I was digging through the endless stream of financial content...

I was digging through the endless stream of financial content that regularly clutters up my email inbox late last week, and I couldn't help but notice one heading in a piece from Morningstar: '8 undervalued electric vehicle stocks'

That grabbed my attention, and prompted a thought: given the plunge in the VMT share price over recent weeks, surely, if Vmoto was ever going to get a gurnsey in an analysts tip sheet, it would have to be now?

But alas, no. In fact, not one of the eight named stocks was even an electric vehicle stock, or at least in the generally accepted understanding of the term. All of them were either auto parts suppliers or automotive chipmakers. So, just one more 'EV stock' article that isn't actually about electric vehicles.

Anyway, I agree with the chipper sentiments of Footmax and Kleuskenn, nothwithstanding the continued lack of interest in the company on the part of the financial media.

It must be said, in light of the magnitude of that recent market melt-down, a dip in the Vmoto share price was probably inevitable. Few stocks seem to have escaped unscathed, or at least none that I have noticed.

However,  I agree that Vmoto has probably fallen by more than is warranted, in part, I suspect, because of a mistaken perception about the nature of this stock.

Tech-stocks are the epicentre of the latest share-market ructions, and it looks to me as if Vmoto has been tossed into this basket.

In practice, however, Vmoto is as much of a commodity-stock as it is a tech-stock. That is to say, energy prices represent a significant driver for Vmoto, even more so than would be the case for the likes of Tesla.

High petrol prices offer a strong incentive for car owners to 'go electric', however, swapping an ICE model car for an electric version is a major commitment for the average punter. But not so for a Super Soco CUX or TC, which retail for about one-tenth the price of a four-wheeled EV.

At the core of this demand would be the self-employed operators who need to run a motorcycle for their work, as mentioned in my last post here.

However, as high petrol prices continue to bite, I think the trend will percolate across to other riders, and even some car-owners might start considering buying a cheap e-motorcycle or scooter for routine trips.

Something I've noticed when I've been scanning different stocks is that oil stocks haven't been battered to the same extent as the broader market, which would of course make sense, given the elevated oil price.

The same logic should hold for Vmoto, however, and I am sure that the elevated oil price is the predominant factor driving the jump in Google searches for 'Super Soco', as was noted by Moneyinmouth and Kleuskenn on this forum recently.

Interestingly, looking over the country-by-country numbers, I notice that the USA barely registers. Apparently, there are even more searches in Australia for the term 'Super Soco' than from within the US.

The same is true for India and Japan, and Indonesia doesn't even seem to register on Google Trends.

Based on the Google Trends data, almost all the top twenty countries are still European, with one notable exception.



The significant exception, sitting in first place, is something of a curious historical anomaly.

Ten years ago, when this company made their first push into the electric two-wheeler market, Nepal, one of the poorest countries in Asia, was the only country where they seemed to get any traction. Vmoto sold a bare-bones version of the scooter to keep the price down and thus affordable to the general populace.

But there was a specific reason as to why Vmoto caught on in Nepal like nowehere else.

The boom in electric two-wheelers in Nepal last decade was driven by a fuel crisis in 2015, with petrol tankers shut out of the land-locked country as a result of a blockade imposed on the country by India.

Vmoto seems to have been the direct beneficiary of the 2015 Nepalese fuel crisis, if the Google Trends data can be taken as a guide:



Now, years later, the company is still a hit in that country, though it would seem that many of the Nepalese fans of the old E-Max scooters have now moved on to Super Socos.

The reason I mention this is because it might offer some insight into the current situation, with Europe currently planning to reduce their imports of Russian fuel by 90% by years end, as noted in this report.

Just as the 2015 petrol crisis in Nepal drove a surge of interest in Vmoto scooters in that country, the 2022 energy crisis seems to be driving a dramatic increase in interest in Super Soco bikes in the major European markets.

In time, of course, the oil supply shortfall will be met by sources from other parts of the world, and energy prices in Europe will ease.

But what is interesting about the Nepal example, is that even though the petrol crisis ended there years ago, the customers still seem to have stuck around.

That bodes well for Vmoto today, in light of the similar backdrop in Europe. As seems to have transpired in Nepal, the 2022 energy crisis in Europe presents an opportunity for the company to cement itself into the broader European consciousness.

Vmoto has just started to run TV ads on Mediaset (Silvio Berlusconis' company) in Italy. This is the right strategy, and also, in my opinion, overdue.

I would like to see them do this locally as well, as it might have the added benefit of boosting the visibility of the company, if only for the benefit of the people in the financial media who have been ignoring this company for years.