SPAC mania, meet EV mania

The splashiest public listing in the history of Europe belongs to an electric vehicle maker you’ve likely never heard of.

Yesterday Arrival merged with the SPAC CIIG Merger Corp at a valuation of $13.6 billion. No European company had ever hit the market with a valuation so high.

The Commercial EV

London-based Arrival was founded by Russian politician Denis Sverdlov in 2015.

It bears little resemblance to Tesla or Nio. Where those better-known carmakers aim to bring electric to the masses, Arrival focuses on vans and buses for commercial clients using an innovative manufacturing process:

• Instead of taking 2-to-3 years to open manufacturing plants like traditional auto companies, it has developed “microfactories.”
• Arrival opens plants in six months and can move its manufacturing bases toward areas of greatest demand.

But Is It Worth $13B? The company hasn’t begun production but predicts outsized growth. Arrival projects revenues to grow from $1 billion next year to $14 billion in 2024.

On the encouraging side, Arrival is ahead of many competitors in the bubbly EV space. It has sold an order for 10,000 vehicles to UPS and has orders for another 6,000 vehicles on the books.

the takeaway

Arrival didn’t impress on the live market. Its share price fell 15% by the end of the day.