Written by Cláudio Afonso | [email protected]
Mullen Automotive shares are soaring 30% this Wednesday after the company’s CEO David Michery unveiled many catalysts for the American EV maker. Michery was one of the guests of Benzinga Listmaker event that counted with other EV related companies like Luminar, Allego, Lightyear and Li-Cycle. The Company has two electric vehicles under development, one of which we expect to begin delivery of in the second quarter of 2024.
“We’re fairly confident that we identified enough partners to ensure that we’re not gonna to have any delays in the builds of our products.” — Mullen‘s CEO said regarding the chip shortage issue.
Q: How do you explain the excitement around Mullen in the last couple of months?
Mullen’s CEO, David Michery: We’ve got a nice car, also some good battery technology…we want to put Americans back to work by building great products here in America. So our focus is specifically and primarily to create jobs in this country and build great products that we can be proud of.
Q: It just voweled… does that take you by surprise at all?
D. Michery: Not really… When things are really great you don’t get overly excited and when things aren’t going so well you don’t get depressed. You try to be focused and execute on your objectives and hopefully the market will react to your progress, so that’s kind of how I am.
Q: How would you sell Mullen Five Model to the consumers?
D. Michery: Mullen 5 model is beautiful, I wanted this car to be sexy and agressive… I wanted the vehicle to break some boundaries. Me, as a car enthusiast, I had an opportunity to work with some of the best people on the planet to get a product made. Research, design, everything was did here in the United States. I partnered with some good partners, people renowned for his build on the Rolls Royce Ghost. I sat them down and I said “I want to do something really special here”. Its an opportunity for me to take a product from the inception and take it all the way to the deliver, the consumer. I wanted to create, not just a vehicle that has performance, but also a vehicle that was beautiful.
I really wanted credit Elon Musk and Tesla for opening the door for all the EV guys, including myself to give us an oportunity to be successful. At the end of the day, when we sat down and we looked to what we wanted to do and what people were doing, we said “Listen, it doesn’t have to be a cheap car, it doesn’t have to be a small car, it doesn’t have to compete for the cheapest car in America. But it has to be something that is appealing, “Design does sell”, and performances definitely gathers a lot of attention. We tried to bridge all the gaps. I commissioned Andreas to deliver what I had conceptually thought about for many years and actually put it on paper and then to the vehicle we debut on November 17 (2021).
I was able to add features that I thought were important, not only from the aesthetics perspective but important because they would reduce weight. With electric vehicles, one of the most important things is weight. The more weight you reduce, the more efficient the vehicle becomes. And I thought about this and one of the things I personally like about vehicles are rims, calipers and rotors. They are the shoes of the vehicle, the first thing you see. Some of the most exotic fast cars on the planet, all have carbon ceramyc rotors because they stop, they offer an exceptional stopping abillity. They look good and they’re extremely light. So I thought to myself, we’re gonna build a vehicle that will gona go really fast but also stop really fast. And what better way to do it than carbon ceramycs? I really didn’t care about the price. I wanted to ensure that I could stop the vehicle and give it a good look but, more importantly, reduce 200 pounds of weight. That was the most important part, forget about the 23 inch magnesium wheels, the 15 inch carbon ceramyc rotors, the big brake kit. I mean, it’s a good looking car but it’s pratical, efficient and it can stop.”
Q: Can you give us an update on the pre-orders or when will we get an update on that?
D. Michery: We haven’t disclosed that publicly so, with all the respect, that would have to be released through a public disclosure and then we could comment on that.
Q: Fair enough… Have you schedule the Earnings date yet?
D. Michery: No, we have not.
Q: We’ve seen recently the chip shortage issue across all the automakers, how well Mullen avoid those pitfalls?
D. Michery: Well, we will use suppliers domestically. Our focus it to create a supply chain that consist of not having a dependence on Chinese or foreign entities that would potentially restrict the flow. Not just chips but any type of products that we would use on our vehicles. The entire ecosystem, from beginning to end, for Mullen is going to be American. We’re gonna build this car in Tunacan, Mississipi. We’re also gonna create a supply chain from Detroit all the way down to Florida.
We’re fairly confident that we identified enough partners to ensure that we’re not gonna to have any delays in the builds of our products. For us, it’s important to bring a lot of these jobs back from the international territory to America, where they belong. That’s the focus.
A fairly large company will be buying the company’s van vehicles in the close future.
David Michery, Mullen’s CEO
Q: Do you have an update on the Vans?
D. Michery: Sure! We released a public information not to long ago that we’re going to be delivering our Class 1 vehicle in Q2 2022. We’re excited about that. We can’t disclose to who that hasn’t made it public yet but we plan on doing it shortly. We plan on announcing that it is a very large company that is going to buy a lot of these vehicles. We feel that we have a great product that is going to be very competitive. And its competitive in a time when people can’t really get product. We’re doing it here in America, in Mississipi. We’re going to show the world that the dependency on outside entities no longer exists, we can do it ourserlves herein America
Q: Is that order confirmed our is it a pre-order?
D. Michery: No, we’re actually building for them. We’re excited, we’re gonna deliver the pilot vehicles to them in the second quarter as we stated. This is a major… a Fortune 500 company, I’ll put it that way.
Q: Q2 starts on Friday, would you say early Q2 or late Q2?
D. Michery: It’s gonna be in Q2. We’re gonna turn it into a press event. Everyone will know, they will see and be part of it.
Q: We’re saying with other companies the needing of raising money. How do you feel about your balance sheet, your cash…
D. Michery: That’s a good question, I’m glad you asked! We put out a public disclosure a few days ago where we announced that we’re going to have at least $65 Million USD of net cash on our balance sheet when we file our Q on May 14th. We stand by that. We’re proud to say that we have a factory in Tunacan, in Mississipi. We’ve delivered two very nice Mullen 5, we’re going to have the high performance vehicle in September. We’re gonna tour that vehicle across the United States, to all the major tracks and we’re gonna make the car available for drive for all of those retail investors that have supported Mullen. We’re gonna show them that we’re thankful and allow them to participate and fo the touchy-feely and drive the vehicle. We’re gonna have a Formula E driver there to give them drives in the vehicle that foes from 0 to 60mph in 1.9 seconds and produces over 240mph of top speed. That’s the vehicle where they will have a ride in!
(Live Update)
Recently, the company announced that it expects to report in excess of $65 million in cash and cash equivalents when it files Form 10Q for the Company’s second quarter ending March 31, 2022. “We’ve made tremendous progress in key areas over the past three months,” said David Michery, CEO and chairman of Mullen Automotive. “With the financing we received, we now have more than enough capital to execute on our commitments for 2022, including the start of the Mullen FIVE EV Crossover program and continued development on the Mullen ONE EV Cargo Van program. The Company’s balance sheet is the strongest it has ever been in our history.
Mullen has several divisions that plan to operate synergistic businesses, being: CarHub, a digital platform that leverages artificial intelligence to offer an interactive solution for buying, selling and owning a car, and Mullen Energy, a division focused on advancing battery technology and emergency point-of-care solutions
Recently and related to Mullen‘s article published by Wccf Tech, CEO David Michery enhanced the supporters that have been bringing a lot of attention to the EV maker during the last weeks. The Wccf Tech article highlights the continued interest Mullen is seeing from a growing fan base for the Mullen FIVE EV Crossover.
Mullen’s CEO was recently on the 199th episode of Risk On Podcast on Wednesday. Michery talked about Mullen’s origins, the design options to increase the performance, the battery tech updates. Also Mullen’s loan status and the acceptance of Bitcoin as a payment were among the themes. Mullen’s CEO also mentioned the importance of Elon Musk for the EV sector: “Every EV in the space, no one would be here today if it wasn’t for Tesla and Elon Musk.” As of 12:41 EST, Mullen ($MULN) shares are trading 40.55% higher, at $2.45 being the most traded stock with 295M of volume.
“I like to believe that we’re at the forefront of electrifying America. Every design detail is well thought out to increase performance. The tires and breaks for example are chosen lessen the weight and help you stop on a dime.” When asked about Bitcoin as a payment, Mullen’s CEO said: “Haven’t even explored that right now. We’re focused on doing what we promised and deliver vehicles.”
Recently, CarBuzz, world’s premier car-related news site and app with over 9 million monthly visits, highlighted Mullen’s FIVE Model saying that the model is luxury crossover in the fullest sense of the word luxury. The publication says that “the California-based company will be joining Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid as real American competition to legacy automakers as the EV market grows.” CarBuzz also enhanced that the model is “designed and engineered in the U.S. and set to be built here in the U.S. as well”.
On March 10th, EV posted an exclusive article reporting that Acuitas Group Holding had bought 18 Million shares of Mullen Automotive, reaching a 10% ownership on the EV maker. At the time, Mullen shares were trading at .99$ but quickly skyrocketed to positive territory having reached $1.45. The stock closed the session at $1.35, up 26.17% on the day and was the second most traded on the last session with 251.51M shares traded.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | [email protected]
