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Volta Industries is the latest EV stock going public through SPAC.
Dania Maxwell / Bloomberg
Other electric vehicle stock is publicly traded by merging with a special purpose construction company, or SPAC. This EV company, like many others, gets its name from a well-known entrepreneur. There seems to be no end to a hot new EV start to buying, or taking engineer names.
On Monday,
Construction of Tortoise II
(ticker: SNPR) has announced plans to merge with Volta Industries. Investors are excited, and Tortoise stock is up 31.9% to $ 17.01 in Monday morning trading.
Volta is named for battery engineer Alessandro Volta. Nikola Tesla, who has used another electric current, has encouraged companies to use his first and last name:
Nikola
(NKLA) and
Tesla
(TSLA). And Faraday Future is named for Michael Faraday, the father of the electric motor.
Volta has an EV-charge infrastructure and works, similar to EVgo,
Cìs Blink
(BLNK) and
Beam Global
(BEEM). EVgo is also becoming a public commercial company by merging with SPAC
Climate Change Crisis Impact Real I Construction
(CLII).
“Volta’s unique business model is poised to capture the massive consumer consumption trends that accompany our society’s shift from carbon to electricity,” Volta CEO Scott Mercer said in a company press release. “With the move to electricity, consumers will expect fuel to go where they go. “Volta is deploying cost infrastructure in fully commercial areas, believing it will help network usage.
The deal values Volta at around $ 1.4 billion, but with the pre-sale jump in the stock price, Volta’s stock market valuation is around $ 2.2 billion.
Blink, by comparison, is valued at around $ 2.2 billion in the market. A beam is valued at about $ 500 million. EVgo will have a market value of approximately $ 5.5 billion, based on the 263 million outstanding shares after the merger closed.
Investors may be familiar with Tortoise-named SPACs. Tortoise Construction I joined a commercial EV company
Hyliion
(HYLN) in 2020. Many EV-related companies have opted to raise funds by joining SPACs in recent months.
Fisker
(FSR), Nikola,
QuantumScape
(QS) and
Motor Lordstown
(RIDE) has four other examples. The five companies saw their stock prices after announcing their SPAC unions in 2020.
EV stocks will remain hot in 2021. Several EV stocks Barron’s routes are up 44% a year to date on average, after rising by almost 600% in 2020. Both returns will crush comparative numbers for the
S&P 500.
Investors seem to be convinced that EVs are personal transport, and now there are plenty of startups raising money to build EVs, tax EVs, and donate parts to customers. -EV.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]