REE Automotive Unveils New EV Chassis, Reports Third-Quarter Loss Of $414.9 Million

REE Automotive, the Israeli-based manufacturer of modular platforms to support autonomous vehicles, unveiled its Leopard automated electric vehicle platform, on Tuesday, while also reporting it lost $414.9 million in the third quarter, much larger than the $18.8 million loss in the third quarter of 2020.

First, the new product news. The Leopard is the latest iteration of what REE’s partners can do with its flat electrified platform it calls REEboard. Essentially REEboard is a chassis on which other companies can design a vehicle that can perform last-mile delivery of a variety of goods and materials.

Among its existing partners are Hino, the truck division of Toyota, Magna Internation, JB Poindexter and Navya.

The REE platform and frame will be used to secure hardware such as lidar and sensors that enable the validation tests of its REEcorner and control technology for Navya’s nex-generation of autonomous vehicles.

REE CEO and co-founder Daniel Barel will talk more about the Leopard at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2022.

The plan is to start commercial production of the Leopard in 2023.

Now for the financial news. The company attributed the wider loss to a $409.8 million charge reflecting higher stock-based compensation of executives. These compensation increases were based on performance-based options granted to REE’s founders prior to its merger with 10X Capital.

REE’s stock price fell about 31 cents, or 7.4%, to $3.87 in mid-afternoon trading. It is now trading for less than one-third of the peak price of about $14.70, at which it traded shortly after going public in February.

REE had about $295 million in cash as of Sept. 30, which a company release said was sufficient to execute its business plan.

“We are finalizing our site selection for our first integration center in Austin, Tex.,” Barel said in a statement. “We continue to make progress on our product readiness with our UK engineering center, which is now staffed with approximately 80 engineers. We are honored to have been awarded $17 million funding from the UK government.”

In February 2021, REE agreed to go public through a merger with a blank check company, or special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). In this case the SPAC partner was 10X Capital.

The deal valued REE at $3.6 billion, and provided about $500 million in capital to REE, including $300 million from Mahindra and Mahindra, Koch Strategic Platforms and Magna International, a major auto supplier.