Charged: Lucid Group, Uber partner on next-gen robotaxi program

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.

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SAFETY DATA: Tesla (TSLA) failed to document safety statistics of its autopilot system in the early years of its implementation, a Tesla engineer testified in a trial over a fatal Florida Keys crash, Law360’s Carolina Bolado reports.

NEXT-GEN ROBOTAXI: Lucid Group (LCID), Nuro, and Uber Technologies (UBER) announced a next-generation premium global robotaxi program created exclusively for the Uber ride-hailing platform. Expected to first launch later next year in a major US city, the new robotaxi service combines the industry-leading software-defined vehicle architecture of the Lucid Gravity, the scalability and proven capability of the Nuro Driver Level 4 autonomy system, and Uber’s vast global network and dynamic fleet management, delivering a fully integrated robotaxi experience developed for comfort, safety, and scale. Uber aims to deploy 20,000 or more Lucid vehicles equipped with the Nuro Driver over six years. The vehicles will be owned and operated by Uber or its third-party fleet partners and made available to riders exclusively via the Uber platform. The first Lucid-Nuro robotaxi prototype is already operating autonomously on a closed circuit at Nuro’s Las Vegas proving grounds. As part of a deepening relationship with each partner, Uber plans to make multi-hundred-million-dollar investments in both Nuro and Lucid.

REVERSE STOCK SPLIT: Lucid Group has filed a preliminary proxy statement with the SEC regarding a special stockholders’ meeting to authorize Lucid’s Board of Directors to effect a reverse stock split of the company’s Class A common stock at a ratio of 1:10. The reverse stock split would not affect any stockholder’s percentage ownership interests or proportionate voting power, except to the extent that it results in a stockholder receiving cash in lieu of fractional shares. The company believes the split will allow the company’s common stock to be more attractive to a broader range of investors and other market participants. At the special stockholders’ meeting, the proposed stock split requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes cast.

ACQUISITION: Zeekr (ZK) announced that it has entered into an agreement and plan of merger with Geely Automobile (GELYF) and Keystone Mergersub, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Geely. Pursuant to the merger agreement and subject to the terms and conditions thereof, Merger Sub will merge with and into the company, with the company continuing as the surviving entity and becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Geely.

Pursuant to the terms of the merger agreement, at the effective time of the merger, each ordinary share, par value $0.0002 per share, of the company issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time, will be cancelled and cease to exist, in exchange for the right to receive, without interest, $2.687 in cash per Zeekr Share or 1.23 newly issued ordinary shares of Geely of a nominal value of HK$0.02 each per Zeekr Share, in each case, at the company’s shareholders election, and each American depositary share of the company issued and outstanding immediately prior to the effective time will be cancelled and cease to exist, in exchange for the right to receive, without interest, $26.87 in cash per Zeekr ADS or 12.3 newly issued Geely Shares per Zeekr ADS, which will be delivered in the form of American depositary shares of Geely, in each case, at the company’s ADS holders’ election, other than the excluded shares, the dissenting shares and the purported dissenting shares.

Each Zeekr Share or Zeekr ADS held by a Hong Kong Non-Professional Investor, however, will be cancelled in exchange for the right to receive $2.687 in cash for each Zeekr Share or $26.87 in cash for each Zeekr ADS, and will not be exchanged for the right to receive any Geely Shares. The Per ADS cash consideration represents a premium of approximately 18.9% to the closing price of Zeekr ADSs on May 6, the last trading day prior to the public disclosure of the acquisition proposal, and a premium of approximately 25.6% to the volume-weighted average closing price of Zeekr ADSs during the last 30 trading days prior to the public disclosure of the acquisition proposal. The cash merger consideration will be funded through Geely’s internal resources, or if necessary, debt financing. The stock merger consideration will be in the form of Geely Shares newly issued by Geely in connection with the merger.

ZERO MILEAGE CARS: Zeekr released a statement that used cars described in media reports as having zero mileage were exhibition cars that were insured, and they were not sold or registered, Reuters reports. Additionally, the company said it has a team to investigate and make improvements, adding it is opposed to the sale of zero-mileage used cars.

Reuters had reported that Chinese electric vehicle makers Neta and Zeekr inflated sales in recent years to reach their targets. The publication cited documents and interviews with dealers and buyers. Both arranged for cars to be insured before they were sold, documents show, enabling them under Chinese industry car registration practices to book sales early so they could hit the monthly and quarterly targets, dealers and buyers told Reuters. Zeekr booked early sales in late 2024 in the southern city of Xiamen through state-owned Xiamen C&D Automobile, its main dealer there, according to Reuters.

MOVING TO SOLAREDGE SIDELINES: JPMorgan downgraded SolarEdge (SEDG) to Neutral from Overweight with a price target of $23, up from $18. The firm updated U.S. residential solar growth assumptions to reflect the impact from the One Big Beautiful Bill. The firm cites the stock’s significant outperformance recently for the downgrade of SolarEdge. JPMorgan still believes the company is “relatively best positioned” to gain share in the U.S. inverter space as the residential market shifts to third-party owned systems.