What happened

Electric vehicle (EV) stocks started the week all shook up on Monday, as news releases from Ford (F -1.92%) and Tesla (TSLA -1.11%) sent investors scrambling to figure out which way is up.

At 12:45 p.m. ET today, shares of Rivian Automotive (RIVN 6.10%) are down a distressing 4.4%, while its rival Lucid Group (LCID 0.41%) is up 5.3%. Canoo (GOEV 2.59%), another upstart in the EV space, is seeing its stock swing wildly today, first falling more than 11% in the morning, then gaining it all back, and rising as much as 3%. As of 12:45, this maker of electric vans and trucks is just barely in the green, up a tiny fraction of 1% percent.

So what

What's the source of all this confusion? In a one-two punch of good news (for them) but bad news (presumably) for everyone else, first Tesla announced over the weekend that it has officially begun construction of its all-electric Cybertruck for sale. 

No sooner had that happened than Ford announced this morning that it is cutting prices on its F-150 Lightning electric pickup by up to 17%, reversing earlier price hikes on the $40,000 base model of the truck (which had climbed 50% to a $60,000 starting price) and lowering the price back down to $49,995.  The company is hoping to goose demand for its electric truck at the same time as it ramps up production.

Separately, Bank of America says it has resumed coverage of Lucid stock today, but only with a neutral rating.

Now what

The fact that Ford cut its electric truck prices just one day after Tesla began producing its long-awaited competing electric truck is probably not a coincidence. And it's logical that Rivian -- another maker of electric trucks, which has struggled recently to sell those trucks -- is seeing its stock flag on Tesla's arrival in the market, and Ford's price war.

What's less clear is why Lucid and Canoo stocks are doing relatively well in today's trading, since the people buying those shares today are wrong to do so. Ford is ramping up production of electric trucks and cutting prices; Tesla is now finally making its move into electric trucks as well. Both of these companies are bigger and better capitalized than Lucid or Canoo (or Rivian, too, for that matter). Both companies are now gaining even more scale.

That's not a reason to buy Canoo stock or Lucid stock at all (nor Rivian, either). It's actually a pretty good reason to be afraid of buying all three of them.