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The “12 Million Mile Battery” — Checking in again on Paul Mampilly’s tease

An updated look at Mampilly's long-running battery teaser, with some new companies to look at

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, August 23, 2021

The first version of this teaser ad was “solved” here on April 23, 2020, when we first saw the ads from Paul Mampilly — most recently this has been more aggressively pitched with the idea of the “12 million mile battery,” so we’re re-posting our solution for you.  The ad has changed a little and is now dated August 2020.

This teaser ad from Paul Mampilly is a bit of a bait and switch, primarily teasing a specific company that you really can’t invest in directly, so that’s your warning up front… but we’ll dig through the ad and see what he’s talking about.

Here’s the beginning of the ad:

“The No. 1 Stock for America’s New Energy Revolution

“America’s getting a potential $51 trillion ‘Energy Upgrade’ … and one company at the forefront could:

“Keep an extra $4,400 in your pocket each year — without you making a single investment… And create more new millionaire investors over the next decade than any other industry.”

And here’s a bit from an email I got from Banyan Hill, introducing Mampilly’s ad:

“Thanks to a former Tesla employee, one of the company’s ‘Original 7’ beat Tesla to the punch.

“His energy innovation is so powerful it can send a Tesla cross country without charging — FOUR TIMES.

“Imagine a ‘superbattery’ that:

  • Charges in eight minutes — not hours.
  • Lasts 9,200 miles between charges.
  • And has a lifespan of 12 MILLION miles.”

So that’s the big focus of this ad, this breakthrough technology that is going to change the world. What is it?

Well, it’s clearly another “next generation battery” teaser pitch. But this one is also both about the general idea of distributed energy storage, and about a specific new technology that will make it explode nationwide because it’s more efficient.

Which is a lot to put on one company, but that’s the magic of the teaser ad: They sell you on a fantastical trend which is real, like the advances in battery storage and battery technology being made by hundreds of companies, and then skip over the hard stuff and leave you with the feeling that there’s one company they’ve identified who will somehow “own” this trend and make you rich.

And as with every compelling teaser ad, there’s a “Number one stock” hiding in the hints. This is how Mampilly hints at it…

“The California company with its revolutionary nanopowder technology. This company, which I expect to begin publicly trading in the next few years, is rolling out its unparalleled energy innovation to all kind of devices, electric vehicles, and 75 million American homes… and as it does, here’s the no. 1 way to profit in the meantime:

“My No. 1 Energy Revolution Stock pick – the future of batteries: a company producing THE critical missing link that every battery needs to power cars and homes in the new age of energy storage.”

So yes, if you read carefully that’s a reference to two different companies. That first one, the “California company,” is the company you can’t invest in, the one that has everyone all lathered up with excitement… but it might be that the second one, what he’s calling his “No. 1 Energy Revolution Stock Pick,” has changed. I was guessing it might be Eaton (ETN) when this first came out in April of 2020, but we’ve also seen a lot of change in this sector, and a lot of new and smaller companies in battery storage and power management have come into the picture… as well as some other “hot” battery stocks like Quantumscape (QS).

This is a tease for Mampilly’s entry level mass-market newsletter, Profits Unlimited ($47, renews at $97), so you can be pretty sure he’s not talking up a penny stock or something that’s difficult to trade, but let’s look a little more at that “California company” and the “big picture” technology story — Mampilly builds this ad around the notion that the future of energy is cheap and renewable because of battery storage, and starts it out with the brand-name connection to Tesla (TSLA).

That includes some nice showmanship in the “presentation”, with the little toaster-oven sized box on a table being the focus — but that, of course, is balderdash. No, there is not a new super-battery being deployed this year that can store 3MWh of electricity in the space taken up by a coffee table book.

But, as always, there’s a kernel of truth underlying the tease. So what is that 100-patent company? More from the ad:

“… the company that owns ALL of these patents is creating the opportunity to profit as this market surges up to 20,300%.

“This company isn’t Tesla or any big company you’ve heard of.

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“Rather, it’s a little-known California company … started by one of Tesla’s original employees.

“He’s known as ‘Employee No. 7.’

“You could call him the secret behind Tesla’s success … even one of the ‘fathers’ of the electric car revolution.

“Yet, few know his name or the new company he founded.

“But that’s all about to change.

“Because his company holds the KEY — the technology in this device — to unlocking a historic energy revolution.”

OK, so that “Employee No. 7” at Tesla was Gene Berdichevsky… and the “California company” being teased is Sila Technologies. Sila is private, though, with almost $300 million in venture capital raised, and you can’t invest in it directly. So what’s the story here?

Here’s how the ad pitches it:

“You see, almost every battery runs on two things: lithium and graphene.

“That’s how it’s been for 40 years, and the battery has been stuck in the same place ever since.

“But this engineer has redefined the very chemistry of the battery for the first time, pushing the old lithium ion battery aside…

“And created a superbattery by incorporating this technology: this jar of black powder…”

The basic idea is that Berdichevsky’s company came up with a way to use more silicon in the battery anode, and that this can boost efficiency because silicon can handle much more energy density than graphite — the challenge has been that if you use too much silicon, the battery gets damaged by the expansion and contraction of the silicon molecules and won’t last as long. This is a well-known problem, and one battery technology companies have been trying to solve for a long time using a lot of different materials, including nanomaterials, but Sila Nanotechnologies has the specific solution that has excited Mampilly…

“This company created a microscopic shell — made out of silicon — that holds the atoms inside.

“Inside there’s a ton of room to expand and shrink…

“So once the lithium ions are absorbed, the particles expand within the shell casing — but not outside.

“And this leaves the outer layer of the battery’s electrode untouched … and undamaged.

“This means you get ALL of the power — with none of the changes in size that crack the battery.”

Their technology does sound very cool and impressive, but they’re also honest enough to acknowledge that big changes take a long time in the automotive space, which is where most of their attention has been focused — cars are products that carry human beings and have an extremely high standard for reliability and safety, and they often have 8-10 year warranties (and are expected to be safe and effective for longer than that), so auto manufacturers are not prone to move quickly or rashly when it comes to new materials or technologies in key parts of the car.

Here’s a Berdichevsky quote to that effect from an article about Sila Nano’s funding round a couple years ago that got them to “unicorn” status with a billion-dollar valuation:

“The qualification time means there’s many years of work to make sure it is reliable for next 10 to 20 years. Our partnership [with Daimler] is geared towards mid-2020s production targets, but the qualification is something that takes quite a while.”

There’s also a good Wired article about Berdichevsy and Sila here if you’d like more background, and a good Quartz article here from last year about the general trends in battery development (also mentioning Sila and some other companies experimenting with Silicon and other battery materials).

And here’s one last bit of hype from the ad:

“They’ve tapped into the full power of silicon, creating the material that I believe will define the 21st-century battery.

And since they’ve filed no less than 100 patents on the technology…

They hold an undisputed monopoly on the battery catalyst that’s sparking an expected 20,300% market surge.”

Yeah, don’t hold your breath on that. I’m sure their technology is indeed impressive, and maybe it’s better than the many others that are being developed and tested, but there are more than 600 US patents that include the phrase “silicon anode” alone, let alone the thousands of other varying ideas researchers are developing to improve battery technology. (If you’re interested in reading up on a bunch of projects that are still venture funded, some of them pretty big, Aprius, Nexeon, Advano, StoreDot, Excellatron, NantEnergy, and Solid Power are a small sampling of the dozens I ran across just in reading up on the sector for a few hours last year… there are more now).

And this general idea about improving batteries through the use of more silicon is neither owned by one company, nor new. Here’s one more quote to illustrate that point, then I promise I’ll drop it…

“This is why the experts are calling it ‘black magic powder’ … ‘magic sand’ … and ‘magic dust that’s sparking an electric revolution on the roads.'”

That last quote about “magic dust” is from 2011, it’s from an article about Nexeon, another (also small and private) company in this space.

So yes, Sila Nanotechnologies is indeed hoping to roll out some supply for smaller batteries this year, using their silicon anode technology in things like mobile phones… and get into bigger stuff over the next five years. But no, it does not have a monopoly on the battery of the future…and regardless, it’s a private company and you can’t invest in it. They have a familiar-sounding “2025” production goal, having just raised another $590 million in January that they hope to use to build their first factory, with production beginning in 2024 and products including their battery technology “on the road” in 2025 (that’s essentially the same timeframe for every electric vehicle or LiDAR SPAC we’ve seen over the past year, including Quantumscape (QS), the other high-profile “new battery chemistry” company that’s trying to build solid state lithium metal batteries).

So if we can’t invest in Sila Nanotechnologies (and no, we really can’t — they will probably go public someday, but if they can raise $590 million with very little effort on the private markets, there’s no rush to get that scrutiny and distraction from the public markets), what’s the story? What’s the investment Mampilly is hinting at? What’s the switch in this “bait and switch” pitch?

“This technology is spreading at such a breakneck speed that it will go from powering a few homes last year…

To providing power to 50 million American homes nationwide … all beginning in the next few weeks.

This isn’t just happening in places like California….

It’s happening in Alabama, Utah, even Texas.

Red states, blue states, it doesn’t matter…

Because everyone is going to want virtually free energy on demand, electricity that never runs out.”

That’s a general reference just to “batteries” on a large scale, batteries at either the grid level or at individual customer sites that are being used, usually in conjunction with solar panels or other renewable sources, to store energy for future grid or homeowner use. Lithium ion batteries and battery backup systems have come down in cost even faster than solar panels in the past decade, so it’s becoming more and more rational to build your own solar utility — it’s almost certainly cost effective if you get subsidies from the government, but in many cases it works out pretty well even without subsidies now, though bigger is usually more efficient.

More from Mampilly…

“In the Coming Weeks, These Devices Will Begin Providing Power to 50 Million American Homes

“That’s not a prediction…

“It’s a direct order from the U.S. government.

“Federal Order 841, a mandate from the federal energy agency, is launching a historic rollout to help ensure the use of this device nationwide….

“Duke Energy, America’s second biggest power company, predicts this device “will blanket the U.S.”

“To comply with the federal order…

“Power companies are beginning to deploy this device everywhere, using it to replace typical power plants.

“FPL, Florida’s main power company, will be able to use it to provide power to 900,000 homes by 2021.

“PG&E, in California, aims to provide power to an estimated 2.3 million homes by 2020.”

So again, that’s not “this device” — it’s “these kinds of devices.” There’s no single provider who will supply all the batteries, or even one single battery technology that’s being used for grid storage, but yes, FERC’s Order 841 does mandate that the regional energy grids must better incorporate large-scale storage assets into the wholesale electricity market, essentially to make sure that the economics of the grid don’t unfairly prioritize generation over storage.

And yes, though we would all like this to move more quickly, the “super-batteries” that we hope will be enabled by Sila Nanotechnologies’ silicon anodes are not going to be mass produced anytime soon — they hope to begin really producing their anode materials at commercial scale in about four years, and it’s not unusual for new ventures to take much longer than initially hoped to start up. One imagines that the Banyan Hill lawyers carefully checked to see whether “in the coming weeks” has a legal definition.

But again, while that is another push in favor of large energy storage projects, increasing grid storage and distributed battery storage was already a generic trend before that 2018 FERC order — and there are lots of companies involved in making batteries and energy storage systems now, so what is Mampilly touting? Here’s the part where he makes itclear that it’s not some secret “private way to invest in Sila”…

“I compiled complete details on the total $51 trillion opportunity…

“Including this California company, and why it’s expected to ignite the future of endless energy…

“The next iteration of this technology …

“And the No. 1 stock for the future of this energy revolution.

“Together they’re poised to send an electric car to every American’s driveway … and ‘endless’ energy, on-demand, to every home.”

We know he thinks the Sila Nanotechnology breakthroughs are exciting, and I’ve found dozens of next-generation battery technology companies that are similarly venture-funded breakthroughs that are hoping to reach commercialization, but few of those kinds of companies are ready for commercial production or can really be invested in by ordinary folks who buy $47 newsletters. And probably shouldn’t be, since my impression is that investing in private companies tends to end disastrously for passive investors.

But there is apparently a stock pick hiding out there somewhere… from the ad:

“And I’ll tell you about a little-known company you can invest in today that I believe will ride this historic market surge to its height, creating untold wealth for early investors.”

And the clues are very thin…

“You can get started with less than $100 … but to have a chance at getting the biggest returns … you will want to buy in now before this federal mandate launches an epic rollout to 50 million homes.”

And we get a few clues about the companies who might capitalize on the specific technology from Sila Nanotechnologies… with the ad conjuring up an aerial view of what they think the next “gigacity” built for battery production might look like, perhaps in California, and saying…

“The company behind this gigacity has just made a strategic deal that gives them access to the nanopowder technology….”

That “gigacity” aerial photo they use in the teaser ad is from Fujian province, China, focused on the Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. (CATL) headquarters and manufacturing complex — that’s a Tesla supplier now, and is one of the major manufacturers of electric vehicle and larger storage batteries in the world (Wikipedia says they’re smaller only than Panasonic and BYD, the Wall Street Journal says they’re the largest manufacturer of EV batteries… I don’t know how you’d prefer to measure, but I’ll stipulate that they’re “really big”).

CATL is public, and is pretty big (market cap is near US$40 billion), though it’s not easy to trade since it’s listed in China (300750.SZ). It looks like it’s available at that ticker through the Hong Kong interchange with Shenzhen, but that’s not something small investors should dabble in lightly (I’ve invested in other Chinese companies through that interchange, using Interactive Brokers, but you have to stick to 100 share lots, there are restrictions, and there’s often not much liquidity).

And yes, the name Amperex Technology does come up as a backer of Sila, and has been talked about as one of their initial commercialization partners… though to say they “just made” a strategic deal is to stretch that a bit, Amperex made its strategic investment in Sila more than three years ago.

And, more importantly, that actually appears to be a different company than the one in Mampilly’s aerial photo — Amperex Technology (as opposed to “Contemporary Amperex Technology”) is based in Hong Kong, not mainland China, and it seems that the founder of CATL actually left the business years ago to start that similarly-named Chinese company, to take advantage of China’s fondness for pushing China-owned suppliers. The Amperex Technology that invested in Sila Nanotechnologies is much smaller, and has been owned by Japan’s TDK since 2005 (TTDKY is the US ADR).

So is Mampilly touting TDK? Maybe. Almost the entire ad focuses on that “black powder” nanotechnology and the appealing tech story of Sila Technologies, but perhaps he’s talking up one of Sila’s partners.

By the way, he does explain where the fanciful 20,000% number comes from…

“It’s the catalyst that will ignite all three industries…

1) Emerging technology.

2) Electric vehicles.

3) Green energy.

“And take them from a $250 billion niche right now…

“To a combined $51 trillion mega industry, if my research is right.

“That is a potential 20,300% market surge.”

So yes, the numbers are based on something real but it’s mostly just made up — imagining the size of the future industry, comparing that to the current market for batteries, and turning that into a massive percentage growth rate that will inspire you to daydream about buying the battery-sector equivalent of Amazon (AMZN) in 1999.

But, again, that specific nanotechnology is not specifically available for investment, and there are hundreds of other nanotechnology projects working similarly to improve battery life and efficiency. That doesn’t stop Mampilly from doing the ultimate “FOMO” littany (or, if you want to be more nuanced, the ultimate “survivorship bias” temptation) by implying that this one small innovation is going to lead to the next General Electric or the next Standard Oil…

“And just as Rockefeller’s refinery launched oil to the top of the energy market…

“Decades after the discovery of kerosene…

“And just as Edison’s filament made the light bulb the world’s No. 1 form of electric lighting…

“Decades after the light bulb was invented…

“This company’s nanopowder has the potential to make the battery THE power source for everything…”

And it’s not just GE and Standard Oil, of course, this could also be the next Intel… the next Applied Materials….

“What Intel Did to Microchips Is What This Company Is Doing to Batteries

“This is also the case of the microchip, which was invented in 1959.

“But it didn’t gain traction until more than 30 years later, when Intel revolutionized technology with the invention of the MOS transistor, putting it in all devices we now use….

“And the best example may be Applied Materials — the world’s No. 1 equipment supplier to chip companies.

“It’s NOT a chip stock.

“It has the technology that, for the last three decades, accelerated chip adoption at an exponential rate.

“Before their innovation, chips were made for one computer at a time.

“This became slow and cumbersome, especially in the 1980s, when computers began taking off.

“What Applied Materials did was make mass production of microchips — with silicon — possible.

“And the good news is this company has had the biggest gains of all — surging by an extraordinary 77,000% since 1980.”

Which is all ridiculous when you’re talking about one relatively small materials technology company in a sector that is facing heavy investment by hundreds of large corporations and thousands of lab startups.

But then, finally, we get to a little bit more teasing about the specific stocks he’s recommending.

“Today, you can invest in the top companies I’ve identified … those few I believe will be the biggest beneficiaries of the $51 trillion windfall in endless energy, starting with less than $100.

“I believe the potential of getting in on these three companies now is like getting in on Standard Oil, General Electric and Intel before their meteoric rises”

Earlier ads referenced “three companies,” but that’s no longer the case in this version — though he does imply that perhaps investing in some of Sila’s partners could be part of the theme:

“This technology is protected by 100 different patents … giving this ex-Tesla employee, and his little-known company, the KEY to unleashing it all.

“And it’s partnered with several companies that are employing this technology in their devices, giving us the chance to ride a potential 20,300% market surge from the ground floor.

“All told, Bloomberg projects battery power to ‘double six times’ by 2030.”

So I guess if those partnerships are “giving us the chance” to ride that market surge, then he could be referring to investing in the partners. Or, frankly, just investing in the idea of energy storage, since these newsletter dudes just love to pitch a broad idea and then skip right over all the complicated details to give us the impression that sure, “one tiny company owns the future!”

I know that Mampilly has been a fan of Tesla in the past, so perhaps that’s still a recommendation of his, I don’t know, and unless you’re going with partial shares, which many brokers now allow, Tesla is not a company you can invest in with less than $100… so what of the “secret” ones?

If you’re talking Sila Nanotechnologies and insist on investing in that company, the only really viable way to do that is by buying shares of the companies that have invested in them and partnered with them… the only publicly traded ones of consequence that I’ve identified are German automakers Daimler (DDAIF or DMLRY) and BMW (BMWYY) and the Japanese electrical/magnetic conglomerate TDK (TTDKY). Daimler is their biggest partner and their biggest investor… but even if Daimler had put up all the cash in the investing round they led last year that’s still only a $170 million investment.

Sure, $170 million sounds like quite a bit of money… but Daimler, owner of Mercedes and Freightliner and a bunch of other brands, had revenue of over $200 billion (with a B) and net income of $16 billion last year. That investment in Sila amounted to Daimler investing about 1% of what is now its annual profit… or put another way, that investment was less than half of one percent of the cash and short-term investments that Daimler typically has on hand on any given day. And that’s just one of the many investments that Daimler (and pretty much all car companies) have made in new technologies over the past decade in new battery and EV technologies — most car companies are hedging their bets with lots of partnerships and early-stage ventures.

So yes, I’m sure the investment was a considered decision, and Daimler does see the potential in Sila, but it’s not going to make a difference to Daimler’s income statement anytime soon.

BMW is not as direct a partner, they have reportedly been working with Sila Nanotechnologies on battery development for a couple years, but if they participated in actual funding rounds for Sila the participation was not publicly disclosed or wasn’t as big as Daimler’s.

TDK (TTDKY) is a far smaller company, based in Japan and not very focused on US investors, and I remember it as the leader in magnetic recording — they used to make the lion’s share of the world’s cassette recorders, but they’ve expanded their expertise to deal with magnetic sensors, electrical components (especially for autos, though in lots of other industries as well), and, importantly, rechargeable batteries. Energy products, mostly batteries, make up close to half of their revenue, and that’s also the fastest-growing part of the business.

TDK is pretty solidly profitable, but hasn’t really excited anybody for years. They pay a small dividend, and had solid profits lately (partly because of that battery business), and they’re reasonably valued. Not a terrible idea, and certainly exposed to the growing demand for electrical components and batteries and power management systems, but they’re not going to make you 20,000% gains anytime soon.

Another very minor investor, from the early round where Amperex put up some money, was the big German industrial conglomerate Siemens (SIEGY, SWAMF), but they’re huge and batteries and associated power systems make up a very small part of their overall business.

So if we’re throwing out another guess for the “batteries” beyond Daimler, TDK and Tesla, particularly with a mind to profiting from large grid storage projects, I’d still toss Eaton (ETN) on the pile as an interesting stock in this sector that doesn’t (as far as I know) have any direct connection with Sila Nanotechnologies. Eaton is an industrial conglomerate born before World War One, started with an idea for a new truck axle, and they now make everything from modular office furniture to golf grips, but they are focused on their large power management business — 95% of their sales are from their electrical and aerospace divisions, and they’re really trying to brand themselves as a power management and storage company.

Eaton has not historically been a burner of a company, for sure, but it has been a steady grower over time and it is becoming much more focused on the key trends that Mampilly pitches in the ad, working on systems and products that enable the electrification of energy and mobility, which means electric vehicle systems, grid storage, electricity transmission, and so many related and supporting systems. And that has certainly made them more popular with investors, the stock has doubled since early 2020, despite having no revenue or earnings growth to speak of over the past five years. When I first looked at ETN back in April of 2020, it was a pretty reasonable and inexpensive idea, trading at about 11X expected free cash flow, but that’s no longer true — it’s now trading at about 25X forward earnings, which is a pretty full valuation for a company that hasn’t grown earnings in the past and is expected, by analysts, to get to roughly a 10% earnings growth pace in the future. Earnings expectations have improved by 20-25% since the early days of COVID panic, but the stock has more than doubled — that kind of enthusiasm is not so rare in today’s market, but it does mean you have to have a bit of optimism to buy.

There weren’t any other clues in the ad about that second company, so it could well be one of the newer firms in the distributed storage space — it’s very unlikely to be the battery tech company Quantumscape (QS), since we get at least an implication that the company is doing something now, but that’s certainly possible as well… I’ve had suggestions from readers that it could be Stem (STEM), which came public through a SPAC merger this year (announced well after the date of Mampilly’s ad, but certainly on the right theme, they call themselves the “first pure play smart energy storage company to go public in the US”). Stem has an interesting business, selling battery systems that rely on their AI-driven battery management software (called Athena), so they get recurring software income. They say they’re the market leader in commissioned projects to date, ahead of Tesla, with 950 systems in operation and 500% revenue growth this year, so that’s pretty compelling…. though they also trade at the same kind of lofty valuation we see for a lot of software and tech companies, about 20% current revenues ($3 billion market cap, $147 million in revenue expected this year).

And yes, for those who love warrants, Stem does still have its SPAC warrants trading, at STEMW or STEM/WS, but do be forewarned — those have been called for early redemption, which means that if you do not redeem the warrant in the next couple weeks they’ll redeem it for a penny and you’ll be out a LOT of money, so there’s no longer any premium or time value in those warrants (they should trade for almost exactly the price of the stock plus the $11.50 strike price until they get redeemed next month).

And there are plenty of other companies who could conceivably be plays on rising energy storage demand as well, including Sunrun (RUN), which is now the leading installer of home battery systems in conjunction with its solar business (or one of its competitors, like Sunnova (NOVA)), or the often-touted Bloom Energy (BE), which is more about distributed generation than storage (using fuel cells), but most of the large-scale battery projects and electric grid upgrades to make those projects those are made by the massive utilities and their suppliers (GE, Siemens, ABB, Eaton, etc.). For what it’s worth, I’ve been watching Sunrun for a while, I think it probably doesn’t get enough credit yet for being the leading US supplier now that they’ve acquired Vivint, but I haven’t talked myself into buying shares at this valuation yet.

So that’s what I see coming out of this Mampilly tease… a pitch for a hot new technology that is not particularly unique and not directly investable, but if you believe strongly in that silicon anode tech from Sila Nanotechnologies you can invest indirectly in it through their largest partners, Daimler and TDK… and if you just want to invest in grid storage and electrification then I think Eaton is a reasonable “blue chip” idea in that space, or, of course, there’s always highflying Tesla as the poster child of the electrification revolution, and smaller high-growth companies like Stem (STEM) or Sunrun (RUN) are interesting plays on more distributed energy storage that will probably be a lot more volatile.

I don’t own any of these ideas, but if you have thoughts on the tease or the big-picture trend of battery storage, well, feel free to shout ’em out with a comment below. Thanks for reading!

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sap61500
sap61500
August 23, 2021 12:45 pm

“The 12 Million Mile Battery” — Stock
He has taken ETN out of his portfolio but does have STEM as a buy.

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merc
Member
merc
August 31, 2021 10:39 pm
Reply to  sap61500

STEM’s profit margin has decreased (-108.8%) in the last year from (-368.1%) to (-476.9%)

dshisler
August 23, 2021 12:59 pm

Great info as usual Travis,
Thank you!
What are your thoughts on the “multan metal” batteries? Ambri isn’t yet public. Is there a backdoor?

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chanwoongp2
chanwoongp2
August 23, 2021 1:20 pm

What do you think about Microvast (MVST)? Some of its peers were mentioned above (QuantumsScape, SolidPower) but it recently received a price target of $6.00 from Morgan Stanley.

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prakad
August 23, 2021 7:44 pm
Reply to  chanwoongp2

Also wondering all of a sudden why warrants are targeted? commons are not going down but the warrants are going down drastically? Is something changed for SPACs?

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timcoahran
Irregular
August 26, 2021 6:09 pm

Great answer!
I was recently puzzling out that question too.

Last edited 2 years ago by timcoahran
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backoffice
Irregular
November 9, 2021 7:09 pm
Reply to  chanwoongp2

I just read about a $6 stock that Musk is supposed to buy the company for it’s patent on the million mile battery

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MARK VINCENT
Guest
MARK VINCENT
November 18, 2021 8:07 pm
Reply to  backoffice

what $6 stock are you talking about? looking to buy in on the million mile battery….who are best to consider? Teasers are all over the place on the net…what’s accurate to buy?

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Carl M. Welch
Member
Carl M. Welch
August 23, 2021 2:03 pm

Why do we want to replace efficient technologies with less efficient ones? You want endless energy? Go with breeder reactor technology. Government is the one reason we become less efficient. Government is non’profit , so they push anything that suits their fancy. Want an earlier example? Why did we rip up much of our rail system to replace it with highways?

jeffreyl
Member
August 23, 2021 2:56 pm
Reply to  Carl M. Welch

Becouse most people don’t like people and don’t want to travel with strangers. The train does not bring you to your destination, it brings you to their destination.

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paul knabenshue
paul knabenshue
August 23, 2021 4:03 pm
Reply to  Carl M. Welch

Nuclear power is one of those technologies that could be substantially improved upon with the latest generation of smaller modular reactors and potentially with newer technologies like molten salt reactors. To your point, we need substantial government support, to get traction.

Carl M. Welch
Member
Carl M. Welch
August 23, 2021 7:34 pm

I hope you can support the government. I don’t want to and will do my best (in a legal way of course) not to.

davec
Guest
davec
October 25, 2021 5:35 pm
Reply to  Carl M. Welch

Nobody likes the government when tax time rolls around, but those same people are lining up for subsidies and crying about subpar roads and services. It’s a democracy. If you don’t like it you should help us to fix it rather than taking your ball and going home.

Brendan Lantz
Guest
Brendan Lantz
December 4, 2021 12:17 pm
Reply to  davec

That’s what we get when we elect the representatives that promise the most with other peoples money rather than their ability to manage projects and balance a check book.

Brendan Lantz
Guest
Brendan Lantz
December 4, 2021 12:11 pm
Reply to  Carl M. Welch

Agree with everything, except for the rail system, unless you’re just referring to the cargo trains.

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Goldman126
Guest
Goldman126
August 23, 2021 2:12 pm

What is the name of the California company that had the batteries thar were the size of a suitcase and could power a small town? Was it Bloom Energy?

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contractorr
contractorr
August 23, 2021 2:35 pm

A year ago free Kiplinger letter recommended SUN RUN under $10.
At that time I had received my first stimulus check. I purchased RUN @ $9.60. It has gained over 400%. The best part is I had forgotten till you mentioned it and checked today.

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freddy-potless
freddy-potless
August 24, 2021 3:12 am
Reply to  contractorr

It was 96 bucks in January this year.

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MARSHA MCCRODEN
Member
MARSHA MCCRODEN
August 23, 2021 2:56 pm

I really thought this discussion would lead to NDB. Sure sounded like it.

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bihiselo
bihiselo
August 23, 2021 3:17 pm

There is an article written 8/23/21 (today) commenting on STEM.

Here is the link posted from Barron’s: https://www.barrons.com/articles/stem-stock-price-future-of-batteries-51629490431?st=08plr7lfb8h74gg
Succinctly:
It appears that STEM uses battery arrays( made by others) in a competing solution for managing peak electric power.
Energy supply is complicated and just in time. I’m not convinced that the battery arrays are sufficient to replace the nat gas plants. But the tech is consistent with Biden adm objectives and thus seems to have the attention of people looking for savings on peak power costs.

I had not heard of this stock before, but will research it further.

Another pure battery play is ILIKF. It seems to be ahead of QS, and its stock price is pretty beaten up after lots of shorts and dilution.

I look forward to watching this space mature in the coming years. No doubt the tech will revolutionize how we live if it becomes available and easily accessible.

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Arnold Newton
Arnold Newton
August 23, 2021 3:54 pm

Conoco Phillips a couple weeks ago bought a big stake in NVNXF.

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James Paul De Gregorio
Member
James Paul De Gregorio
August 23, 2021 6:41 pm

Great analysis as usual. I totally enjoy the thorough research using the clues as well as the subtle humor throughout, and thank you for finding the stocks for us to consider.

charlie1030
Member
August 23, 2021 8:20 pm

Please keep us updated regarding the valuation of STEM and RUN as they both went up over $2 per share today.

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Tom Cherian
Member
Tom Cherian
August 23, 2021 8:49 pm

Is Manganese X energy in Canada going to produce long lasting batteries?

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ronwill
August 23, 2021 9:18 pm

There is also Solid Power, backed by Ford and BMW. developing solid state batteries. Going public via a SPAC, ticker DCRC.

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viktor69
Irregular
August 24, 2021 7:29 am

Eaton (ETN) makes up 8.5% of GRID ETF, both have outperformed the SPX significantly since pandemic has started

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MICKEY79
August 24, 2021 12:43 pm

There are many large corporations and start ups in the “battery space”. STEM is interesting but very speculative because they develop battery management software. I currently favor the material commodities that battery makers require. This includes Lithium, Copper, Nickel etc.

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hanns
hanns
September 2, 2021 11:38 am

Mampilly’s stock is most probably NEO Battery Materials (TSXV:NBM).

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