BERLIN—Investors are piling into a long-neglected sector: old-school car makers that are reinventing themselves as electric-vehicle producers.
After years lamenting that their shares were undervalued, Ford Motor Co. , General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG and other blue-chip car manufacturers are seeing sharp share-price gains this year as they embrace the new technology.
Ford is up 49% so far this year, while GM’s shares have surged 48%. VW’s stock is up 55% and even briefly rose 29% in intraday trading one day this week when the company held a “Power Day” event, saying it would build six EV battery factories in Europe alone over the next 10 years. VW has this week also eked ahead of SAP SE to become the most valuable stock on the German DAX index.
