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Atlis Motor Vehicles gains shareholder approval for rebrand to Nxu

Atlis Prototype 9 27 05

AZ Inno

Atlis Motor Vehicles has gained shareholder approval to rebrand to Nxu Inc. in a move to restructure its business to focus on electric vehicle batteries and charging systems, the company announced on Thursday.

The Mesa electric vehicle technology company will begin trading on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “NXU” on May 15. In addition, Atlis (Nasdaq: AMV) will become a subsidiary of a newly formed Delaware corporation, Nxu Inc.

At a shareholders meeting held May 9, investors holding 99% of voting shares were in favor of Atlis’ proposal to restructure the company and change its name. Outstanding shares of Atlis Class A and Class D common stocks will automatically convert into shares of Nxu Class A and Nxu Class B common stocks, respectively.

In addition, Nxu (pronounced as “new”) gained shareholder approval to adopt an employee stock incentive plan.

“This restructuring demonstrates our commitment to generate maximum value for customers and shareholders,” Mark Hanchett, Nxu founder and CEO, said in a statement. “By offering the stock compensation plan, we intend to attract top talent – those with innovative mind who will help us deliver against our milestones and develop technology that makes electrification viable for mobility and infrastructure.”

Hanchett told the Phoenix Business Journal the company’s rebrand will better reflect a mission it always had to develop technology, batteries and infrastructure to support electric vehicles, in addition to manufacturing its XT electric trucks.

“We’ve never sort of positioned ourselves as an (original equipment manufacturer), but the name was very limiting,” Hanchett said.

As the company continues to grow, it shifted focus to the energy side of the company, including developing battery cells and packs, although it still has plans to manufacture electric trucks, Hanchett said.

“But as we made that transition, it made sense to look at it and say, ‘OK, does this make sense anymore?’” Hanchett said of the company’s name change. “And actually, it’s a conversation that started probably four years ago and we’ve now done that and realize that we actually did intend to do it before we went public, but there were certain restrictions and reasons why we couldn’t do that.”

Nxu restructuring = more flexibility

In a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Nxu said the proposed holding company structure could facilitate future expansion of its business by providing a more flexible structure for acquisitions and joint ventures while “continuing to keep the operations and risks of our other businesses separate.”

The holding company structure would provide flexibility to obtain various types of financing available in capital markets, according to the company.

Nxu remains on track to begin shipments of battery packs to an undisclosed off-highway equipment customer and deploy its first 600 kilowatt electric vehicle charging system in the summer, Hanchett said.

The company says its Nxu Qube and proprietary battery cells will have extended lifespans and fast charging times. The battery packs can be used to power energy storage systems as well as trucks, light-to-heavy-duty equipment and RVs.

In February, Nxu demonstrated its capability to charge more than 1 megawatt via its charging handle and cable, marking a “critical step” toward establishing a 1.5 megawatt charging network, according to the company.

Nxu is in a mass pilot production of its multi-layer pouch cell, which will go into battery packs that the company is currently building, the Phoenix Business Journal previously reported.

No clarity on Australian truck deal

Last July, Nxu inked an agreement with Australian Manufactured Vehicles to develop a right-hand drive version of its XT electric truck. At the time, Nxu agreed to supply XT prototype and test vehicles to AMV beginning in 2024, eventually ramping up production to 19,000 trucks by 2027, contingent upon funding and availability of materials, according to a regulatory filing.

Despite mention of the agreement in Nxu’s regulatory filing, delivery expectations for the trucks remain unclear as Hanchett told the Business Journal the company has not publicly released a production start date.

“At this moment in time, we’re not publicly making any statements with regards to delivery expectations, but I’ve got a great relationship with them,” Hanchett said of Australian Manufactured Vehicles. “We meet with them on a regular basis.”

Nxu claims it received “substantial interest” in the XT with more than 40,000 nonbinding reservations placed for the electric truck via its website. Hanchett said the company did not collect downpayments for those reservations.

“A decent chunk of them were investors and stockholders in the company and they still continue to believe in us,” Hanchett said. “Then, others are contractual agreements, which we have contracts with certain organizations and customers. Some of those contract agreements also include the current focus on energy charging, batteries and things like that. So we don’t perceive any kind of like negative impact to that.

“We’re an execution-driven organization, so we’re really trying to focus on those first revenue products, those first customers and making sure those go off easily and everything works out really, really well,” he added. “That’s our current focus today.”

Nxu’s shares closed at 51 cents Thursday, down 5.2%. Track the stock here.

 


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