Focus is back on electric vehicle stocks as Lordstown Motors stock jumps

Lordstown Motors, an electric vehicle manufacturer that has yet to bring a vehicle to market, jumped 20% alongside other EV makers.

What’s the big deal? EV stocks have been on a downward trend since speculative stocks crashed in Feb. But Lordstown faced additional issues during that time, revealing problems in its business and prototype:

• In Feb, an EV prototype caught on fire and burned down — while another had to drop out of a California Baja race in April.
• In Mar, Hindenburg accused Lordstown of faking orders and misleading investors — resulting in an SEC investigation into Lordstown’s business.

This brings the total investigations into EV companies to three, including Nikola ($NKLA) and Canoo ($GOEV) — which also hasn’t brought a vehicle to market.

The Joe’s Take: Like the cannabis stock ride in 2017-2019, there are bound to be losers, winners, and frauds in a hyped-up, emerging industry. As the industry matures, we’ll learn who’s who.

Looking forward: With Biden’s potential $2.2t infrastructure bill, $174b of which is allocated to electric vehicles, investors may be focusing on EV stocks again.