In recent years, with the vigorous development of the global new energy vehicle industry, new forces in car manufacturing have sprung up. China has Weilai, Xiaopeng, Ideal, Leap, Nezha, Wenjie, Aion, Extreme Krypton, Deep Blue, etc., although Xiaomi car is "belated", but still handed over 88,898 vehicles in 24 hours, and the cumulative number of orders exceeded 100,000 (more than 40,000 orders locked).
On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, the United States, as a major automobile country, has also given birth to many new power manufacturers. In addition to Tesla, how are the other performances? Combined with the latest data and information, the following is a brief introduction to the American version of "Wei Xiaoli" - Rivian, Lucid Motors and Fisker.
Of the three companies, Fisker was the first to go public and probably the first to be delisted. In 2020, the electric vehicle startup went public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and had a market capitalization of $7.9 billion. Founder and CEO Henrik Fisker has a long history designing classic models such as the BMW Z8 and X5, the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage, and the Tesla Model S.
In '07, he founded Fisker Automobile, an electric car company, and the following year released the Fisker Karma, a range-extender hybrid supercar, but production could not be picked up due to battery supply problems, and in 2013 Fisker resigned and went bankrupt. Three years later, he started a second venture, founded Fisker, and launched his first model, the Ocean, in 2020.
The mid-size SUV is manufactured by auto parts giant Magna, which has saved billions of dollars in equipment and factory costs, but the original meager profits have also been made by the foundry. To make matters worse, production ramp-up is extremely slow, and quality issues are frequent: smart keys don't work properly, seat sensors don't sense the driver's presence, hill start assists with the risk of rolling, etc. In 2023, the first full delivery year, Ocean produced only 10,193 vehicles, and actually delivered 4,929 vehicles, which is less than the monthly delivery volume of a new Chinese second-tier power. The annual revenue was only 273 million US dollars (about 1.975 billion yuan), and the net loss was 762 million US dollars.
In March 2024, Fisker announced a complete shutdown and plans to significantly reduce its workforce. Coupled with the abrupt termination of investment cooperation negotiations with a large OEM (some sources say it is Nissan), the company's market value "plummeted", shrinking by more than 99%, and the stock price was only 9 cents before the suspension, facing the dilemma of being delisted. And that's not all, with a lot of debt to pay, it's only a matter of time before Fisker goes bankrupt.
Lucid's life wasn't easy either. In fiscal year 2023, the revenue will be 595 million US dollars (about 4.3 billion yuan), a year-on-year decrease of 2.12%, and the net loss will be 2.828 billion US dollars, more than double that of the previous year. Delivered 6,001 vehicles for the year, up 37% year-on-year.
When Lucid launched its SPAC market in February 2021, it set a target of 90,000 units to be produced and sold in 2024, but now it has been lowered to 9,000 units. This contrast has also caused the company's market capitalization to shrink from its peak ($90.9 billion) to about $6 billion today, a decline of more than 90%.
It is worth mentioning that Lucid is a new car company founded by Tesla's departing executives, such as co-founder Xie Jiapeng, CEO Peter Rawlinson, chief engineer Eric Bach, etc., so it was nicknamed "Tesla Avengers" by American netizens.
But Elon Musk looked down on this opponent and bluntly said: "The father of the Saudi financier is the only reason why they can survive." It is reported that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) is Lucid's largest investor, having invested about $5.4 billion since 2018, holding more than 60% of the shares.
After its listing on November 10, 2021, Rivian's market capitalization soared by nearly $153 billion, surpassing traditional giants such as Volkswagen, Daimler, General Motors, and Ford, becoming the world's third-largest automaker by market capitalization after Tesla and Toyota. Unfortunately, in just three years, the market value has also shrunk by more than 90%, leaving only $9.872 billion as of press time.
Last year, the company's revenue was 4.434 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 167%. However, profitability did not improve significantly, with a net loss of 5.431 billion US dollars (about 39.3 billion yuan). A total of 57,232 electric vehicles were produced and 50,122 units were successfully delivered, more than doubling from 2022.
But the $41,100 loss on selling a car and the challenge of declining orders forced Rivian to lay off another workforce to maintain operational efficiency. It is reported that the company's cash reserves on the books have been reduced from a high of $18.1 billion in early 2022 to $7.9 billion by the end of 2023, spending $10.2 billion in two years. Elon Musk commented on this: according to the current trajectory, Rivian will go bankrupt in 6 quarters.
Write at the end
In addition to the above three, the situation of other new American automakers is also not optimistic, such as Nikola, an electric truck company that is also at risk of delisting, Faraday Future founded by Jia Yueting, and Proterra, Electric Last Mile Solutions, and Lordstown Motors, which have gone bankrupt.
Some industry insiders pointed out that the "hollowing" problem of the U.S. manufacturing industry is serious, resulting in the production capacity of new car-making forces has not been able to rise, and the cost of car-making has remained high. On the other hand, Rivians will face even more serious challenges as EV sales growth in Europe and the U.S. slows to 10%-15% in 2024 due to reduced or even eliminated subsidies.