Nano One Materials Corp T.NANO

Nano One has been collaborating with Tesla since 2020

[Fierze]

THE MAJOR GLOBAL EV LEADER
By Fierze



*** Part 1 ***
On Dec 18, 2020, Nano One press released that they had entered into a new cathode evaluation agreement with an unnamed ”American based major global EV leader”. The OEM was not named, and as of Feb 2024 the name still has not been disclosed.

Only two companies fit this description. Naturally a lot of people thought of Tesla, but GM could not be ruled out completely. The news release said ”A leader” and not ”THE leader”. GM also has some history with EV’s, such as the Chevy Bolt, and they did also produce an EV way back in the 90’s before Tesla even existed (the EV1).

So, we were all left hanging without knowing for sure. And as time went on, despite the collaboration seemingly going well*, the Tesla hype slowly died down. *(See subsequent Nano One press releases from Aug 17, 2021, Jan 24, 2022, Feb 21, 2023 and Dec 19, 2023)



*** Part 2 ***
Nexteer Automotive is a company active within steering solutions, such as electric and hydraulic power steering systems, steer-by-wire systems etc. The company was founded in the US, but today the main owner is the Chinese company AVIC Automotive. Nexteer’s stock is traded in Hong Kong while their HQ is still located in Michigan.

* In Nexteer’s 2021 Q3 report, the company mentioned significant progress and first steering business with a ”Major Global EV Leader”. [Source: https://www.nexteer.com/wp-content/uploads/2021-Q3-Investor-Communication.pdf , page 3 and 5]

* Also, If you search through the below transcript from Nexteer’s Q3 2021 earnings call you can find more discussions regarding this ”major global EV leader”. [Transcript: https://www.alphaspread.com/security/hkex/1316/earnings-calls/q3-2021 ]

Needless to say, this is the exact phrasing that Nano One used to describe its unnamed OEM partner on Dec 18, 2020. The difference? At this time, GM was already a large existing customer to Nexteer. In fact, GM actually used to own Nexteer. So there is no way that Nexteer was referring to GM as a new client in 2021, let alone an unnamed ”major global EV leader”.

By the way: It is widely rumored that Tesla will soon implement steer-by-wire technology in their Cybertruck and will likely expand such tech to other vehicles as well. While Tesla has a patent of their own, they likely use steering technology from other suppliers as well as they develop proprietary tech and scale the production.



*** Part 3 ***
It is interesting that Nexteer used the exact same wording as Nano One to describe their new EV OEM partner. Again, we know that Nexteer was not referring to GM when using this wording.

But what about BYD? They are a big company that could certainly be categorized as one of the global EV leaders. Maybe the identical wording was a coincidence and Nexteer’s new client is BYD?

* On the Hong Kong version of Yahoo Finance, I found an interesting piece from Oct 2021 providing the following information about Nexteer’s new client. It includes the following when translated to English:

* ”After meeting with Nexteer's management this week, Morgan Stanley stated that they have established cooperation with the "Major Global EV Leader”. The relationship will supply products to this electric vehicle leader in the Asia-Pacific region in the fourth quarter. In Citigroup’s report, it was expressed as “the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the United States” and pointed out that management did not say anything due to confidentiality agreements. Name the relevant company. As for who can be called the leader of electric vehicles and the largest in the United States, comrades can interpret it for themselves.” [Source: 2021-10-29 https://hk.finance.yahoo.com/news/%E5%A4%A7%E8%8C%B6%E9%A3%AF%E2%94%82-tesla%E7%9A%84%E4%BE%9B%E6%87%89%E9%8F%88%E5%85%AC%E5%8F%B8%EF%BC%88%E9%9D%92%E5%86%B0%EF%BC%89-233017947.html ]


While I have not found the bank reports mentioned in the column, the Citigroup report allegedly states that Nexteer’s new Major Global EV Leader client is US based, which would rule out BYD. I don’t know how credible this Yahoo Finance author is, but none the less, it is another interesting data point. If anyone has access to the above mentioned Citigroup report, please let me know.



*** Conclusion ***
Merging the above info with what we already knew about Nano One’s undisclosed global EV leader partner, I believe it is very likely that Nano One and Nexteer are collaborating with the same company. The exact wording ”Major Global EV Leader” is probably chosen by the EV leader itself and not a coincidence. I think it is unlikely that two different companies are described with the EXACT same wording like this.

This has the following implications:

* The EV leader is not GM, since GM was already a known client of Nexteer when this new unnamed client was introduced.

* The EV leader is not BYD, since the company is ”American based” according to both Nano One and Citigroup (although I have not personally seen the Citigroup report)


BOTTOM LINE: Tesla is very likely Nano One’s ”Global EV leader” partner. This added information regarding Nexteer points to this being the case and I am acting accordingly. According to Nano One’s subsequent news releases, Their 3+ year collaboration is ongoing, [Tesla] is pleased with the results so far and has recently kicked off large volume evaluations of Nano One’s LFP CAM. [Tesla] and Nano One are also developing a roadmap to execute on a joint vision to promote waste free high performing cathodes in world class cells.

And based on Nano’s stock performance since 2020, I think it is safe to say that pretty much none of this is priced into the current Nano One share price.