Once-Loved EV Startups Teeter on Edge as Buyers Sour on Industry
- Stocks of most EV newbies trading at fractions of prior highs
- ‘No room for startups in this environment’: Zacks’ Mulberry
A Rivian R1T electric vehicle (EV) pickup truck at the company's showroom in New York.
Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/BloombergA slowdown in the demand for electric cars has sparked off such a brutal price war that even industry behemoth Tesla Inc. is struggling to cope. But for the newer entrants in the race, it is fast turning out to be a battle for survival.
This week’s slew of lackluster quarterly results from once promising electric-vehicle startups made clear what analysts and investors have worried about for a while now: That rapidly dropping prices on EVs will hit the smaller, unprofitable carmakers the hardest. Two of the largest and most prominent in the group — Rivian Automotive Inc. and Lucid Group Inc. — reported wider-than-expected losses, after losing a staggering amount of money for every vehicle they sold.