Tritium Rings Nasdaq Closing Bell in Honor of Listing
Australian EV charging startup Tritium DCFC Limited began trading on Nasdaq on January 14, 2022, and it is expected the company will announce plans for a US manufacturing facility in the coming weeks.
Australian EV charging startup Tritium DCFC Limited began trading on Nasdaq on January 14, 2022, following the close of its business combination with Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corporation II. On the afternoon of January 27, Company management rang the Closing Bell at Nasdaq MarketSite in New York’s Times Square in honour of its listing on the exchange.
“We are pleased to celebrate this important milestone for Tritium here at Nasdaq,” said Jane Hunter, Tritium’s Chief Executive Officer. “The transport industry is being electrified, which means it is more important than ever for EV owners to have access to rapid, reliable charging infrastructure. We are proud to provide this networked infrastructure to our customers. As a public company, we expect to continue to expand our product suite and global footprint, which has already enabled more than 3.6 million high-power charging sessions across 41 countries—delivering over 55 GWh of energy. I want to thank the Tritium team and Board of Directors, our investors, our partners at DCRN and our transaction advisors for their support and dedication through this process.”
Tritium embodies the Australian technology success story, and emphasises why investment in similar startups is critical. Founded in 2001 by e-mobility pioneers Dr. David Finn, James Kennedy, and Dr. Paul Sernia, the company draws on two decades of power electronics experience in the renewable energy field, and has well and truly established itself as a global leader in the DC fast charging space for EVs.
Tritium will look to have its US manufacturing plant up and running before the end of September, as it seeks to rapidly expand following the on Nasdaq. The company has been affected by global pandemic-related supply issues, and a stateside factory will go a long way to calming investors’ nerves around the continuing global transport delays and semiconductor shortages. Tritium had $US2 million (AUD$2.7 million) sitting in ships off the Port of Long Beach in December, en route from Australia, unable to dock.
"LCID" to begin NASDAQ trading on Monday, after Lucid Motors and Churchill Capital pass SPAC merger
After a rocky start to its shareholder vote last Thursday, NASDAQ reports that the SPAC deal between Lucid Motors and Churchill Capital IV successfully passed on Friday last week.
The Lucid Air promises performance, style, and exceptional quality, but can it beat Tesla at its own game? Image: Lucid
After a rocky start to its shareholder vote last Thursday, where the company failed to receive enough votes from retail investors to approve its merger with Churchill Capital IV, NASDAQ reports that the deal successfully went through on Friday, after Churchill Capital IV and Lucid extended the deadline for shareholders to vote, and executives pleaded with investors to vote in favor of all proposals in order to cross the finish line.
NASDAQ reports that some investors saw the move as highly dilutive based on misinterpretations of Lucid’s regulatory filings, which details a 2.61 exchange ratio of Churchill Capital IV shares to Lucid stock. This high exchange ratio is not actually relevant to the SPAC's public investors, who incorrectly feared that excessive dilution could adversely impact the value of the investment. Lucid will receive approximately $4.4 billion (after transaction expenses) in cash from the SPAC merger.
"Lucid has further increased its momentum as we gear up to make the first customer deliveries of our Lucid Air lineup of electric sedans later this year," Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said in a statement. "We are making significant investments in the long-term growth and innovation of our company, and we will continue to bring to bear world-class technology to positively impact mankind's transition to sustainable mobility."
Lucid recently opened its NYC design studio in the Meatpacking District. Image: Lucid
Auto manufacturing is an expensive business, and even more so for a startup like Lucid that doesn’t have a bank account the size of Volkswagen’s or General Motors’ to throw at electromobility. This Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) trend on Wall Street has been taking off in the automotive sector, with companies like Fisker and Nikola also receiving an injection of funds through the SPAC investment process. Essentially a shell company, a SPAC is set up for the sole purpose of raising capital to acquire another company. Generally, a SPAC’s only asset is the money raised in its own IPO.
Lucid’s first EV, the Air, is currently undergoing final testing and development, and the company plans to officially commence customer deliveries “in the second half of 2021”. CEO Peter Rawlinson has already delayed deliveries from (northern hemisphere) Spring this year, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as an impediment to that target date. The Air is a luxurious, Mercedes-Benz S-Class rival, initially launching in the highest specification, with 500 miles (805 km) of range and over 1,000 hp (745 kW). More affordable variants will be launched in due course, as rivals to Tesla’s Model S, BMW’s i4 Gran Coupe, and the Mercedes-Benz EQE. Pricing for the Lucid Air in the United States is as follows:
Air Dream Edition - $169,000
Air Grand Touring - $139,000
Air Touring - $95,000
Air Pure - $77,400
Source: NASDAQ
Former Canoo CEO to join Apple as Cupertino company works on Project Titan EV
The Verge is now reporting that Ulrich Kranz, co-founder and CEO of EV startup Canoo — and also formerly a BMW executive during the i3 and i8 development periods — will work on Apple’s electric vehicle program under former Tesla executive Doug Field.
Apple has had a large team working on its electric vehicle platform since 2014, which is codenamed “Project Titan”. After an initial focus on autonomous technology and systems, the company has reportedly pivoted back to vehicle development and has held talks with battery giants BYD and CATL. According to sources for Reuters, Apple is keen to develop a US battery factory with whoever signs on to the project.
The Verge is now reporting that Ulrich Kranz, co-founder and CEO of EV startup Canoo — and also formerly a BMW executive during the i3 and i8 development periods — will work on the Cupertino company’s electric vehicle program under former Tesla executive Doug Field.
Kranz even help talks with Apple during the development of Canoo’s EV platform, however talks between the two companies broke down as Apple was more interested in the acquisition of the startup rather than investing in the business.
The Verge has noted that Kranz was one of a number of top executives who have departed Canoo over the last twelve months, with the company’s first CEO Stefan Krause, and CFO and chief counsel also leaving the business.
Canoo went public on the NASDAQ in December 2020 via a SPAC deal, and is thought to have received close to $600 million USD from the deal. The company’s stock price launched at $22.82, and is currently trading at $9.76 at the time of writing.
Canoo is looking to fill a niche in the increasingly crowded EV market, by developing and building commercial electric vehicles for small businesses. Its Multipurpose Delivery Vehicle (MPDV) and Canoo Pickup are scheduled for launch to US-based customers by 2023.
Not much is known about Apple’s Project Titan, however it’s believed that the company’s focus on autonomous driving alongside a vehicle platform could lead the tech company to compete with Tesla, in the race to get a fleet of autonomous taxis onto the streets.
Canoo’s MPDV. Image: Canoo
Canoo’s Pickup.
Source: The Verge
St Baker Energy Fund to invest $20 million in TrueGreen Mobility ahead of introduction of $35k BYD EA1 and T3
This week, Australia’s e-mobility focused TrueGreen group announced that the St Baker Energy Innovation Fund (StBEIF) will be injecting $20 million into its business, as the company looks to roll out two BYD electric passenger and commercial vehicles in Australia later this year from $35,000.
L to R: Trevor St Baker, StBEIF CEO Rodger Whitby, and TrueGreen Mobility CEO Luke Todd. Image: TrueGreen Group
This week, Australia’s e-mobility focused TrueGreen Group announced that the St Baker Energy Innovation Fund (StBEIF) will be injecting $20 million into its business, as the company looks to roll out two BYD electric vehicles in Australia later this year from $35,000.
The BYD T3 commercial van will lead the charge, offering a 50 kWh battery with 300 km (186 mile) range. The compact BYD EA1 — recently unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show — will follow later in 2021, and will offer customers a 500km range .
Luke Todd, TrueGreen Mobility chief executive said there was “pent-up demand” from businesses for electric transport and that TrueGreen Mobility expected to sell thousands of small vans nationally.
Speaking with The Driven, he stated “With our products, electric vehicles have now reached price parity with combustion engines, so a switch to EVs makes perfect economic, commercial, environmental and moral sense.”
Rodger Whitby, CEO of the StBEIF, said the $20 million financial injection was a “relatively small token of collaboration” and that the fund would spend tens or hundreds of millions of dollars expanding Evie Networks’ public charging sites according to the Australian Financial Review.
A little history. If you don’t know the name Trevor St Baker, you probably should. An expert in electricity utility planning in Australia in the 1960s and 1970s, he ultimately went on to found a number of private power development companies, with investment in Australia, South East Asia, and the United States.
Mr. St Baker is pro-nuclear and coal power, and has publically criticised the idea that renewables can provide baseload power while advocating for coal power stations to delay their closure.
Nexport’s $35,000 BYD T3 van. Image: Nexport Australia
In 2013, he formed the StBEIF, of which the primary purpose was to invest in energy start-up businesses, and that’s where Tritium — an EV charging hardware company you may have heard of — comes in.
The StBEIF is focused on investing in electric vehicles, despite its history in the oil and gas sectors. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Mr. St Baker said “People are marching in the street for decarbonising and net-zero emissions and they’re really serious about it,” he said. “Decarbonising and electrifying the transport sector is an absolutely essential part of that.”
Trevor St Baker, Luke Todd, and Rodger Whitby with a BYD T3 electric van. Image: TrueGreen Group
The StBEIF’s $40 million ($31.051 million USD) investment in Tritium paid off, with the Australian-based company set to list on the NASDAQ through special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Decarbonisation Plus Acquisition Corporation II, itself owned by asset management firm Riverstone Holdings. The enterprise value is expected to be $2.2 billion ($1.708 billion USD).
The StBEIF will also assume a seat on the board of TrueGreen Group. The fund also backs Australian high-speed EV charging company Evie Networks.
