The number of electric vehicles on the road finally crossed the 10 million mark in 2020. Many expect this number to keep surging, despite the bumps in the road presented by COVID-19. Right now, Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) is the undisputed leader in the EV space. However, with a share price of close to $1,000, it’s out of reach to many investors. Luckily, there are plenty of EV stocks trading at just a fraction of this price. With that said, let’s take a look at the five cheapest EV stocks that you can buy for under $20.
Cheapest EV Stocks to Buy
No. 5 Mullen Automotive (Nasdaq: MULN)
Share Price: Under $3
Market Cap: $115 million
Mullen Automotive is a California-based electric vehicle company founded in 2014. At under $3 per share, it’s definitely one of the cheapest EV stocks you can buy. This low share price might be temporary as Mullen Automotive is generating interest on Reddit. Particularly, users think that Mullen Automotive has the potential to short squeeze. This is the same thing that happened with GameStop and AMC. Even if Mullen doesn’t short squeeze, the possibility that it might could attract retail investors to buy the stock.
The Mullen 5 is Mullen Automotive’s main electric vehicle. It will start at $55,000 and offer a range of 325 miles on a 95-kWh battery. According to CarBuzz, the car performs so well that it could actually compete with Tesla, Rivian or Lucid.
What’s most interesting about Mullen is that it’s still in startup mode, even though it’s not a startup. It was founded in 2002 and officially incorporated in 2014. It’s likely that the company has been working hard behind the scenes with little fanfare. However, as we saw with Tesla, that could change very quickly. Tesla spent almost a decade trading under $100 per share. Then, in about two years, its stock catapulted to over $1,000 per share.
Please note that Mullen Automotive’s stock is extremely volatile, even for one of the cheapest EV stocks. Since it’s a microcap, any good/bad news has an outsized impact on its price.
No. 4 Lordstown Motors (Nasdaq: RIDE)
Share Price: Under $3
Market Cap: $580 million
Lordstown Motor Corp went public via SPAC in 2020 and specializes in high-quality light-duty commercial fleet vehicles. After going public, the stock initially surged to $30/share. Since then, it has fallen about 90% to $3/share. Thanks to this steep decline, it is now one of the cheapest EV stocks you can buy.
So far, Lordstown Motors has struggled to really get its business up and running. First, it had issues opening its first factory. This led to financial struggles and the eventual resignation of the CEO and CFO. Since then, Daniel Ninivaggi has taken over as CEO. Ninivaggi is the former CEO of Icahn Enterprises.
With Ninivaggi at the helm, Lordstown Motors finally seems to be turning a corner. It provided this 2022 outlook in its Q4 2021 report:
- Getting its full-size all-electric pickup (The Endurance) to market as soon as possible
- Setting a target of Q3 2022 for commercial production
- Expecting 500 units sold in 2022, as many as 2,500 units in 2023
Under new leadership, Lordstown Motors seems to finally be making forward progress, making it a great addition to this list of cheapest EV stocks.
No. 3 Xos Inc (Nasdaq: XOS)
Share Price: Under $6
Market Cap: $560 million
Xos Inc creates fully-electric commercial delivery trucks. On top of this, it also offers fleet management software and charging infrastructure.
It is different from most electric vehicle companies in two ways:
- Xos creates vehicles designed for businesses, not consumers
- It actually has vehicles on the road. Companies like FedEx, Loomis and Unifirst, have used Xos trucks since 2018.
What’s interesting is that Xos focuses on the last-mile and return-to-base segments of delivery. With the rise of eCommerce, fulfillment centers are being built closer to consumers. This allows companies to offer faster delivery. However, this has also created a bigger need for last-mile delivery. Due to low gas mileage and high maintenance, traditional trucks are not optimized for this type of delivery. With its electric last-mile delivery trucks, Xos could quickly become the go-to option.
Xos estimates that the last-mile delivery market is currently $34 billion.
Xos went public via SPAC in 2021. After the merger, the stock nosedived 75% and has not come back up yet.
No. 2 Faraday Future Intelligent Electric Inc (Nasdaq: FFIE)
Share Price: Under $6
Market Cap: $1.8 billion
Faraday Future has had a semi-troubled history. This is part of the reason why it’s one of the cheapest electric vehicle stocks to own. It was founded in 2015 but spent several years struggling to get a factory built. This led to financial struggles that caused investors to question the company’s financial stability. The company has since built a factory in Hanford, California, and plans to start production in Q3 2022.
The main reason that Faraday Future is one of the cheapest EV stocks to own is because investors aren’t sure how to value it. There isn’t much financial information to evaluate. There is also limited information about the company’s production schedule. However, it does have a main vehicle named the FF91. This car has 1050 horsepower and gets 300 miles per charge.
Notably, Faraday Future also has very high ambitions. In its own words, Faraday Future wants to “ break the boundaries between the Internet, IT, creative and auto industries with product and service offerings that integrate new energy, AI, Internet and sharing models.”
Faraday Future went public via SPAC in early 2021. In the opening days, the stock surged to about $18 per share. Since then, it has come crashing down to $5 per share.
Cheapest EV Stocks No. 1 Ford (NYSE: F)
Share Price: Under $20
Market Cap: $67 billion
Lots of legacy automakers are pushing into electric vehicles. Behind CEO Jim Farley, Ford seems to be leading the pack. Ford is a great option if you are looking for one of the cheapest EV stocks that’s still an established company. Ford is one of the world’s largest automakers but is currently transitioning its business.
Ford’s plan for electrification is called Ford+. This plan is mainly designed to alter investors’ perspectives. CEO Jim Farley doesn’t want investors to view Ford as a legacy automaker anymore. Instead, he wants them to see Ford as an innovative technology company. To achieve this, Ford is investing $20-30 billion over the coming years. There was even talk that Ford might spin off its EV business entirely.
Changing investors’ perception is key. For example, investors view Tesla as an exciting high-growth tech company. This is part of the reason why Tesla trades at over 200 times earnings. On the other hand, investors see Ford as a slow-moving legacy automaker. Due to this, it trades at about four times earnings.
Ford already offers several electric vehicles. Ironically, this fact by itself qualifies Ford to be one of the leaders in the space. Among its offerings are the fully-electric Ford F-150, Mustang Mach-E and Escape plug-in hybrid. The F-150 and Mustang, in particular, have sold very well.
I hope that you’ve found this article valuable for learning about the cheapest EV stocks! Please remember that I’m not a financial advisor and am just offering my own research and commentary. As usual, please base all investment decisions on your own due diligence.