What happened
Electric vehicle (EV) maker Nikola (NKLA 7.23%) wasn't affected by the Monday blues at all. The company's stock popped by just under 5% on the day, trouncing the S&P 500 index's 0.8% gain. The latest big deal in the EV segment pushed up stocks of affected companies even though Nikola itself wasn't directly a victor. Investors were also cheered by company-specific news in the financing sphere.
So what
On Monday, there were two big indications that demand for EVs continues to be robust.
That morning, EV manufacturer Polestar -- which is slated to merge with special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Gores Guggenheim -- announced that it has entered into a collaboration with auto rental giant Hertz. Under the terms of this arrangement, Hertz will buy up to 65,000 vehicles from Polestar across a five-year period.
Image source: Nikola.
Meanwhile, EV flag-bearer Tesla unveiled its latest production and delivery numbers. Although the latter were flat on a quarter-over-quarter basis and didn't hit the average analyst estimate, investors were obviously cheered by the fact that they grew notably year over year. And despite hiccups in its Chinese production facility, a recently opened gigafactory in Germany should help alleviate that problem.
Now what
Perhaps most impactful for Nikola, though, was a new regulatory document it filed on Friday. In it, Nikola requested that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accept the withdrawal of the company's recent share sale prospectus.
In mid-March, Nikola filed a prospectus for one of its investors to sell up to 17 million-plus shares of its common stock. That number is roughly 4% of the company's outstanding share count. The move indicates that the investor, Tumim Stone Capital, is more bullish on the company's prospects, matching the general investor stance on EV stocks as a group these days.
