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7 EV BATTERY STOCKS FOR GREEN TECH INVESTORS

Electric vehicles are basically cool-looking batteries with wheels. The EV
revolution wouldn’t be possible without the advances made in lithium battery
technologies – but there’s still a long way to go. Take the Tesla Model 3, the
most affordable model in the company’s lineup. The battery packs weigh in around
1,000 pounds and cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $14,000 – about a third
of the price of the entire vehicle based on 100-kilowatt hour (kWh) batteries at
$142 per kWh. 

The big brains who calculate such things tell us that batteries need to hit
about $100 per kWh to reach price parity with the internal combustion engine.
It’s only a matter of time, considering costs have dropped nearly 90% over the
last decade, from $1,200/kWh in 2010 to $132/kWh in 2021. In fact, the MBAs at
BloombergNEF predict average battery pack prices should be below $100/kWh by
2024. Of course, there are the usual caveats with these projections, especially
given the supply chain woes from the Rona. The near-term forecast calls for a
slight uptick in per kWh costs due to rises in raw materials.

Credit: BloombergNEF

Many of our readers are keen on the green EV investment thesis, so we’ve hit
this theme from all angles while still warning investors about all the potholes
ahead. The boom-and-bust of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) over
the last couple of years mean retail investors suddenly have plenty of options
but few good choices for pick-and-shovel plays on electric vehicles. Most
recently, we ran down a list of EV charging stocks. In this article, we’ll try
to catch up to the current state of EV battery stocks, many of which have
finally emerged from their SPAC cocoons with SEC filings (only SES has yet to
complete their SPAC merger). 

Company NameMarket Cap
(USD millions)Share PriceLoss/Gain Since SPACQuantumScape (QS) $6,092 $14.42
+44%Microvast Holdings (MVST)$1,545 $5.14 -49%Li-Cycle Holdings (LICY)$1,149
$7.04 -30%Solid Power (SLDP)$1,002 $5.98 -40%FREYR (FREY)$952 $8.18 -18%SES
(IVAN)$299 $8.68 -13%Romeo Power (RMO)$252 $1.88 -81%


AN EV BATTERY STOCK WITH REAL REVENUE



A company a subscriber brought to our attention recently is actually pulling in
more revenue than all of the other EV battery manufacturers on this list
combined. Founded in 2006 and nominally headquartered in Houston, Microvast
(MVST) develops and manufactures EV battery technology for commercial vehicles.
The company completed its SPAC merger last July and has subsequently lost more
than half of its value since then. Revenue through the first nine months of 2021
hit about $85 million, and Microvast appears on pace to beat last year’s revenue
of $107.5 million. However, it will likely fall well below the $174 million in
2018 revenue, and our overworked MBAs will need to investigate further to
understand the dramatic swings in revenue.

What happened in 2019? Credit: Yahoo Finance

In about 15 years of operation, Microvast has managed to integrate its various
battery technologies into almost 30,000 EVs, running in 160 cities across 19
countries. So there is geographic diversification of revenues, though 87% is
currently coming from China and the rest of the Asia Pacific region, with the
remainder based in Europe. Big plans are in the works to expand operations in
both Europe and the United States. Microvast pocketed $822 million from its SPAC
merger with apparently no significant debt, so that’s quite the war chest to
expand its manufacturing capabilities.

Using its current market cap of $1.5 billion and annualized revenues of $148
million (based on $37 million from Q3 results), our simple valuation ratio
(market cap/annualized revenues) is 10. That’s well below our threshold of 40,
but we would want to do more due diligence on this company before we decide to
stake a position, especially since our Disruptive Tech Portfolio is already
heavy on green technology.


AN EV BATTERY STOCK FOR ELVES



We’re less keen at the moment on a Norwegian company, FREYR (FREY), which also
completed its SPAC merger last July. Founded in 2018, the company seemed to
mostly subsist off of government grants before it hit the SPAC jackpot with more
than $700 million in gross proceeds to fund its first manufacturing facility
somewhere just south of the Arctic Circle. The company has yet to commercialize
the battery technology that it is actually licensing from a Boston area startup
called 24M that has developed a semi-solid battery we keep running into over the
years. Despite the fact that FREYR has zero revenue and plans to build its
gigafactory close to Santa Claus (elves do work for free, after all), the
company has managed to only lose about a fifth of its value since sealing the
deal.


THE STATE OF SOLID-STATE EV BATTERY STOCKS

Lithium-ion batteries are the default energy storage option for EVs today, but
plenty of companies are working on new designs and chemistries to boost energy
density and safety, while dropping costs and the time required to charge. One of
the leading contenders is the solid-state battery, which replaces liquid
chemicals with “solid” materials.



Probably the company that has generated the most buzz among EV charging SPAC
stocks is Silicon Valley-based QuantumScape (QS), partly for some of the names
attached to its list of investors. Chief among them is Volkswagen, which has
invested at least $300 million and has a 19% stake in the company. QS and VW
also formed a joint venture to establish a manufacturing facility to produce the
pilot line of QuantumScape’s solid-state lithium battery. Another notable name
attached to the company is Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the billionaire club
trying to save the planet. Names don’t wow us; fast-growing revenues and solid
business plans do. QS is still pre-revenue and the current business is mostly
predicated on its relationship with Volkswagen. 

Credit: QuantumScape

The stock benefited from being one of the earliest on the SPAC crazy train,
trading well above the $10 per share baseline before the merger was completed in
November 2020. The stock has been on a steady decline ever since we briefly
profiled it more than a year ago but, amazingly is still more than 40% above the
SPAC default price, despite the fact that commercialization won’t begin until
between 2024 and 2025. We’ll probably be drinking camel milk fermented from
microbes if and when QS starts generating significant revenues.



Another company with a long time horizon that is developing solid-state battery
technology for EVs is Solid Power (SLDP), a company we recently profiled as a
pure play on a solid-state EV battery. It premiered on the Nasdaq just last
month and has already lost about half of its value in little more than a month.
In theory, Solid Power has a shorter pathway to start generating revenues by
licensing its cell designs and manufacturing know-how to third-party
commercialization partners. The company is also banking on selling its
proprietary battery materials, especially to its partners, BMW and Ford.
Currently, revenues are about $2 to $3 million annually.

The race to beat $100/kWh. Credit: Solid Power

While retail investors may be tempted to invest in QuantumScape or Solid Power
based on the marquee names attached to their operations, keep in mind these
sorts of deals fall apart all the time. In addition, these major automakers
usually hedge their bets with other partnerships and deals.


AN EV BATTERY RECYCLING PLAY

That’s certainly the case for EV battery recycling, which involves recovering
the increasingly expensive materials that go into their manufacture. Volkswagen,
for example, has invested heavily in a sustainable battery startup out of Sweden
called Northvolt in which it has a 20% stake. BMW is also an investor in the
company, which is valued at $9 billion after raising $6 billion. Another leading
EV battery company is Redwood Materials in Nevada with at least $792 million in
funding, with Ford being a conspicuous name among the investors. 



Both of these companies are competing in the same space as Li-Cycle (LICY),
another former SPAC trying to stay afloat in the turbulent waters of the public
markets. We profiled the company back in October as a risky play on lithium
battery recycling, even though we believe in the long-term potential of this
kind of pick and shovel play on EVs. The upside is that EV sales are soaring –
up 80% in 2021 to 5.6 million units – as raw resources become more expensive and
scarce. Also, some of the first EV batteries should soon be hitting the
recycling bin (though Li-Cycle and its competitors are working on more than just
EVs). Li-Cycle just issued its full 2021 results, with revenues increasing about
830% to $7.4 million compared to a year ago. However, that’s still well below
(surprise!) the company’s original estimate of $12 million.

Options for battery recycling. Credit: Li-Cycle

In this case, our simple valuation ratio tells us Li-Cycle is still way
overvalued at its current market cap of just more than $1 billion, with shares
trading closer to $7 than $6 as of the end of January. Our Maginot Line is 40;
Li-Cycle is trading closer to 150.


ROMEO, ROMEO, WHEREFORE ART THOU?



It was questionable whether we would be able to cover Los Angeles-based Romeo
Power (RMO) before its stock completely collapsed. At the time, the
seven-year-old company had raised about $122 million before completing its SPAC
merger in December 2020. A year and some change later, it has lost more than 90%
of its value, with a market cap of around $250 million. Its biggest investor,
BorgWarner (BWA), is an automotive supplier with a $10 billion market cap
looking to add to its own electrification product portfolio that includes things
like electric motors. In 2019, BorgWarner entered into a joint venture with
Romeo Power to commercialize the latter’s battery management systems, modules,
and packs for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles. BWA also took a 20%
stake in RMO at the same time. To our earlier point about the transience of
these sorts of deals: In October 2021, Romeo Power announced that BorgWarner
would pull out of the joint venture, forcing RMO to buy out its partner’s 60%
stake.

Credit: Romeo Power

There’s no sign of the flashy investor deck on the Romeo Power website, so we’re
not sure what kind of hockey stick growth the company originally promised. Its
Q3 results ending on September 30, 2021 represented the company’s first
significant revenues of $5.8 million, a 753% increase over the prior year. Don’t
get too excited: 68% of that money came from just one customer, with a second
customer accounting for another 10%. Almost all of the revenue (83%) came from
engineering services associated with the joint venture that is no longer a joint
venture. Even Juliet would dump this Romeo. 


ANOTHER EV BATTERY SPAC STOCK CHARGING UP



Einstein once said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and
expecting a different result. So we present SES, a 2012 spin out from MIT that
announced in July 2021 it would merge with Ivanhoe Capital Acquisition Corp
(IVAN). Not sure what’s taking so long, but we wouldn’t be surprised if some of
the $476 million in gross proceeds from the deal disappear as some investors get
cold feet – an increasingly common occurrence as the enthusiasm around SPACs
continues to wane. The startup has raised about $325 million to date, with
strong ties to Asia and China, in particular, including the country’s biggest
automaker Geely and Chinese state-owned SAIC. Hyundai and GM are also investors,
along with Foxconn and LG Chem, which is one of the biggest manufacturers of
lithium-ion batteries.

Credit: SES

SES is developing what it calls a hybrid solid-state battery that is more energy
dense than current lithium-ion batteries but more scalable than those being
developed by companies like QS and SLDP. It also claims to use artificial
intelligence to manage safety features and improve battery efficiency. The
company touts its various agreements, such as joint development deals with
Hyundai, Kia, and GM – but we know what those are worth. SES is pre-revenue and
doesn’t expect to see money rolling in until 2024. If this deal ever closes, SES
will be the ticker name with a value of about $3.4 billion.


CONCLUSION

We limited this article to companies mainly focused on electric vehicles, and we
don’t really see any viable pure-play EV battery stocks except for maybe
Microvast. One problem is that there are plenty of companies like LG Chem that
are already supplying EV batteries, but most are large conglomerates
manufacturing lots of other products aside from energy storage solutions. For
example, most readers are probably familiar with consumer electronics giant
Panasonic. The Japanese conglomerate is one of the largest EV battery suppliers
to Tesla and just announced it would spend $700 million to ramp up production of
a new lithium-ion battery that would boost EV range by about 15%. Tesla is first
in line to receive shipments as early as 2023. LG Chem itself announced last
year it would invest $4.5 billion to expand EV battery production in the United
States. It’s hard to compete against that kind of money.

While an EV battery stock pure play seems ill-advised at this time, there is one
good energy storage stock with multiple exposures to other tech themes that we
do like. Nanalyze subscribers can find it in our Nanalyze Disruptive Technology
Portfolio.

Want to know what 30 tech stocks we own right now? Want to know which ones we
think are too risky to hold? Become a Nanalyze Premium member and find out
today!





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Published: January 29, 2022

 * Green Technology

 * Electric Vehicles
 * Lithium Ion Batteries
 * Solid State Batteries





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2 thoughts on “7 EV Battery Stocks for Green Tech Investors”
 1. Stan D says:
    February 11, 2022 at 11:31 pm
    
    UK solid state battery stock: Ilika (IKA.L)
    
    Reply
    1. Nanalyze says:
       February 12, 2022 at 8:59 am
       
       We covered them back in 2015. While they started to show some signs of
       revenue life, it’s still far from meaningful. The last two quarters it
       appears to have dropped off too.
       
       Reply
       
    


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