What happened
It's good news today for shareholders of alternative energy and futuristic auto-tech companies Plug Power (PLUG -6.95%), Bloom Energy (BE -1.93%), and Velodyne Lidar (VLDR), all of which are reacting well to a story on TheFly.com recapping recent developments in the electric car industry.
As of 1:50 p.m. EDT, shares of Plug are up 3.6%, Bloom is up 6.4%, and Velodyne is doing best of all -- up 6.6%.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
In a wide-ranging report entitled "Charged," TheFly this morning recapped a series of developments touching on electric cars, headlined by a summary of the White House's Thursday announcement of a $15 billion project "to accelerate and deploy electric vehicles and charging stations, create good-paying, union jobs, and enable a clean transportation future."
Granted, this particular project is probably more relevant to car charging networks such as ChargePoint (CHPT -3.73%), which unsurprisingly reacted positively to the announcement, gaining 9.5% last week. But in line with the president's announcement, notes TheFly, last week also saw Bank of America, for example, initiate coverage of lidar companies, saying companies like Velodyne are "uniquely levered" to the trend of more and more car companies going both electric and autonomous.
Similarly, TheFly noted positive mentions of both Plug Power and Bloom Energy by Wells Fargo, which says it's impressed with the companies' moves to broaden and vertically integrate their fuel cell operations by also producing hydrogen gas to be used to power those cells. And the reporter highlighted an Evercore ISI report also initiating coverage of Plug Power, citing "significant value" in the stock after its nearly 66% pullback over the last three months.
Now what
Granted, TheFly's report this morning was backward-looking, recapping items that were already news several days ago. But by pulling together multiple positive news items and organizing them all in one space, the report may be giving investors a sense that the trend toward electric cars -- of all sorts, battery-electric, hybrid gas-electric, and even fuel cell-electric -- is gaining steam, or even approaching inevitability.
To be honest, I kind of get that same sense myself. That being said, until these companies prove that they can profit from this trend (none of the three companies is currently profitable -- did I mention that?), investors need to bear in mind that what's good news for car buyers, consumers, or even the planet Earth as a whole may not necessarily be great news for investors. These companies still need to prove they can earn some money before they deserve to have your money invested in them.
