EV maker Next.e.GO goes public on the Nasdaq, testing investor demand for electric vehicle stocks

Electric vehicles are now a fixture on many streets in the United States, and EV stocks are also becoming increasingly common on the stock market.

Next.e.GO Mobile, a German-based EV manufacturer, is going public on Friday via a de-SPAC transaction with Athena Technology Acquisition Corp—a type of merger that involves a SPAC acquiring a private company and thereby taking the company public. The company’s shares are listed on the Nasdaq and are trading under the “EGOX” ticker. E.GO joins several other EV makers that have gone public in recent years, including Polestar, Lucid, and Rivian.

E.GO’s vehicles are relatively small. To U.S. consumers, they may resemble vehicles made by fellow German automaker Smart more than anything else on the market. The vehicles are designed with urban drivers in mind and sustainability is a big focus for the company, says e.GO Chairman Ali Vezvaei.

“The idea and the value system of the company have been to address the challenges that cities are grappling with—pollution, traffic, and parking,” he says.

And given the high prices of new cars these days, the starting prices for e.GO’s vehicles is something that’s likely to catch consumers’ eyes: e.GO’s cars will be priced starting at $25,000, and can be leased for $120 per month. The average price for a new EV, as of August, was more than $53,000, according to data from Cox Automotive.

The competitive pricing is largely a result of e.GO’s unique manufacturing process.

“The way they make cars is so different,” says Isabelle Freidheim, Athena Technology’s founder. She says e.GO was able to raise much of its funding “collateralized by its intellectual property,” which she adds is “proof of how differentiated the technology is.”

As for the specifics, e.GO’s manufacturing plants are “super unique and enhanced with AI and robotics, which allows us to replicate the process at a fraction of the cost,” says Vezvaei.

He explains that while traditional automakers utilize a huge amount of energy, space, and resources to build vehicles, along with a four-pronged approach to building vehicles, “we’ve removed two steps from the process,” replacing them with robotics to build a vehicle’s aluminum-based chassis in mere minutes. From there, it hits an assembly line, and “it’s basically the iPhone story”—“there’s a frame and everything is plugged and put in.”

Additionally, one of e.GO’s key features is that its vehicles employ a unique “batter-swap” system, which should help with many EV-wary drivers’ concerns or anxiety about range and battery life.

There’s some logic to leaning into the features to sell cars, too, as a recent paper published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that growth in EV demand is largely due to the appeal of the EV tech and features, as Fast Company reported earlier this year. As for whether investor demand for EV stocks has continued to grow? We should get an indication in the days and weeks ahead.

But Vezvaei is adamant that e.GO is pushing the envelope in an evolving industry. “We are not just another EV company adding to the noise, or trying to get across the finish line [by going public],” he says. “Our main focus is production technology. We have EV tech that we believe is the right fit for the current time, along with super unique production tech,” he says.

The bottom line? E.GO can “provide cities and urban environments with a product designed to be affordable and sustainable,” Vezvaei says.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90969913/next-e-go-mobile-stock-price-today-nasdaq-ev-vehicles?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss