There’s been a flurry of year-end electric vehicle finance activity and signs of EV optimism going into 2020.
Tesla share price hits $420
In August of last year, Elon Musk let the world know via Twitter that he was looking to shift his $60 billion-market cap EV pioneer from a public to private company.
His 2018 tweet read: “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.”
It would have been the biggest leveraged buyout in history — with a value of about $82 billion counting debt. Musk said that the deal was contingent on a shareholder vote, but added that “investor support is confirmed.”
The deal never happened. Instead, Musk was fined $20 million by the SEC and had to step down as Tesla chairman.
Tesla’s stock price dropped to $170 earlier this year, but has rebounded to reach the $420 number at which Musk had once valued the company. Musk spiked the ball on Twitter.
Tesla now has a market cap of $76.6 billion compared to General Motors with a market cap of $52.3 billion.
Tesla’s $1.4 billion loan for the Shanghai factory
Citing sources with direct knowledge, Reuters reported that a group of Chinese banks including China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank will furnish Tesla with a new $1.4 billion, five-year loan facility for its Shanghai factory, “part of which will be used to roll over an existing loan.”
The recently completed building in Shanghai is Tesla’s first factory outside of the United States and would be China’s only completely foreign-owned car factory.
Rivian raises another $1.3 billion for electric SUVs and pickups
Rivian raised $1.3 billion from investors including mutual fund company T. Rowe Price, Amazon, Ford and BlackRock. Rivian has raised $2.85 billion in 2019 to develop its electric SUV and pickup.
Amazon ordered 100,000 electric delivery vans using Rivian’s platform technology with deliveries starting in 2021. Rivian has a 2.6-million-square-foot plant in Normal, Illinois and hopes to launch its products in the U.S. in late 2020.
LS Power acquires EVgo’s fast-charger business
LS Power acquired EVgo’s electric vehicle public fast-charger business for an undisclosed sum from Vision Ridge Partners.
That’s the same price investment firm Vision Ridge Partners paid for EVgo when it acquired the firm from utility company NRG in 2016.
EVgo rose from the ashes of the Enron-induced California state power crisis in 2001 and the ensuing $100 million allocation towards setting up a charging network. EVgo has 750 sites with 1,250 fast chargers across 34 states, according to reports — in the largest public fast-charging network in the U.S.
EV optimism in 2020
Tesla is going to have to sell a bit over 100,000 cars in the fourth quarter of 2019 to hit its forecast of 360,000 to 400,000 vehicles for the year. It’s a reach — but an achievable goal for Tesla in 2019.
Here’s a long list of mainstream EVs coming in 2020 with ranges of at least 200 miles.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.