In a deal valued at $2 billion, Xos will go public through NextGen Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: NGAC), a special purpose acquisition company.
Dakota Semler, co-founder and CEO of Xos, gave an exclusive interview to Benzinga’s YouTube show “SPACs Attack” on Wednesday.
What is it and why is it important? Semler told Benzinga that Xos makes medium- and heavy-duty commercial electric cars.
He saw the chance to start Xos following firsthand experience with the challenges of running a diesel fleet as a fleet operator, he added.
The ever-changing pollution rules and the rising cost of fuel, he noted, were only two of the challenges confronting diesel fleet operators.
According to Semler, Xos produces its own battery systems, which manage and power the company’s own vehicles on its own chassis.
He added that the company already has trucks on the road and that Xos is in the process of putting funds to work to scale manufacturing and fulfill client demand.
Customer Reach: According to the Xos CEO, the company wants to market its products to a “broad range of various customers.”
According to Xos, he has worked with United Parcel Service Inc (NYSE: UPS) for several years.
According to Semler, the company collaborates with a variety of different parcel delivery fleets and independent service providers. He noted that Xos created a platform for its cars that allows it to sell to a number of customers with a range of use cases.
“We have clients coming in on a daily basis.”
Associated Link: EXCLUSIVE: Xos and UniFirst Form Strategic Partnership For Electric Delivery Vehicles
Deliveries: According to Semler, Xos expects to deliver 116 automobiles in 2021 and roughly 2,000 vehicles in 2022.
He added that the firm aims to construct around 8,000 vehicles in 2023, and that Xos already has about 4,000 optional orders for the year, which will be determined by the vehicle’s performance standards, efficiency, range, and serviceability.
Here’s the link to the complete interview:
Manufacturing with Flexibility: Xos uses a flexible manufacturing technique to achieve rapid scale and flexibility.
The flex approach was chosen over a regular automobile facility because of speed, according to the Xos CEO.
According to him, flex manufacturing allows Xos to delegate some of the more complex processes to sub-suppliers, allowing flex facilities to focus on final assembly.
Xos aims to create a second battery manufacturing line next to its existing Tennessee facility so that when vehicles approach final assembly, it can “take the batteries from that building next door, dump them right onto the vehicle, and it drives out of there under its own power.”
Notes from the SPAC: According to the Xos CEO, demand for last-mile delivery vehicles is increasing as more people order products online.
According to Semler, going public via the SPAC route allowed the company to ramp up its manufacturing capacities to meet demand.
In addition, he claimed, the NextGen Acquisition Corp team had experience and knowledge of how to expand a manufacturing company, particularly in the trucking industry.
The company will be listed on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “XOS” pending shareholder approval.
NGAC Price Movement: At the closing of trading on Wednesday, NextGen shares were up 0.2 percent to $9.95.
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