What happened

Shares of many companies in the electric-vehicle (EV) space opened sharply lower amid a broad-based market sell-off on Monday. There were several catalysts for the sell-off, including rising interest rates and geopolitical concerns. Traders and investors seemed eager to exit high-risk positions, a category that includes many EV-related stocks.

Here's where things stood for these three EV stocks as of 11:45 a.m. ET, relative to their closing prices on Friday.

  • Arrival (ARVL) was down about 25.4%.
  • Cenntro Electric Group (CENN) was down about 10.5%.
  • Lordstown Motors (RIDE 5.71%) was down about 7.7%.

So what

Concerns about a potential conflict between Russia and Western powers, likely interest rate hikes in the U.S., and a major sell-off of crypto assets over the weekend combined to leave traders and investors in no mood for the stocks of speculative early-stage companies when markets opened on Monday 

That's why these three stocks (and many others like them) were down sharply in morning trading. To be clear, none of the three appeared to be moving on company-specific news; but for reference, here's the latest news on each:

  • Arrival said late last month that it has begun on-road trials of its upcoming electric bus at a testing site in the U.K. The bus, called the Arrival Bus, is an urban bus with a modular design that allows its size and range to be tailored for individual cities' specific applications. 
  • Cenntro Electric said on Friday that it produced 1,623 of its electric commercial vehicles in 2021, including 628 vehicles built in December. The company plans to scale up its production by the end of March, once its new factories in Florida and Germany open for operations. 
  • Aside from a brief press release announcing a new general counsel in December, Lordstown Motors has been quiet since it reported its third-quarter results on Nov. 11. The company received a dubious distinction earlier this month, when widely watched Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas released his ranked list of 33 stocks in the U.S. autos and mobility space -- and put Lordstown last. Jonas maintained his underweight rating and $2 price target on Lordstown. (His top pick, for reference, was Ferrari.)
An Arrival Bus.

Arrival began testing its electric city bus, called the Arrival Bus, in December. Image source: Arrival.

Now what

EV investors can expect detailed updates from all three of these companies when they report fourth-quarter results. While none of the three have announced dates for the reports, past practice suggests that we can expect both Arrival and Lordstown to report in mid-February. Cenntro has no past practice, as it recently went public via a reverse merger; we'll have to wait for its announcement.