Enlarge image
The "e.Go Life" model
has been leaving the production plant in Aachen since 2019.
Photo: Rupert Oberhäuser / IMAGO
Great goals of a young German car manufacturer: The Aachen-based electric car manufacturer Next e.Go wants to go public on the New York Stock Exchange - with the help of a SPAC, so the manufacturer wants to slip into an empty company shell.
The goal is the Athena Consumer Acquisition Corp shell company, which is already listed on the stock exchange: one of three SPACs owned by fintech entrepreneur
Isabelle Freidheim
.
The planned IPO is to be valued at $913 million.
An amazing rating considering the history of the Aachen company.
It was not until 2020 that the manufacturer was on the verge of collapse: the predecessor company e.Go Mobile, founded in 2015, went bankrupt.
There was a lack of investors.
In April 2020, e.Go Mobile announced that it had independently filed for bankruptcy.
In addition to a lack of financiers, supplier problems, missed production targets and a failed joint venture with a Chinese company were the reasons for the bankruptcy.
Then, in spring 2020, came the pandemic.
In fact, the Aachen-based electric car manufacturer had not achieved the goals it had set itself in 2019 and thus before the Corona crisis.
SPAC IPO, but different
Former company boss
Günther Schuh
(63) once praised the electric small car e.Go Life, which he had developed, as a patent city vehicle with a great future.
In his main job as a professor for mechanical engineering at the RWTH Aachen, Schuh was considered an electric car pioneer in the German car scene.
However, the insolvency was the beginning of the end of the founder at e.Go.
In autumn 2020,
Ali Vezvaei
took over the majority of the electric car manufacturer with his Dutch private equity company "nd Group".
The Aachen team continued with a new name: Next e.Go.
In June 2021, Schuh then had to give up his positions at the company.
Former Daimler manager Martin Klein
(56)
has been in charge since the end of 2021.
the operational business.
After a short break, the production lines in Aachen were already rattling again in the summer of 2021.
The new owner continued the construction of the e.Go Life with a special edition called "e.Go Life Next".
And Next e.Go was also able to attract new investors.
In 2021, financiers pumped 30 and 49 million euros into the manufacturer.
Now another 285 million dollars are to flow in, as announced by Athena.
Unlike most SPACs, however, no new investors are to be involved.
In the US and Germany, many SPAC IPOs failed to find them.
Athena instead wants to provide $ 50 million in loans for Next e.Go alongside the money from its own investors and want to involve the owners of Next e.Go as investors.
Production at 1000 small cars a year
With the IPO and the fresh capital, the manufacturer's models should then also be seen more frequently in Germany.
After resuming production in the summer of 2021, the company only built around 1,000 units of the Life, in the fourth quarter of 2021 it was just over 200. According to Athena, the theoretical capacity of the manufacturer is around 30,000 vehicles per year.
In addition to the factory in Aachen, another factory is to be built in Lovech, Bulgaria, this year.
The government is to contribute 34 million to the investments of 140 million euros, as the "Handelsblatt" reports.
For comparison: In June 2022 alone, more than 1700 vehicles from Volkswagen’s city car E-Up were newly registered with the authorities.
In September 2020, VW even imposed an order freeze for the car due to the extremely high demand.
Last year, the E-Up was the most popular electric vehicle on the German market, behind the Tesla Model 3, with almost 31,000 registrations.
It is now being produced again.
It will be difficult for Next e.Go to catch up.
The first delivered vehicles of the new edition of the model Life had problems with the brakes.
The result was increased power consumption and thus reduced ranges.
Consumption even surpassed that of electric SUVs.
The manufacturer now wants to get the problem under control.
But Next e.Go has not been able to keep up with the competition in other respects either.
At 120 kilometers in good conditions, the Life has a shorter range than most competitive models.
In addition, the car is a slow charger.
The Life can only draw a maximum of 3.7 kW.
Despite its small 21 kWh battery, charging from 0 to 100 percent takes at least six hours.
The manufacturer wants to deliver an improved model this year.
Among other things, the "e.Wave X" should convince with an SUV look, but ultimately it is a life with a little off-road planking on the front and under the rear.
Technically, however, Next e.Go promises real progress.
On paper, the car should cover 240 kilometers with one battery charge in city traffic, the maximum power increases from 57 to 80 kW and charging should be possible with up to 11 kW.
However, the vehicle still lacks homologation.
The basic price of the e.Wave X is 24,990 euros, 2000 euros more than that of the e.Go Life.
In the hope of a breakthrough, Next e.Go should also be helped by a familiar face.
Brazilian soccer player Neymar
(30) from Paris St. Germain has been on board
as a brand ambassador for a few months .
In May, the professional athlete posed live with the e.Wave X at the premiere in Berlin. Neymar also presented the microcar to his millions of social media followers.
Next e.Go seems to have the soccer star well under control by then: While the striker liked to pose with Ferraris on Instagram in the past, such extravagances have not appeared on his profile since the deal with the Aachen-based electric car manufacturer.
It remains to be seen whether the Brazilian, who is not yet known for minimalism, is actually suitable as a sales magnet.
mye/ Reuters