What happened
Shares of electric-vehicle (EV) battery maker QuantumScape (QS 3.71%) spiked by a double-digit percentage on Tuesday, a day before the company reports its next financial update. The stock closed the day up 10.6%.
So what
Today's move likely isn't directly related to the earnings release tomorrow. But after the report comes at the market close Wednesday, the company will be answering questions from both retail and institutional shareholders. Last month, it produced a research paper on successful results for fast charging with its solid-state battery technology. That is a crucial step toward commercialization, and will likely be the topic of several questions tomorrow.
QuantumScape employees in its lab. Image source: QuantumScape.
Now what
In the paper, the company showed its battery cells have the ability to complete hundreds of cycles of 15-minute fast charging, which it called a first for this type of battery technology. The company's cells completed enough fast-charging cycles to allow for an EV to get 160,000 total miles of driving from a battery rated with a 400-mile range.
For its earnings call tomorrow, QuantumScape allowed investors to submit questions and vote online for them. Management, including CEO Jagdeep Singh, plans to respond to a list of the questions with the most votes.
Investors shouldn't read too much into today's stock move. Many names in the EV sector jumped today, as investors in general moved back into more-aggressive growth stocks. But depending on what management says about a timeline toward commercializing its battery technology, it wouldn't be surprising to see another sharp move after the quarterly report.
