REE Automotive P7 electric by-wire commercial vehicle platform.
REE Automotive
Daniel Barel looked like a kid who just scored all Snickers bars during a hard night of trick or treating. That’s how lucky the CEO and co-founder of Israeli automotive technology company REE Automotive was feeling as we met on the sidelines of last week’s Reuters auto conference in Detroit.
“I’ll be honest, this is what I’ve always wanted, but was too afraid to ask,” enthused Barel amid the swirl of activity on the adjacent exhibition floor.
Indeed, Barel didn’t have to ask for it. What he said he always wanted came to him as a result of a dizzying few years of development leading to announcing the first deliveries last January of the REE P7-C medium duty electric commercial truck —the world’s first fully by-wire vehicle, where steering, braking and driving are all operating electronically, rather than mechanically.
The key to REE’s milestone is what’s known as the REEcorner. It’s a self-contained module placed at each of the vehicle’s four corners. Each 700-pound REEcorner integrates steering, braking, suspension and powertrain components into the van’s wheel arch.
If something goes wrong, a REEcorner can be replaced in 20 minutes followed by about 40 minutes of calibration.
The innovations captured the immediate interest of both fleet customers and investors, especially M&G Investment, REE’s largest shareholder, which introduced the company to global automotive supplier India-based Motherson Group, in which M&G also has a large stake.
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After a period of conducting due diligence about REE Automotive leading to discussions about how the two companies could work together, the Motherson team stunned Barel with an astounding offer.
Daniel Barel, CEO and co-founder, REE Automotive.
REE Automotive
“What if we take your entire supply chain? We’ll take the manufacturing off your hands,” Barel recalled, seemingly still processing the proposal, explaining it further, thinking “that’s too good to be true.”
But it was true.
Motherson’s team told Barel the company with $20 billion in revenue could negotiate much better terms with suppliers and what it couldn’t source, Motherson would produce itself, amounting to about 50% of REE’s needs.
While Barel was bowled over by the offer, he was also cautious. Handing over basically all of your supply sourcing to one company may be convenient and economically expedient, but also very risky, especially if Motherson decided, at some point, to pull out of the deal.
So Barel expressed his concerns to Motherson, onto which it promptly applied balm.
“They said we’ll put skin in the game. We’ll take 20% of the company,” Barel related. “They’ve done exactly 19% of the company. They’re nominating a board member. We’re syncing up with our supply chain. We’re handing it over to them.”
More formally, Motherson will manage sourcing and supply chain of all production parts and support the assembly of the REEcorner and REE P7 electric truck.
In addition, REE entered into definitive agreements with several investors, including M&G Investments, Motherson and Varana Capital, for the purchase and sale of 11,001,941 shares of its Class A ordinary shares at a purchase price of $4.122 per share in a registered direct offering, for gross proceeds of $45.35 million before deducting applicable fees and expenses.
M&G Investments led the investment with $20 million followed by Motherson participating with a $15 million investment.
As a result of the deal which closed at the end of September, M&G holds 16% of REE’s issued and outstanding ordinary shares, Motherson holds approximately 19% on a non-diluted basis and Varana Capital 8%.
Top executives at both Motherson and M&G explained why the deal makes sense for both companies.
“We have been truly impressed by REE’s remarkable technology, exceptional product offerings, and robust team,” said Laksh Vaaman Sehgal, vice chairman, Motherson Group, in a statement. “We look forward to facilitating REE’s growth and technological advancement by expertly managing its supply chain and utilizing our world-class engineering and manufacturing capabilities to drive commercialization and industrialization.”
Calling it a “transformational” transaction for REE, in a statement, M&G Investments’ portfolio manager, Carl Vine, said, “As shareholders in both companies, we are confident that the combination of core competencies from both sides will result in a sigh of relief from global fleet owners, who have been starved of an electrified product line-up that can be produced and serviced at scale. This is a win-win all round.”
A major win for REE Automotive is the ability to attenuate the pace of production without sacrificing quality due to Motherson’s ability to negotiate volume discounts from suppliers..
“What Motherson brings to us is the ability to break even in the low hundreds of vehicles,” explained Barel. “That’s unheard of.”
With $60 million in orders on its books as of this writing, REE will most likely have to step up production as demand increases.
REE’s vehicles are built by Detroit contract manufacturer Roush Automotive.
The company has scored major contracts including a deal with Penske as the only company providing for class four EV trucks to Penske Truck Leasing, along with agreements with U-Haul to testing it as the first solution to support the electrification of its fleet and aviation company Airbus UpNext to support the development of a research and technology demonstrator.
While the REEcorner was primarily created for electric commercial truck platforms, Barel says downsizing the innovative component for consumer cars and light trucks is within the company’s sights as well with prototypes already created.
It’s a bit of an open-field for REE, which, Barel maintains, has vanquished its competitors. But he’s not at all cocky or complacent about that position, just satisfied, having won what he always wanted with the lucrative deal with Motherson, and determined not to blow it.
“So at the end of the day, I do believe that we’re the last man standing, and the last thing I want to do is to grow too fast, too soon,” he said. “I actually want to grow a little bit slower— ensure that the product is great.”