Institutional investors and professional traders rely on The Fly to keep up-to-the-second on breaking news in the electric vehicle and clean energy space, as well as which stocks in these sectors that the best analysts on Wall Street are saying to buy and sell.

From the hotly-debated high-flier Tesla (TSLA), Wall Street's newest darling Rivian (RIVN), traditional-stalwarts turned EV-upstarts GM (GM) and Ford (F) to the numerous SPAC-deal makers that have come public in this red-hot space, The Fly has you covered with "Charged," a weekly recap of the top stories and expert calls in the sector.

QUARTERLY RESULTS: On Wednesday, October 19, Tesla reported third quarter earnings per share of $1.05 and revenue of $21.45B, with consensus at 99c and $21.96B, respectively. Tesla said in its quarterly update letter that, "We plan to grow our manufacturing capacity as quickly as possible. Over a multi-year horizon, we expect to achieve 50% average annual growth in vehicle deliveries. The rate of growth will depend on our equipment capacity, factory uptime, operational efficiency and the capacity and stability of the supply chain. We have sufficient liquidity to fund our product roadmap, long-term capacity expansion plans and other expenses."

"The pace of production ramps in Texas and Berlin-Brandenburg will be influenced by the successful introduction of many new product and manufacturing technologies in new locations and ongoing supply chain related challenges... We are making progress on the industrialization of Cybertruck, which is currently planned for Texas production subsequent to Model Y ramp. The initial phase of Tesla Semi deliveries is scheduled to begin in December 2022."

STARTER PRICES CUT: Tesla has begun reducing starter prices for its Model 3 and Model Y cars by up to 9% in China, Reuters' Zhang Yang and Brenda Goh report. The price cuts, which are the first by Tesla in China in 2022, come after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said last week that "a recession of sorts" was under way in China and Europe and Tesla said it would miss its vehicle delivery target this year.

Commenting on the price cuts, BofA analyst Ming Hsun said that the move is likely due to recent slower EV penetration growth, and Tesla's shorter waiting time for Model 3/Y after it increased monthly capacity to above 80,000 after July. Hsun expects Model 3/Y volume sales to improve given the entry price of Model 3 is lowered by 4.7%, and Model Y’s is lowered by 8.9%; Tesla’s price change has been long awaited by Chinese consumers, thus they were in a wait-and-see mode earlier. The analyst sees the impact could be manageable for NIO (NIO), XPeng (XPEV), etc. Hsun doesn’t exclude the possibility of Xpeng, BYD or Leapmotor adjusting their pricing strategies if Tesla' price cut impacts Chinese peers’ volume sales in a significant manner.

TWITTER DEAL STILL 'BRUTAL SITUATION' FOR TESLA HOLDERS: On Friday, Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said "time is ticking" for Tesla CEO Elon Musk to get his buyout of Twitter (TWTR) done by October 28, which is the Delaware Court imposed date as the hard deadline. The "main hurdle right now" is the structure of the financing as Musk continues to seek outside financing to help him close this deal along with current $12.5B debt financing, Ives told investors in a research note. "It's pretty simple, the more investors that bail on this deal is the more money that Musk needs to contribute and therefore sell more Tesla stock," he wrote. Ives believes Musk might need to sell an additional $5B to $10B of Tesla shares to fund the deal, depending on the financing talks. "This continues to be a brutal situation for Tesla investors to bear the burden," says Ives. On the Washington Post report of Musk planning to cut 75% of Twitter's workforce, the analyst said such a move would be "way too aggressive" and potentially set back the core platform for years before the "X App" strategy takes hold.

$170M IMPAIRMENT ON BITCOIN: In a regulatory filing, Tesla said that, "During the nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021, we purchased and/or received an immaterial amount and $1.5B, respectively, of digital assets. As of September 30, 2022, we have converted approximately 75% of our purchases into fiat currency. During the nine months ended September 30, 2022, we recorded $170M of impairment losses on such digital assets, and $51 million and $101 million during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021, respectively. During the nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021, we realized gains of $64M and $128M, respectively, in connection with converting our holdings of digital assets into fiat currency. The gains are presented net of impairment losses in Restructuring and other in the consolidated statements of operations. As of September 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021, the carrying value of our digital assets held was $218M and $1.26B, which reflects cumulative impairments of $169M and $101 million, each period, respectively. The fair market value of such digital assets held as of September 30, 2022 was $226M."

MOST RIVIAN RECALLS FIXED: Rivian has fixed a "significant majority" of the 12,000 vehicles that were recalled earlier this month, CEO RJ Scaringe said at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, Rebecca Bellan reports. Scaringe said Rivian has traceability on hundreds of fasteners in the vehicle, and the issue shouldn't happen again. "We literally mobilized our whole service network to say let's go move through these vehicles really quickly," said Scaringe. "In this case, it was like a minute fix. It's just checking the torque on a faster."

WORKFORCE REDUCTION: Volta (VLTA) is instituting a furlough program designed to reduce costs further and focus the company's resources on key strategic priorities. Volta has decreased 54% of U.S. full-time employees through this and other workforce reductions that began in the second quarter of 2022. Inclusive of these latest efforts, this continued strategic focus will result in a 43% reduction in cash SG&A. Volta continues to streamline the organization and prioritize resources toward revenue-driving initiatives, including accelerating its successful digital advertising business and expanding its role as an electric vehicle charging partner for commercial properties and government agencies. Volta continues to attract new advertising clients and larger digital media budgets through direct and programmatic sales channels by delivering measurable sales outcomes for its ad partners. Volta is focused on strategic initiatives to drive public-private partnerships that align with the $7.5B of funding the Federal government has allocated toward public EV charging infrastructure buildout under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Volta is taking steps to scale its business, by outsourcing certain operations to select U.S.-based contractors and suppliers at the local level. This allows Volta to more efficiently and economically serve the increasing needs of its customers and community partners as EV adoption and the need for convenient and safe public charging infrastructure continues to grow.

ELECTRIC PICKUP: General Motors (GM) is weighing the addition of an electric midsized pickup truck to its fleet of Hummer vehicles in an effort to capitalize on demand for lower emission cars, Bloomberg's David Welch reports, citing people familiar with the matter. A smaller, electric Hummer remains a design concept in the car maker's California studio, but has a good chance of entering production and is viewed as a priority project, the author says.

MOVING TO THE SIDELINES: Canaccord analyst George Gianarikas downgraded Lion Electric (LEV) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $2.50, down from $8, as he assumed coverage of the stock. The Canadian developer and manufacturer of electric school buses is vertically integrated, with plans to build both internal vehicle and battery pack production capacity, which is a long-term positive, but this approach requires significant capital and he expects this to potentially impact the price of Lion's equity, Gianarikas tells investors.

Meanwhile, Wolfe Research analyst Steve Fleishman downgraded Sunrun (RUN) to Peer Perform from Outperform without a price target. Headwinds from the interest rate spike on financing costs and the stock's valuation are "tough to ignore despite strong demand growth" from the Inflation Reduction Action and rising utility rates, Fleishman tells investors in a research note. The analyst sates he needs to see rate/credit markets stabilize before recommending the shares again.

BUY PLUG POWER: Jefferies analyst Sam Burwell initiated coverage of Plug Power (PLUG) with a Buy rating and $28 price target. Plug manufactures PEM fuel cell systems and seeks to cover the entire hydrogen value chain by marketing electrolyzers and its own green H2 volumes, said Burwell, who believes the company's FY25 sales and gross margin targets "can be achieved," though execution "will be critical."

BULLISH ON BLOOM ENERGY: Jefferies analyst Sam Burwell initiated coverage of Bloom Energy (BE) with a Buy rating and $29 price target. He believes the "Option Value" of energy is up again, driven by a constrained capital cycle. While this is most pronounced in oil & gas, it is also evident in energy transition names, said the analyst, who thinks energy's "Option Value can stay higher for longer" without a significant uptick in investment across the industry, though he adds that the current macro slowdown is "likely to incrementally gain focus" within the group.