Proterra to Supply Batteries for Volta Trucks’ Electric Vehicles

By Nick Carey

LONDON (Reuters) – Commercial electric vehicle startup Volta Trucks said on Wednesday it has picked U.S. electric bus maker Proterra to provide batteries for its fully-electric trucks designed for urban freight distribution that will go into production in 2022.

Volta Trucks is headquartered in Stockholm, but has most of its operations centred in the United Kingdom. The company recently raised $20 million from investors including hedge fund Luxor Capital and has orders for its Volta Zero model worth $260 million.

Proterra said last month it is going public through a merger with ArcLight Clean Transition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in a deal valued at $1.6 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2021.

SPACs are shell companies which raise money through an initial public offering (IPO) of its shares with a view to taking another company public within two years.

Other electric vehicle (EV) makers, such as Fisker Inc and Nikola Corp, have also taken the SPAC merger route to go public instead of a traditional IPO, as investors seek an electric success story to rival that of Tesla Inc.

With tightening European Union CO2 emission targets and countrywide bans on fossil fuel vehicle sales looming, there is increasing interest in commercial EVs.

British electric van startup Arrival said in November it will merge with CIIG Merger Corp, a SPAC, to get a U.S. listing at a market valuation of about $5.4 billion.

(Reporting by Nick Carey; editing by Jason Neely+)