Never in the past year has interest in automotive stock prices been so high. On the one hand, it is because the stock prices of new car-making companies have soared, even surpassing traditional auto giants. On the other hand, many companies that have not even built cars have a frighteningly high stock price. So which automakers' stock prices will grow rapidly in 2021?
【1】Tesla 54%
Tesla stock closed at $694.78 on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2020, rising to $1,070. If you look at the simple yield, it is a profit of about 54%. This is mainly due to the shortage of semiconductors, but production has rebounded, and quarterly net profit has also shown a good trend.
Tesla's recent revenue exceeded $1 billion for the second consecutive quarter. It reached $1.14 billion in the second quarter of 2021, leaving a profit margin of more than $1 billion for the first time and a new high of $1.618 billion in the third quarter. A total of 936,172 vehicles were delivered last year, an increase of 87% year-on-year. This was followed by large-scale B2B contracts, such as the U.S. car rental giant Hertz ordering 100,000 Model 3s. Based on this, Tesla entered the trillion-dollar club for the first time in the automotive industry.
Meanwhile, CEO Elon Musk recently announced that he has sold more than 10 percent of tesla shares. While retail investors complain that he made a profit by raising his share price, Wall Street is also expecting his holdings to reduce the dissipation effect on the risk of owners.
【2】Toyota 38.6%
Toyota's share price last year was 7,597 yen (Tokyo Stock Exchange), which exceeded 10,000 yen in September and was split at 2,000 yen per share. After the spin-off, the stock price rose 5.3% to 2,106 yen, rising 38.6% to 10,530 yen from the existing stock price.
Toyota's share price rose mainly due to its steady response to semiconductor supply shortages. Although the factory utilization rate of the global automotive industry remains at 30-40% due to the supply and demand problem of semiconductors, Toyota alone shows a utilization rate of 90%. It is assessed to have benefited from the accumulation of two to three years of parts inventory after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Based on this, global sales recorded 5 million units in the first half of the year, an increase of 33% year-on-year, ranking first in the world.
In the second half of the year, the Toyota and Lexus brands put forward a vision of electrification, indicating a full-scale entry into the electric vehicle market. By 2030, it plans to launch 30 electric vehicles in the global market, with annual sales of more than 3.5 million. Lexus plans to implement electric vehicles in all product lines by 2030 and transform into a pure electric vehicle brand by 2035. It also announced a plan to invest 2 trillion yen in the mass production of next-generation secondary batteries such as all-solid-state batteries.
【3】Volkswagen 22.0%
Volkswagen shares were 145.42 euros in December 2020 (Frankfurt Stock Exchange), up 22.0% to 177.48 euros at the end of 2021. Promoting the internalization of various core technologies such as batteries and software outside of the production of electric vehicles has received a positive response.
The most striking is the Declaration of Battery Independence. In 2023, Sweden's Celefteo Gigafactory will be operational, and from 2025, it plans to open Gigafactory in Charlesgitter, Germany, and Gigafactory in Spain. The Spanish plant is also considering parallel production of Seat-branded electric vehicles and plans to build only 6 gigafactories in Europe by 2030. Through in-house production, battery costs are reduced by 30-50% and prismatic batteries are introduced instead of traditional bag batteries to expand storage capacity and improve fast charging performance.
It also proposes a vision of "economies of scale" based on its affiliated brands and overwhelming production capacity. The group plans to produce 1 million electric vehicles per year by 2025. Starting in 2026, it is known that the next generation of mechatronics platform SSPs will be introduced, reducing costs by producing electric vehicles on only one platform.
【4】BYD 43.6%
Last year, BYD's share price was 267.13 yuan (Shenzhen Stock Exchange), up 43.6% from the previous year. According to the assessment, BYD's vertical integration competitiveness from semiconductors to batteries has shined, while the global automotive industry has shrunk as a whole due to the shortage of semiconductor supply. BYD is also an 8.25% company owned by Warren Buffett.
In particular, last year's competitiveness in the automotive field shined. This is mainly due to the company's own design and production of power semiconductors and microcontrol units (MCUs), which are at the heart of the supply and demand difficulties. As a result, sales volumes also increased significantly. As of the third quarter, BYD sold 455,744 units, up 68.3% year-on-year, and electric vehicle sales rose 204% to 337,579 units.
In addition, BYD is pushing the semiconductor business unit to go public separately. Not only in the field of batteries, but also in the field of semiconductors, BYD has also achieved fruitful results. In the investment in June before the listing, the company was recognized worth 10.2 billion yuan, and SK korea invested 150 million yuan to obtain a 1.47% equity.
[5] GM 38.9%, Wall Street cheered the ambitious plan
General Motors shares, which had stagnated at their highs in the 1930s, rose 38.9 percent at $58.13 at the End of last year (New York Stock Exchange). This is largely due to the serious implementation of vaccination in the United States, raising expectations for a global economic recovery and a clear vision of electrification.
GM is setting the most aggressive electrification targets for U.S. brands. By 2025, electric vehicles will also replace 40% of the lineup of chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. It also announced plans to launch more than 30 electric vehicles over the next 10 years and only electric vehicles by 2035. In addition, it reveals its ambitions to cover the entire transportation market beyond cars, such as Purpose-Based Mobility (PBV), Urban Air Mobility (UAM), and Fuel Cells (FCEV).
Wall Street welcomed the response. In June, when it was announced that it would increase investment in electrification, the stock price peaked at $63.37.
[6] Kia 31.7%, "Golden Cycle S Plan Effective"
Kia Motors' share price was 62,400 won at the end of last year and closed at 82,200 won (Korea Stock Exchange) in 2021. That's up 31.7 percent from the previous year, almost four times as much as Hyundai Motor Company.
Since last year, Kia has been undergoing a complete overhaul of its flagship new car. Starting from Sorento, new models such as the K5, Jawa and The Sporting took aim at overseas markets. Evaluations say it succeeds in injecting a fresh image into the brand.
By 2040, the medium- and long-term strategic "Plan S", which will focus on electrified models and develop new business areas such as PBV (Purpose-Based Mobility), has also received a good response. Unlike modern ones that focus on hydrogen, UAM, robotics, and other long-term prospects, Kia has judged to have demonstrated results that can be achieved in a relatively short period of time.