“XPEL’s paint protection film-related revenue (including product and service) with respect to Tesla vehicles is approximately 5% of its total year to date revenues.”
That was the statement issued via SEC filing by XPEL following a dramatic stock drop related to Tesla’s new in-house, full-body paint protection film (PPF) offerings.
At least one investor was skeptical, however, and says its “research” shows that Tesla likely accounts for well more than 5% of the PPF supplier’s business.
After speaking with 143 XPEL dealers across 26 states, Culper says “We believe the true figure is many multiples higher.” It says that of the 143 XPEL dealers it surveyed well over 50% said PPF installations on Teslas count for more than 20% of their business.
Culper Research is a short-selling firm. Its website says it seeks “to expose companies which have misrepresented their operations.”
That’s not what publicly held company Cleanspark alleges it does, however. In a complaint filed with the SEC in January 2021, Cleanspark says, “The apparent purpose of the Culper Research ‘report’ is to cover or profit from the publisher’s short positions in the Company, which the publisher expressly acknowledges holding in the report itself. Holders of short positions trade on an expected decline in the price of a stock. Such holders only profit on such positions when the stock declines and incur potentially unlimited losses if the price does not decline.”
Window Film magazine reached out to XPEL for comment but had no received comment as of press time.
