- Mullen Automotive receives $45K subsidy from California per electric semi-truck.
- Subsidy is point-of-sale and could push Mullen THREE cost down to $17,000.
- MULN stock rose 81% on Monday on the news.
- Mullen stock rally continues on Tuesday with early gains.
Mullen Automotive (MULN) stock is trading about 16% higher on Tuesday following Monday’s extraordinary 81% rally. The much-ballyhooed electric vehicle (EV) company from southern California is experiencing strong buying momentum following news that its electric semi-truck, the Mullen THREE, has been included in a cash voucher program that should boost sales immensely.
MULN price action is in sharp contrast to the overall market on Tuesday. The NASDAQ, Dow Jones and S&P 500 have all shed more than 0.7% at the time of writing.
Mullen Automotive stock news
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has approved the Mullen THREE electric semi-truck cab for a $45,000 cash voucher as part of the Hybrid & Zero-Emission Truck & Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP). The California initiative “accelerates commercialization by providing point-of-sale vouchers to make advanced vehicles more affordable”, according to a company statement.
When added to the existing $7,500 federal subsidy for EVs, a Mullen Three retailing for $68,500 could end up costing a trucking company only $17,000 apiece.
This is a drop in the bucket compared with internal combustion engine (ICE) competitors that typically cost more than $100,000 and rise to north of $200,000. Of course, those ICE versions can travel more than 500 miles on a single tank of fuel, whereas the Mullen Three comes equipped to carry a full load for 125 miles of range.
“California’s HVIP approval for the 2024 Mullen THREE is a significant milestone making our Class 3 electric truck even more attractive and accessible to businesses seeking to electrify their fleets,” said Mullen CEO David Michery.
Recently, Mullen completed its first stage of turning its factory in Fullerton, California into a plant capable of building 1 GWh worth of battery packs annually. The early-stage commissioning of the initial two battery assembly lines has been completed, and officials think operations will commence in early 2025.
The Mullen THREE has received CARB approval for both its 2024 and 2025 models. CARB regulations extend beyond California to Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and the District of Columbia. However, other states offer separate incentives to their local businesses.
EV stocks FAQs
Electric vehicles or EVs are automobiles that use rechargable batteries and electric motors to accelerate rather than internal combustion engines (ICEs). They have been around for more that 100 years, but battery technology research & development was meager for much of the 20th century. Lithium-ion battery technology became advanced enough to produce EVs at scale in the late 1990s and 2000s, and sales have been steadily increasing since then Tesla’s Roadster was unveiled in 2008. EVs are viewed as a means of reducing carbon emissions since battery electric vehicles (BEVs) themselves produce zero emissions. Other vehicles called plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) utilize both battery electric power and ICEs as a backup.
EVs are growing from a small base, but they rose from 9% of global new auto sales in 2021 to 14% of the total in 2022. This was a 65% YoY growth rate, and the industry delivered 10.2 million EVs worldwide in 2022. Projections show this number climbing above 16 million in 2023. Across the world, market shares differ greatly among nations. Nearly 88% of Norwegian new car sales in 2022 were EVs. On the other hand, the United States, where much of the modern innovation in EVs was forged, had less than 8% of new vehicle sales go to EVs in 2022. The largest EV market in the world, China, saw 30% of the market go to EVs that year.
We know you’re thinking Elon Musk, but he’s probably more like the father of the mass-market, contemporary EV. All the way back in 1827, a Hungarian priest named Anyos Jedlik invented the electric motor and used it the following year to power a vehicle of sorts. French scientist Gaston Planté invented the lead-acid battery in 1859, and German engineer Andreas Flocken built the first true electric car for the public in 1888. EVs made up about 38% of all vehicles sold in the US around 1900. They began losing market share rapidly after 1910 when gasoline-powered vehicles grew much more affordable. They largely died off until new research programs in the 1990s led to gradual private sector investment in the 2000s.
China’s BYD is by far the largest manufacturer of EVs in the world. In 2022 it sold 1.8 million EVs and in the second half of the year made up 20% of the global market. The asterisk given to BYD is that the vast majority of these vehicles are hybrids. Tesla’s 12% market share is often treated as more significant than BYD, because it only sells BEVs and is the most famous EV brand in the world. Volkswagen, BMW and Wuling then round out the top five. As a new sector with heavy investment though, many startups have flooded the market. These include China’s Nio, Li Auto and Xpeng; a Swedish-Chinese manufacturer called Polestar; and Lucid and Rivian from the US.
Mullen Automotive stock forecast
Mullen stock has risen on Tuesday to trade mostly within the $6.36 and $6.95 range. Those price levels stem from support and resistance levels when MULN traded somewhat sideways in late January through early March.
From here, traders will wait for a close above $6.95, which sits close to the 61.8% Fibonacci at $7.00. A close above either of those levels will signal further hope for a jump to the 78.6% Fibo at $8.26 or even the $9.87 range high from February 16.
Likewise, a close below $6.36 will send traders to the exits, and MULN is likely to slump to the 38.2% Fibo at $5.23.
MULN daily stock chart
