With electric car sales surging every year, more and more car manufacturers all over the globe are shifting their focus to the production of all-electric vehicles.

Tesla can hardly be considered as the only promising electric car manufacturer anymore. This rating presents the Top-3 other players from the EV sector – Nio, Lucid Motors, and Rivian Automotive – that could beat Elon Musk's creation in the future.

What these companies have in common is that neither of them manufactures combustion engine vehicles, and all of them have already produced at least one car model.

1. Nio

The Chinese electric car manufacturer was founded by William Li in 2014. Currently, the company's product catalogue features four models – an ET7 sedan, an EC6 crossover, and ES6 and ES8 SUVs.

Nio already has a massive client base in China, and is now advancing also in Europe. In 2021, the company began selling its cars in Norway, and in 2022, Nio electric cars will also enter the German market.
Since 2018, Nio has sold 156,581 vehicles. In November 2021, sales reached an all-time high of 10,878 vehicles. This is 105.6% more than in November 2020.

In 2021, the company installed 700 battery charging and swapping stations – NIO Power Swap Station 2.0. In the course of the next four months, there are plans to deploy 4,000 more such stations, 1,000 of them overseas.

In November 2021, Nio joined forces with Royal Dutch Shell to enhance the charging experience for electric vehicles (EV). Through their strategic cooperation, the two companies will develop a network of co-branded battery swap stations in China and Europe, while they will also collaborate in the area of research and development.

Since the beginning of 2021, A class shares of Nio Inc. (NYSE: NIO) dropped 31% from $48.74 to $33.66. Investors are unsatisfied with the results, as the company failed to reach the promised manufacturing and supply levels due to issues with the supply of semiconductors and spare parts.

As soon as the accessories issue is solved, NIO has all the chances to recover.

Nio shares chart
Past performance does not guarantee the same results in the future.

2. Lucid Motors

Lucid Group, Inc. was registered in 2007. It designs and manufactures electric cars. In February 2021, the company went public after merging with SPAC Churchill Capital Corp IV.

The all-electric luxury Lucid Air sedan is its first and only car model currently. Production began in September 2021. Lucid Air earned the "2022 MotorTrend Car of the Year" title, awarded by the popular car journal MotorTrend, thanks to its design and technical characteristics.

According to Lucid's quarterly report, the company secured 15,000 orders in the period May to July, and from August to October, it received 17,000 more orders. Through the first 9 months of 2021, Lucid Group's loss amounted to $1.5 billion. However, the management is not giving up the plan to manufacture 20,000 cars in 2022.

At the beginning of December 2021, the US Securities and Exchange Commission began an investigation into the company, which led the shares of Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) to drop 21% to $43.88.
On 9 December 2021, Lucid Group announced the placement of senior convertible notes worth $1.75 billion, which led its quotes to decline 18.34% to $36.52. On 13 December 2021, the securities grew almost 4% to $39.15, to a great part thanks to the news that Lucid Group had been included in the Nasdaq 100.

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This achievement demonstrates that Lucid Group is capable of regaining its investors' trust.

Lucid Motors shares chart
Past performance does not guarantee the same results in the future.

3. Rivian Automotive

This American manufacturer of electric four-wheel-drive SUVs was founded in 2009. In November 2021, Rivian Automotive conducted an IPO in NASDAQ, attracting almost $12 billion. In a few days, the company managed to hit a market cap of over $150 billion.

Rivian Automotive currently sells two vehicle models: an R1T pickup and an R1S SUV. The first one costs at least $67,500, and the second one is priced at $70,000. Although Rivian has not started mass producing yet, it has already signed a contract with Amazon for the supply of 100,000 vans.

Analysts attribute Rivian Automotive's popularity among investors to the boom of the electric car sector and constant comparison with the electric vehicle player Tesla. Also, 20% of Rivian's stock is owned by Amazon, while 12% is held by Ford Motor.

On 13 December 2021, MotorTrend named the Rivian R1T "Truck of the year", stating that the model is more efficient than its rivals, with better design, and safety, and engineering solutions. On the following day, the shares of Rivian Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: RIVN) grew 3.7% to $118.9.

Rumours that Rivian Automotive is to announce the construction of a new production plant in Georgia have also helped influence the quotes.

The fact that the shares have been in the exchange for less than one month makes the chart difficult to assess from a technical point of view. Fundamental analysis demonstrates that the quotes of Rivian Automotive could reach their highs soon.

Rivian Automotive shares chart
Past performance does not guarantee the same results in the future.

Demand for electric cars is growing

Climate change and worsening ecology have led many countries' governments to toughen the requirements towards automotive manufacturers in order to reduce emissions in the atmosphere.

On the other hand, it has also motivated them to develop the infrastructure of environmentally clean transport and increase tax incentives to the benefit of those that make vehicles with zero-emission levels.
Under these circumstances, the EV sector is seeing very strong momentum for development. According to Deloitte, by 2025, overall sales of electric cars will have reached 11.2 million vehicles, and by 2030 – 31.1 million.

Of all the companies in the EV industry sector that are already manufacturing electric cars, the Top-3 players are Nio, Lucid Group, and Rivian Automotive.

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