Welcome to the Daily 5 report for Monday, June 9.
It's a rarity for the CEO of a troubled publicly traded electric vehicle startup to answer reporters' questions face-to-face. Anything you might say is scrutinized by shareholders, creditors, employees and other stakeholders.
So let's give Mullen Automotive CEO David Michery credit for sitting down with reporters from Automotive News and our affiliate Crain's Detroit Business and answering some difficult questions.
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We asked Michery about the company's continuing net losses with little revenue while it invests in Michigan's Bollinger Motors. He answered, in part:
"Backing off of EVs is something we haven't done, and we believe that is a viable space. Our core investor is a multibillionaire who is committed to the company. It's not going to go nowhere. I am a fighter. I don't give up. I like to believe that you have to kill me to stop me."
We also asked him about Bollinger's production. He said: "To be clear, Bollinger was paused temporarily. The company is in the process of ramping production back up. We believe we will be in position to deliver new, upgraded vehicles within a 10-week period. We have over 40 vehicles in inventory that are ready to go to customers. We are working on cleaning up Bollinger's supply chain."
There were other compelling issues Michery addressed in this story, but ultimately this CEO still believes his company can succeed where others failed — and he's not afraid to say so, publicly.
In other troubled company news, the status of Marelli Corp. attracted a lot of attention following this report Saturday that the supplier to Nissan and Stellantis is considering filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. As we wrote before, the entire business model behind this company backed by U.S. private equity giant KKR has been a challenge from the beginning. The company declined to comment on the original report in Japanese media.
From General Motors, Cadillac said it will have two electric crossovers sporting the high-performance V-Series badge this year when the Optiq-V compact crossover arrives. The 2026 Optiq-V will enter production in the fall, following an upcoming V-Series version of the Lyriq midsize crossover, Lindsay VanHulle reported in this story.
That's it for today. If you want to view this story in your browser, click here.
— Philip Nussel, online editor
