👬The 2 Musk-eteers and the FCC

Good Morning, this is your Electric Daily. The email that gives you a daily jolt of electric vehicle trends, insights, and predictions, in 5 minutes or less.

In Today's Email:

• 👬The 2 Musk-eteers and the FCC

• 📈EV sales blew up in 2021

• 🦅 Nikola Rises From the Ashes

• 🗒️ Three Nuggets

—Riz Nwosu

The 2 Musk-eteers and the FCC

The SEC is reportedly investigating whether Tesla stock sales by Elon Musk and his brother, Kimbal Musk, violate insider trading rules. Kimbal serves on Tesla’s board of directors and sold 88,500 shares valued at $108 million one day before Elon tweeted a poll asking followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock.

Now that's a Major Bag Alert!

Here's a refresher on how it all went down:

Separately, a US judge refused Tesla and Musk's multiple motions linked to their allegation that the SEC is "harassing" the firm and its CEO yesterday.

Musk's November 2021 Twitter poll attracted 3.5 million votes, with approximately 58% agreeing that Musk should sell 10% of his Tesla stock.

Did Musk Snitch to his Brother?

Kimbal Musk is a member of Tesla's board of directors, and his trading might violate laws that normally ban workers and board members from trading on substantial nonpublic information.

The SEC may investigate whether Mr. Musk informed his brother about his impending tweet or the timing of his sales before Kimbal Musk traded on November 5—or if Kimbal heard of the poll ahead of time and then traded.

Does this rise to the level of insider trading? Two brothers shooting the shit over a shot of Tesla Tequilas shouldn't have come up against an FCC probe. And don't expect Musk to take this one lying down. He came out swinging as he should because when you comes after family, you better come correct. Check out Elon's clap back below:

Shots Fired 🔫🔥

EV Sales Blow Up in 2021

It wasn't long ago that many people were complaining about the fact that EV sales in the United States accounted for barely 1% to 2% of the entire automobile market share. According to the most recent Kelley Blue Book (KBB) report, electric vehicle sales peaked in Q4 2021, accounting for an amazing 4.5% of total automotive sales from October to December of last year. Omicron be damned!

According to KBB, the Tesla Model Y led the pack in the United States in Q4 2021, with 63,386 deliveries. 

Side Note: I guess KBB is still a thing!

Kelley Blue Book also tells us that GM delivered the impressive amount of one GMC Hummer EV in the fourth quarter of 2021. In the meantime, Rivian delivered 575 R1T electric pickup trucks in the same three-month period. KBB also forecasts an increase in EV sales during the first quarter of 2022.

We have an actual video of the Hummer EV delivery:

Sorry, wrong clip 😂. I actually did see a delivery trailer full of Rivians on the 405 freeway in Los Angeles heading out for delivery a few weeks back.

Nikola Rises From the Ashes

Nikola Corp., the electric truck startup that went public through a SPAC, is nearing commercial activity despite a history of over-promising, missing deadlines, and probes into its founder for lying to investors.

Nikola announced a number of recent achievements and, most importantly, intentions to commence series production of its electric semi trucks in its fourth-quarter financial report, which was issued on Thursday.

After much of Nikola's value has been lost on public markets since its mid-2020 highs, the developments may be little more than cold consolation for investors. Nonetheless, the public corporation is focused on "delivering automobiles and earning income," as new CEO Mark Russell stated in the Q4 summary.

The pre-revenue startup, which recently resolved a federal investigation for deceiving investors, posted a $90.4 million operating loss, or 23 cents per share. Following a new 52-week low of $6.41 per share on Thursday morning, the stock finished at $8.04 per share, a 17.7 percent increase. In 2022, the stock is still down 20.8%.

Nikola plans to generate between $90 million and $150 million in income in 2022 from the delivery of 300 to 500 of its first battery-electric semi trucks, known as the Nikola Tre, to clients. Yes we will believe it when we see it.

3 Nuggets

• Faraday Future Builds First Production-Intent FF 91 Flagship EV - [Read more here]

• Rivian aims to take 10% share of the EV market by 2030 - [Read more here]

• EVgo Continues Network Expansion - [Read more here]

Consider yourself 80% charged. Why 80%? Well, according to legend, charging your battery to 100% repeatedly will damage it faster than you can say...[Insert clever saying here]. See ya tomorrow!

What'd you think about today's email?

• ⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡ Fully charged

• ⚡⚡ Meh - was ok

• ⚡ Not even close

Written by Riz Nwosu

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