*By Carlo Versano*
Shares of the newly-public Chinese electric car company NIO surged for a second straight day Wednesday ー even amid a broader market slump ー on the news that Tesla's largest outside investor is taking a stake.
NIO ($NIO) was up as much as 5 percent on Wednesday morning, following an SEC [disclosure](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1088875/000108887518000054/NIOInc30092018.txt) that Baillie Gifford, an investment firm that owns 9 perfect of Tesla ($TSLA), is acquiring around 11 percent of NIO.
The investment shows that we're still in the early stages of a match to own the exploding market for luxury electric vehicles, and deep-pocketed investors seem willing to back more than one horse at a time.
"We're in uncharted territory now," said Tamara Warren, co-host of Cheddar Rides.
But NIO isn't Tesla.
Despite its troubles, Elon Musk's company has a soup-to-nuts production component.
NIO, on the other hand, doesn't actually make its own vehicles, as Warren noted. Instead, it has an agreement with a Chinese manufacturer. So while NIO proclaims itself to be a Tesla rival, "no one knows who's going to give Tesla run for their money," Warren said.
NIO raised $1 billion in a public offering last month on the NYSE, though it stumbled out of the gate. After more than doubling in its first few days on the market, shares feel back below their IPO price. With Wednesday's gains, the stock is at its highest level since Sept. 25.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
