EV Brief 7/26/21 EV Brief 7/26/21

"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

EV Brief 6/11/21 EV Brief 6/11/21

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.

Source: The Verge

EV Brief 4/13/21 EV Brief 4/13/21

Rivian partners with Samsung SDI in electric truck battery deal

American electric vehicle startup Rivian announced today that it had reached a successful deal with South Korea’s Samsung SDI Co Limited to supply battery cells for its R1T and R1S electric trucks.

American electric vehicle startup Rivian announced today that it had reached a successful deal with South Korea’s Samsung SDI Co Limited to supply battery cells for its R1T and R1S electric trucks.

“We’re excited about the performance and reliability of Samsung SDI battery cells combined with our energy-dense module and pack design,” said RJ Scaringe, chief executive officer of Rivian.

Samsung SDI currently has battery supply deals with BMW and Volkswagen, estimated to each be valued around $3-4 billion US over 10 years. The value and terms of the Rivian deal is undisclosed, and it is unclear whether the deal also includes batteries for the company’s electric delivery vans.

Rivian is planning to start production of its R1T and R1S models by mid-2021, and is backed by some big players, including the Ford Motor Company and Amazon.com Inc. The automaker recently announced a successful funding round led by T. Rowe Price, raising $2.65 billion US.

It’s obviously going to be a big year for Rivian, but it could get bigger; the company is likely planning an Initial Public Offering (IPO) later in 2021. Bloomberg reported in February that Rivian is in talks with banks.

A number of EV startups have made the leap to publicly traded companies recently via reverse mergers with shell companies known as special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC). These include Xpeng, Nikola Motors, Lordstown and Canoo. It’s also expected by some analysts that Lucid Motors will go down this route.