What happened
The stock of electrical-vehicle (EV) start-up Faraday Future Intelligent Electric (FFIE -11.06%) has been on a wild ride this week. An explosive move in the shares occurred recently, driving them up 150% in just a week.
Even after a double-digit drop yesterday, shares are still up more than 120% in just the past five days. Today, after spiking as much as 41%, Faraday stock was 17% higher as of 3:38 p.m. ET.
So what
The company itself hasn't provided any updates in the last week, so the stock's move has come from other drivers. Faraday has had very high short interest, which is what has helped push several stocks higher from retail investors banding together online trying to force short-sellers to cover their shares.
Now what
Faraday is getting close to launching its high-end flagship FF 91 electric car. The FF 91 will start at around $120,000 and compete with offerings from Volkswagen's Porsche and Lucid Group. Even its follow-up "mass market" FF 81 has a base price of $74,000.
The company is focusing on the luxury and supercar market. Faraday's FF 91 Futurist model has more than 1,000 horsepower and accelerates from zero to 60 mph in less than 2.5 seconds. That model will go for about $180,000.
For now, investors should just focus on whether and how fast the company can begin to bring in revenue from the FF 91. Faraday only had $276 million in cash as of March 31 after recording a net loss of $153 million. It did hold more than 400 pre-orders at that time.
If the company can successfully launch the FF 91 in the current quarter as planned, the recent run in the share price might become justified. The company is valued with a market cap of just $1.6 billion at this point. Speculating on it may pay off, but there's just as much of a chance that it won't. Investors who want to take the chance should allocate only what they can afford to lose.
