• CNBC's Jim Cramer makes the case for owning stock in two traditional automakers over riskier, younger competitors as the economy enters expansion mode and investors look to the electric vehicle trade.
• "If you want electric vehicle exposure, but you don't want to take the risk of betting on a junior growth stock, you can stick with what's working" in Ford and GM, he said in a "Mad Money" interview.
• Ford and GM shares are up double-digits in 2021, while the trade in Tesla stock has cooled off from last year's explosive growth.

CNBC's Jim Cramer on Monday made the case for owning stock in two traditional automakers over riskier, younger competitors as the economy enters expansion mode and investors look to the electric vehicle trade.

In the current market environment where high-growth names are losing momentum from last year's ride, Cramer recommended holding shares in Ford and General Motors over the likes of Tesla and other picks run up by the EV SPAC craze.

"If you want to bet on electric vehicles with much less risk, I say buy some Ford or General Motors," the "Mad Money" host said. "Despite their internal combustion engine bones, they've got meaningful exposure and, just as important, they fit the current moment in a way that Tesla or the SPACs simply don't."

Tesla's command of the U.S. electric vehicle market appears to be shrinking: Domestic sales of electric vehicles are rising as more carmakers put their own electric products on the road, according to research from Morgan Stanley. The firm found that domestic EV sales rose 34% in February from the year prior and that Tesla's market share shrank double-digits to 69% over the same period.

Ford and GM have debuted their own all-electric consumer vehicles, and Cramer thinks their products will offer a competitive edge.

Ford built an electric version of its Mustang, the Mach-E, a rival to Tesla's Model Y crossover. The company also has an electric F-150 in the pipeline that Cramer thinks will be a hit among small businesses looking to buy pickup trucks as the economy expands.

GM is looking to put 30 electric vehicle models on the road by 2025. The Detroit-based manufacturer is also investing heavily in better battery technology, which could help solve a bottleneck for electric car components, Cramer noted.

"These are huge, established companies with improving balance sheets and real earnings, earnings that happen to be skyrocketing right now," he said.

Year to date, GM's market value is up 39% and Ford's is up 50%. Tesla, after surging 743% in 2020, is just about even on the year.

As for Tesla and the many blank-check offerings — battery company QuantumScape, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle maker Fisker and Lucid Motors tie-up Churchill Capital IV — Cramer says they've become battleground stocks and tough to own.

"The honeymoon period for the electric vehicle SPACs it's over. Even the good ones have been hit hard," Cramer said. "The market's a lot more skeptical of speculative growth stocks, now."

"If you want electric vehicle exposure, but you don't want to take the risk of betting on a junior growth stock, you can stick with what's working" in Ford and GM, he said.

Disclosure: Cramer's charitable trust owns shares of Ford.

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