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As Rivian Prepares to Go Public, Traders Still Bet on Two Traditional Automakers in the EV Race

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Electric vehicle company Rivian is set to go public Wednesday.

This is just the latest entrant in an increasingly crowded market of EV stocks. The field includes first mover Tesla as well as relative upstarts including Nio and Lordstown Motors, and established automakers Ford and General Motors.

Gina Sanchez, chief market strategist at Lido Advisors, is sticking with a more traditional name in the EV race.   

"We actually like Volkswagen here. Volkswagen is more cheaply priced and still has some very aggressive targets in terms of how much of its auto sales will be fully EV by 2025," Sanchez told CNBC's "Trading Nation" on Tuesday.

Volkswagen targets the delivery of 1 million electric vehicles in 2021 with a goal of becoming the "global market leader" in the space by 2025. The automaker owns the Porsche and Audi brands, both of which Sanchez says are "making continued headway."

Todd Gordon, founder of Inside Edge Capital Management, is betting on another conventional stock in the auto space – Ford.

"We hold it in our growth portfolio. They're making a big run, outpacing GM, I think for two main reasons. They're obviously making big inroads in the EV space competing with Tesla," Gordon said during the same interview.

Ford recently said its all-electric F-150 Lightning model had drawn more than 160,000 reservations. Sales of its "electrified vehicles" hit a record in October.

"The other thing is they're working down their long-term debt," he said. "They just recently sold $2.5 billion in 10-year debt at 3.25%, lower than expected, and they're going to push it towards these environmental-friendly projects, EV portfolio and that's going to help them sort of work off some of this junk-rated debt, get them back to investment grade and maybe bring back the dividends."

Disclosure: Inside Edge Capital Management holds Ford.

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