American electric vehicle (EV) development company Via Motors has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Ideanomics, a New York-based electric mobility vendor.
The all-stock transaction is valued at up to $630 million with the base transaction price of $450 million and up to a potential $180 million earnout tied to future vehicle deliveries.
Via Motors manufactures electric commercial vehicles including Class 2 through Class 5 cargo vans, trucks and buses. The company is working with the autonomous technology company to provide electrification to autonomous trucks for short-haul and mid-mile delivery.
Via’s electric skateboard architecture is the company’s platform for the development of Class 2, 3, 4 and 5 vans and trucks. The modular architecture enables a light single design for multiple platforms, drive systems and vehicle models. The architecture includes proprietary software and control systems such as embedded diagnostics and telematics to improve fleet operating costs, uptime and routing.
"This acquisition is aligned with our long-term strategy and provides us an immediate leadership position in a rapidly growing market and yet another path to accelerate EV adoption and Ideanomics' market share,” said Alf Poor, CEO of Ideanomics. "It also provides Ideanomics a full OEM manufacturing capability which are synergistic to our other operating businesses."
