What happened
Alternative energy stocks are having a great day on Thursday -- especially the ones betting that the future will be dominated by electric cars. As of 12:45 p.m. EST, shares of Kandi Technologies Group (KNDI -3.04%), a Chinese electric-vehicle maker, are up a solid 13.3%. CBAK Energy Technology (CBAT 1.06%), which makes lithium batteries for cars in China, are rising 14.8%, and Blink Charging (BLNK -2.97%), which operates an electric charging network in the U.S., is doing best of all -- up 23.7%.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Two days ago, Kandi announced that it has received confirmation that the state of Texas is willing to give $2,500 tax rebates to the first 2,000 customers who buy one of its electric cars in that state.
CBAK Energy stock sold off hard yesterday after CBAK announced plans to trade a bunch of its shares to a creditor to pay off its debts. The company valued the shares at only $3.50 in the debt exchange, however, an extremely low price that upset investors and probably elated short sellers. I suspect that today's bounce back in CBAK shares, therefore, is evidence of shorts closing their positions and collecting their profits.
And on Monday, Blink Charging announced a new "cable management solution" for its chargers. It may be little more than a glorified twist-tie, but investors seemed to like the news.
Now what
I really don't think that any of the above, though, suffices to justify stock price rises of 13%, 15%, or 24% today. I'm especially dubious about these stock price moves given that none of the three stocks named is currently profitable, and all of the three stocks named are burning cash.
If you want to gamble that I'm wrong about that, well, it's a free country, and judging from how the stocks are performing today, it seems like it could very well be a winning bet. Over the long term, however, I'm still convinced that valuation matters -- and right now, I just don't see a whole lot of value in any of these shares.
