GreenPower Motor Co factory is in Porterville
November 22,2020,
The stock of Canadian-based GreenPower Motors has soared since its IPO listing on NASDAQ stock exchange late this summer. The IPO raised about $38 million in capital from investors the company can now use to expand production of its line of electric vehicles.
GreenPower designs, builds, and distributes a full suite of battery-electric vehicles, including transit buses, school buses, and shuttle buses, as well as a double decker bus and cargo van. The company’s line of vehicles are all battery powered with zero emissions.
GreenPower CEO Fraser Atkinson says the listing on the exchange has made a huge difference in how the company is viewed in the marketplace. “Some months ago they were saying “your product looks good but we just don’t know if in a year or two -will you still be around.” Atkinson adds that “Today the don’t say that any more.”
Tiny GreenPower has been mentioned in the financial press in the same breath as giant Tesla who the market is”hyper-obsessed with” – with stock up 975% this year
“What about school busses? Delivery vans? Airport shuttles?” asks one investment booster.
As you can see by GreenPower’s stock chart – they too have been noticed in the past few months. It is up 1245%.
GreenPower has been in Porterville since 2015. They lease two production facilities in town and have bought a 9-acre parcel ready for a full blown factory when the time is ripe.
As to when that may be – Atkinson answers with a question “tell me when COVID ends? ” The pandemic has hurt the company on all fronts making it more difficult to source component from Asia – they continue to be hurt by the tariff war with China.Their SEC filing says “These tariffs have increased the cost of GreenPower’s buses imported to the United States and have had and will continue to have a negative impact on our gross margins, profitability, financial performance and financial position.” If the next president drops those tariffs – it would help.
It’s also harder to do production and more difficult to market the product in this challenging economic climate when buyers like cities and school districts are strapped. Government incentives make the difference.
Porterville has been patiently waiting for some good news.When they first came to the city there was talk of 400 new jobs with an average salary of $45,000. That was what Jason Ridenour, economic development manager for the City of Porterville said when GreenPower announced their 9 acre purchase. Today the company has about a dozen workers here.
Focus on minivans
But most immediately the NASDAQ listen has dramatically boosted the company’s prospects. Since listing its shares on the Nasdaq in an August IPO, GreenPower has “launched a multi-faceted effort to increase production and pursue relationships that can drive repeat orders,” says Atkinson.
He recently told investors that historically, GreenPower has produced vehicles in response to “specific customer orders,” Fraser said. But now, with $38 million more cash to play with after its IPO, GreenPower “can accelerate production, shorten timelines for deliveries, improve cost and terms from suppliers to support larger purchase orders which will be the drivers for GreenPower to attain profitability.”
The CEO says the best performing product now is the EV Star minibus (pictured) with production planned to be around 20 a month.That brings in about $8 million a quarter in coming months he recently told investors.
As for how fast production might increase, Atkinson is optimistic but guarded considering COVID. He is hoping there will be some normalization in the economy by mid-year 2021.
“The big news is our plan to source all of the component parts for the minivan in the US instead of Asia to qualify to buyers under the ‘Buy America’ compliance plan” that should intensify production in Porterville – adding more people.
Boosting prospects even more is the plan announced by incoming president Joe Biden to replace all of America’s 500,000 school buses with zero emission buses by 2030.
“There are just a dozen manufactures in the US” Atkinson notes.
While optimism is up – the company is still not making a profit according to its recent SEC financial statement.
Still this is probably the biggest news since this start-up Canadian company picked Porterville in 2015 – in part because of California’s goal to begin converting their sooty diesel bus fleet in California and particularly in the smoggy San Joaquin Valley – to zero emission vehicles. Along the way they converted the Porterville city bus fleet as well.
Investors seem to agree, pushing the company stock above $22 this past week, near a 52-week high.
This month GreenPower announced the sale of six electric school buses (B.E.AS.T.) to Butte County’s Thermalito Union Elementary School District through GreenPower’s national distributor Creative Bus Sales.
The B.E.A.S.T. is a purpose-built Type D Battery Electric School bus with a leading class range of up to 150 miles and a 194.5kWh battery pack. The vehicles can charge up to 20KW on standard J1772 protocol and has CCS1 fast charging, with additional standard features like air ride suspension, pass through storage, and air disk brakes.
Brendan Riley, President of Green Power says “The sale of six units to the Thermalito Union School District is a great example of how GreenPower is working with customers and our sales partners to leverage multiple incentive programs to bring our all-electric school bus to market. This is a trend we expect to accelerate within California, then spread to other states as a template.”