The Yahoo Finance Live team discusses the latest EV news involving Tesla and Ford.
Video Transcript
DAVE BRIGGS: All right, let’s take a look at now some of the auto stocks, specifically Ford and Tesla. Not great news coming out of either of those companies this week, as Ford had to halt production of its F-150 Lightning, while Tesla recalled more than 360,000 cars due to an issue with its self driving function.
But take a look at how these two stocks closed out the week. Bad news for both companies, yet still closing higher. In particular, look at Tesla. Tesla outperforming Ford on the week, significantly outperforming the legacy automaker on the year. They are up a staggering 90% this year. They are not fully autonomous, but they sure do appear to be bulletproof at this moment, Seana.
SEANA SMITH: They certainly do. Tesla, for the sixth week in a row, the longest streak that we’ve seen since November 2021. When you talk about the appetite, especially among retail investors, we were talking about that last hour. Tesla the most popular stock among retail investors. VandaTrak saying that Tesla remained the favorite there among that group, inflows totaling 9.7 billion year to date.
That has a lot to do with the huge momentum that we have seen in that stock so far this year. Yes, the recall that we did get announced from– the Tesla recall that we did get this week certainly challenging here for that company in the near term. But at least from the movement, from the momentum in the stock, it doesn’t seem to be deterring the Street just yet.
DAVE BRIGGS: Not at all, and what’s really surprising on the flip side of this is that Ford side that we just talked about. It felt like the one company really getting close to the bumper of Tesla in that EV space, and suddenly this production makes things look a lot different. Then comes a Barclays note very complimentary of Tesla, of Rivian, and in particular, citing GM over Ford in that EV space, which I think surprised a lot of people because GM had lagged behind Ford in that space because of that Lightning and because their Silverado wasn’t yet on the market.
Then Mary Barra, the GM CEO, says this is their breakout year when it comes to EVs, saying they think they really surpass their traditional rivals and begin to close the gap on Tesla. So keep your eye on that space right there. Going to be a fascinating year for Ford versus GM when it comes to EVs.
SEANA SMITH: Yeah, certainly, the competition there heating up in that space.