Another electric vehicle startup is gearing up for the public markets.
Lion Electric Co., a Quebec-headquartered manufacturer of electric trucks and school buses, announced it will go public through consolidation with special-purpose acquisition company Northern Genesis Acquisition, TechCrunch reported Tuesday.
Lion Electric's SPAC deal will help fund the company's planned ramp-up in production and its battery system assembly factory. It plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LEV. The combined company will have a valuation of $1.9 billion.
According to Lion Electric founder and chief executive officer Marc Bedard, the transaction marks a crucial milestone in the company's continued emergence as "a leader in the design, production and distribution of purpose-built, all-electric medium- and heavy-duty urban vehicles," Benzinga quoted Bedard as saying in a statement.
Established in 2008, Lion claims to have more than 300 vehicles on the road, mostly school buses, with over 6 million miles driven in total.
The Lion-Northern Genesis deal comes on the heels of other recent SPAC consolidations with electric-vehicle companies, including the one that took electric big-rig company Nikola public in June.
Lion Electric's clients include Amazon.com Inc., Canadian National Railway and Waste Connections, while its partners include BMW, ConEdison, Dana Incorporated, LG Chem and ABB Ltd.
The Lion deal includes a so-called private investment of public equity of $200 million that will be infused by external investors as Lion makes its foray on Wall Street.
In addition, the combined company is seen to get around $320 million in cash that Northern Genesis currently holds in trust, for $500 million after expenses and fees. The deal is expected to be completed in the first quarter next year.
Lion Electric said it has potential orders for more than 6,000 vehicles. In a presentation, it mentioned the incoming Biden administration's Clean Energy Plan, which calls for zero carbon emissions on half-million school buses by 2030.
