Financial Freedom 101

$ACTC is merging with Proterra with a transaction value of $1.6B. Proterra is a SPAC with an amazing management team and a product that already runs out on the road without you even knowing. Some interesting personnel worth pointing out on their leadership team first is Audrey Lee. Audrey is the ex VP of Sunrun which provided products in energy services, but the main attraction is that she the Co-Chair on Joe Biden’s Clean Energy Team. Another notable person is Chamath Palihapitiya who lead the $415 million PIPE deal for this merger. Chamath is widely know for his recent efforts in Climate Change and creating products in the sector of clean energy. Also there are two representatives who previously worked for Tesla and another representative who worked for the 9 Time World Championship Hybrid F1 team, Mercedes-Benz. Overall The leadership for $ACTC and Proterra is one of a kind that provides deep knowledge and power in the industry of electric vehicles.

Proterra’s Product

Proterra has created the most advance structural frame for society’s heavy duty vehicles and has great potential for growth. They started with a frame of a bus and integrated heavy-duty battery packs, high efficiency drivetrains, and fully integrated charging solutions. Proterra is what we call OEMs or Original Equipment Manufacturer. They create everything in house and have been for the last decade.

Buses have easily been the first major part of public transportation to go electric. I noticed this years ago but it never clicked that it was Proterra and that this movement would sweep through the nation one day. Fortunately that opportunity is here for all of us to reap the benefits. Proterra offer several different shapes of their batteries as well. This makes them versatile for all companies to purchase their products. Proterra creates their batteries in multiple widths and heights, scalable lengths ranging from short, medium, and long in length, and also can stack them efficiently in the undercarriage of any vehicle.

Charging ports have also become the biggest issue in switching from gas to electric. How has Proterra attacked this problem you ask? Well they already have over 450 charging stations across America and Proterra also has several different versions of charging stations they currently offer.

Compared to Competitors

Proterra already has buses running across America. You can see their buses taking students to school in Virginia, so employees commuting in their bussing the San Francisco areas, or riding around in the parks and streets of New York City, and even taking skiers from parking lots of lifts in Jackson Hole. Proterra is North America’s #1 Electric transit bus OEM.

Who are they competing with and where are they in production? Current their rivals are Arrival, Nikola, Canoo, and Hyliion who are all in the early stages of development or working on prototypes.

Proterra is also already clocking in millions of miles and hours driven in their electric buses. Proterra’s buses have already driven over 16 million miles and produced a revenue of $193 million in 2020. Also the first buses from Proterra hit the roads about 10 years ago. This means for the last 10 years they have been gaining experience on what their buses need to function and the wants/needs of their consumer.

Numbers

Currently the market size for transit is~$260B Total Available Market or TAM. With ~4.4 Million vehicles to turn into Proterra’s electric Buses. Next step will be larger trucks like Semi’s, Garbage Trucks, and Construction Vehicles. Along with $37Bn of annual investment expected in global charging infrastructure by the end of the decade. Money is being thrown at this sector like crazy, and Proterra has been doing this for the last 10 years.

As an engineer something I really like about Proterra is all the time and experience they have gained in the last 10 years. Proterra hasn’t always been the leader in batteries but now posses the potential to play with the big guns like Tesla and QuantumScape. What I really like is that Proterra is currently on their 5th generation of battery development and working on their 6th generation right now.

Lastly, Proterra currently has over $750 million of orders and backlog for their products. What does that mean exactly? They need capital. How are they gonna get more capital? By outside investors investing in their SPAC $ACTC. At the moment Proterra has a $415M PIPE deal and $278M raised through investors to create the SPAC. So Proterra has about $693M to spend in their infrastructure. (Of course this doesn’t account for the added revenue when people like you and I purchase their SPAC) SO what’s their plan for the $693M? Check it out below.

Overall I think $ACTC is a great purchase. They are the only recent EV SPAC to actually have real roots in society, products on the road, and charging stations across the nation. What really separates them for me is that they have been doing this for the last 10 years, gaining priceless experience to better their product for us consumers. Already we saw a jump today from $12 to $21 but their is no stopping this stock once it gains more attraction. This is not your traditional risky SPAC. This company has a proven track record and will continue to grow successfully, in my opinion.