What You Missed This Week in EVs and Clean Energy

Institutional investors and professional traders rely on The Fly to keep up-to-the-second on breaking news in the electric vehicle and clean energy space, as well as which stocks in these sectors that the best analysts on Wall Street are saying to buy and sell.

From the hotly-debated high-flier Tesla (TSLA), Wall Street’s newest darling Rivian (RIVN), traditional-stalwarts turned EV-upstarts GM (GM) and Ford (F) to the numerous SPAC-deal makers that have come public in this red-hot space, The Fly has you covered with “Charged,” a weekly recap of the top stories and expert calls in the sector.

Q2 DELIVERIES: Barclays expects Tesla to report Q2 deliveries of 415,000 units, down 11% year-over-year and below the consensus estimate of 444,000. However, the firm believes its estimate is “somewhat in line with more muted buyside expectations” and suspects the final Tesla-compiled consensus estimates will end up lower. A soft delivery result could turn investor attention back to the currently challenging fundamental environment for Tesla, as the company is likely to face continued negative revisions on 2024 and 2025 estimates, Barclays tells investors in a research note.

LOWER ROBOTAXI REVENUE: RBC Capital lowered the firm’s price target on Tesla to $227 from $293 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. The firm is reducing its outlook for the company’s robotaxi revenue contribution to $414B from $627B previously, allocating a bigger revenue share to service providers like Uber (UBER) and Lyft (LYFT), RBC adds however that it still sees robotaxis being the biggest driver for its Tesla valuation model at 52%, followed by FSD at 27%, Megapacks at 15%, and Cars at 6%.

Click here to check out Tesla’s recent Media Buzz Sentiment as measured by TipRanks.

CYBERATTACK: CDK Global shut down its dealership management system for a second day in a row after experiencing another “cyber incident,” according to Automotive News, citing a message to customers viewed by the publication. CDK, which serves almost 15,000 car dealerships across North America, was first hit by an attack early Wednesday morning that had forced it to shut down its systems. Publicly traded auto dealers include Asbury Automotive (ABG), AutoNation (AN), Group 1 Automotive (GPI), Lithia & Driveway (LAD) and Penske Automotive (PAG). Publicly traded auto makers include Ford (F), General Motors (GM), Honda (HMC), Mercedes-Benz (MBGYY), Nissan (NSANY), Stellantis (STLA), Tesla, Toyota (TM) and Volkswagen (VWAGY).

GUIDANCE CUT: SMA Solar Technology AG (SMTGY) announced that it is adjusting its guidance for the fiscal year 2024. “The Managing Board now expects sales of between 1,550 million euros and 1,700 million euros (previously: 1,950 million euros and 2,220 million euros) and operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of between 80 million euros and 130 million euros (previously: 220 million euros and 290 million euros). In accordance with applicable international accounting standards, any changes in depreciation are assessed and taken into account, if necessary, when preparing the half-year financial statements. The reason for adjusting the guidance is a persistently volatile market as well as delayed increase of incoming orders resulting from continued high inventories at distributors and installers. This results in a sales and earnings development in the Home Solutions and Commercial & Industrial Solutions segments below expectations. Furthermore, there is new uncertainty in the market due to the recent outcome of the European elections and the upcoming elections in the USA on November 5th. The Large Scale & Project Solutions segment continues to develop in line with expectations. For this segment the Managing Board still expects a strong increase in sales and EBITDA for the year as a whole compared to the previous year. The half-year report 2024 will be published as scheduled on August 8,” the company stated. Publicly traded companies in the solar energy space include Array Technologies (ARRY), Enphase Energy (ENPH), Canadian Solar (CSIQ), Emeren (SOL), FTC Solar (FTCI), First Solar (FSLR), JinkoSolar (JKS), Maxeon Solar (MAXN), Shoals Technologies (SHLS), SolarEdge (SEDG) and SunPower (SPWR).