What happened

Shares of many companies in the electric vehicle space were up sharply on Monday morning. Some of the largest gains were seen in former meme stocks that had fallen on hard times in recent weeks.

Here's where things stood for three leading examples of that trend as of noon ET, relative to their closing prices on Friday:

  • Lordstown Motors (RIDE 0.81%) was up about 22.9%.
  • Romeo Power (RMO) was up about 22.3%.
  • Workhorse Group (WKHS 12.87%) was up about 15.7%.

So what

Until today, January had not been a good month for these three stocks. Here's how their 2022 performance looked as of last Friday's close. 

RIDE Chart

RIDE data by YCharts.

So why are they up today? I think it's something of a relief rally: The crypto free fall seems to have abated for the moment, category leader Tesla (TSLA 8.22%) was up nicely in early trading, and there's a sense that worries about higher interest rates -- which were at least partially responsible for the month's declines -- may now be priced in, more or less.

They certainly weren't moving on company-specific news. Neither Lordstown nor Workhorse has shared any news of note in weeks; neither has Romeo Power, aside from announcing a new chief operating officer on Jan. 18. There were no Wall Street upgrades or other analyst mentions relating to any of the three on Monday. Market conditions haven't shifted; none of the three is known to have a major deal in the works; nothing material seems to have changed.

But investors seem excited about these three companies' stocks again, at least for the moment. If you're wondering why, I can't help you.

A prototype Lordstown Endurance, an electric pickup designed for commercial-fleet use.

A year ago this week, Lordstown Motors said it was on track to begin building its Endurance electric pickup in the fall of 2021. Many things have changed since then. Image source: Lordstown Motors.

Now what

The good news is that electric vehicle investors wondering what the heck is going on will be able to hear directly from the companies' management teams before long. While none of the three have yet announced dates for their fourth-quarter and full-year 2021 earnings reports, past practice suggests that all three will likely report in mid- to late February.