that it has procured a purchase order of 6,320 C-Series all-electric delivery vehicles from Pride Group Enterprises. The order pertains to Workhorse’s C-1000 and C-650 models. Initial delivery of the vehicles to Pride will likely commence by July and span through 2026. The delivered vehicles will be distributed through Pride dealerships to commercial-fleet customers. For Workhorse, the new agreement with Pride marks the largest individual order to date. It will aid the company in strengthening the international sales channel by expanding in Canada for the first time.
Magna International Inc. MGA announced its collaboration with Fisker Inc. for the development of an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) — Fisker Intelligent (FI)-Pilot — that will be applied to the Fisker Ocean sport utility vehicle (SUV), expected to be rolled out in late 2022. The companies have joined forces to manufacture an industry-distinctive complete set of ADAS features and a group of software packages enabled by scalable domain controller architecture. The alliance will result in the development of an advanced and scalable domain controller architecture that will underpin a range of technologies and features for the Ocean SUV.
Price Performance
The following table shows the price movement of some of the major auto players over the past week and six-month period.
In the past six months, all stocks have increased, with Tesla TSLA being the maximum gainer. Over the past week, all stocks have witnessed gains apart from Toyota TM.
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Toyota Motor Corporation (TM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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