What happened
The planned investment IPO merger between Hyliion and Turtle acquisition (NYSE: SHLL) later this year it will be “directly comparable” to the reverse merger between VectoIQ and Nikola Corporation (NASDAQ: NKLA) That happened earlier this year, say the public relations companies that represent Hyliion and Tortoise.
In saying this, investor expectations that Tortoise, like VectoIQ and Nikola before, could soon enjoy a 100% or better share price rise. But today, investors are beginning to wonder if that’s true.
Image source: Getty Images.
And that
As we’ll see on Tuesday, the shares of Tortoise Acquisition (which has yet to merge its electric truck company) and the shares of Nikola (which has already done so) moved in exactly opposite directions. Nikola shares closed 7.2% on the day, but Tortoise was down 4.9%.
Why could that have happened? The easy answer is that Tortoise investors simply decided to take away some of the profit (which they got from the 70% rise in the stock price within five days of the announcement of their reverse merger). But that doesn’t explain why Nikola’s shares, which have risen more than twice since the beginning of this month, also didn’t pull back.
Now what
If you ask me, at least investors may have started to take a closer look at these two trucking stocks, and the two renewable energy technologies they offer, and decide they like one better than the other.
In Nikola’s case, investors remain impressed by the company’s promise to build a fully battery-powered semi-trailer system, and then another fuel cell-powered tractor trailer! Hyliion’s technology basically consists of reconditioning existing trucks with an “electric axle” that stores the energy accumulated when a truck travels downhill on a battery, for use to help climb the next hill. Compared to what Nikola has to offer, Hyliion’s offering seems old-fashioned. It looks like … a large Toyota Prius.
Hyliion argues that its technology is proven (see Prius) and useful, and could save truckers up to 15% in fuel costs through increased fuel efficiency, without the additional cost of requiring truckers to purchase trucks. brand new. But today, at least, investors seem to prefer shiny, new hybrid-electric technology over tried and true.
