Aussie electric truck company SEA Electric raises $55m ahead of US listing

SEA Electric, the Australian-founded electric truck and van technology company now based in Los Angeles, has raised $US42 million ($55 million) to “expedite” its global ambitions and potentially list on one of the United States stock exchanges.

Investors in the raising included Canadian electric motor company Exro Technologies, which will work more closely with SEA Electric as a “strategic partner”.

The company said the capital raising, which was oversubscribed, would “solidify its position as a market leader in the electrification of commercial vehicles whilst funding its considerable backlog and facilitating more pilot programs with operators”.

Founded by chief executive Tony Fairweather in 2012, the company released its first product in 2017. It expects to deliver 1,000 commercial vehicles this year, and aims to have more than 15,000 vehicles on the road by the end of 2023.

The company’s main product are its five “SEA-Drive” systems, battery and electric motor systems designed for commerical trucks and vans. They have a driving range of up to 350km, with 75kW to 150 kW of continuous power and maximum power ranging from 134kW for the smallest system to 350kW for the largest.

One of SEA’s earliest deals was with Isuzu Australia, in 2018. Last December it signed a deal with Toyota Indonesia to design a Toyota Innova EV prototype. In May this year, it will launch the first SEA Hino Australian SKD assembled EV truck, the SEA Hino 300, at the Brisbane Truck Show.

“We are very pleased to have completed a heavily oversubscribed equity financing and are excited to welcome aboard a global set of institutional investors as partners.” Faireather said.

“The financing allows SEA Electric to accelerate our sales efforts and grow our backlog as we explore options to seek a public listing in the United States this year.

“We are also very excited to welcome Exro Technologies as a strategic partner and shareholder of SEA Electric. We look forward to expanding our partnership with Exro and helping to optimize the utilization of batteries in a second-life application,” he said.