Editor’s note: UPDATES latest stock price in 5th graf; adds new 6th and 7th grafs with SEC subpoena issued for documents, including material related to short seller’s accusation and Hyzon denying allegation and cooperating with SEC; adds new penultimate graf with sales projection for fiscal 2022.
Hyzon Motors Inc., the fuel cell truck manufacturer spun out of Singapore’s Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies into a SPAC merger in the U.S., will report lower-than-expected revenue and profit margins for its first year despite slightly exceeding projected hydrogen-powered fuel cell truck deliveries.
Rochester, New York-based Hyzon (NASDAQ: HYZN) was one of few companies producing fuel cell-powered trucks for sale in 2021. It delivered 87 specialty trucks ranging in weight from 39,600 pounds to more than 100,000 pounds, or 18 to 49 metric tonnes.
The deliveries exceeded by two trucks the projection of 85 fuel cell trucks Hyzon forecast in February 2021, despite a seizing up of supply chains that impacted production across the trucking ecosystem.
Watch now: Hyzon co-founder and CEO Craig Knight on fuel cell truck progress
Hyzon expects lower selling prices on average because of a focus on sales in Asia, where fuel cells command about half of other regions. Hyzon has not reported any U.S. sales of its zero-emission vehicles.
Hyzon shares closed Friday at $4.99, just 27 cents above their 52-week low. and far off their high of 52-week high of $19.95.
The company disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last Wednesday that it had received a subpoena for documents and information, including material related to a September 2021 a report by short seller Blue Orca Capital that claimed a company to which Hyzon announced an order for 500 fuel cell vehicles was incorporated just three days before the announcement.
Hyzon previously denied the Blue Orca allegation. It said it is cooperating with the SEC.
SPAC spanking
Practically all electric vehicle and infrastructure startups that went public via special purpose acquisition company mergers in the last two years have seen their shares hammered as SPACs have come under increased Securities and Exchange Commission scrutiny.
Europe and North America are less mature markets for fuel cell vehicles than Asia, Hyzon co-founder and CEO Craig Knight told FreightWaves during an interview in August. Because of Horizon’s 18-year track record, Asian markets are easier, and they were not hit as hard by some supply chain issues.
Hyzon is testing a Freightliner Cascadia retrofitted with a fuel cell and hydrogen tanks with Total Transportation Systems Inc., a Southern California drayage operator that also has signed a letter of intent to purchase fuel cell trucks from startup Nikola Corp.
“Hyzon aims to make 2022 a watershed year for hydrogen in heavy mobility.”
, Hyzon Motors co-founder and CEO Craig Knight
TTSI received two preproduction battery-electric Class 8 trucks from Nikola in December for testing. If those trucks meet performance specifications, TTSI could order up to 100 battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell Nikola trucks.
Hyzon will not count any trial leases, including eight fuel cell-powered dump trucks in Foshan, a United Nations hydrogen demonstration city in China, in its delivery count when it reports Q4 and full-year results.
Refuse to steel coils
The Hyzon vehicles delivered were heavy-duty fuel cell truck models deployed for refuse collection and sewer cleaning in Europe. In December, Hyzon delivered 29 fuel cell trucks to be used by a major steel conglomerate in China through Shanghai Hydrogen HongYun Automotive Co.
“As Hyzon completes compliance and homologation requirements for vehicles in North America and Australasia, government support for hydrogen steadily grows, and commercial understanding of fuel cell electric vehicles’ unique suitability for heavy transport increases,” Knight said in a press release.
In a second SEC filing on Friday, Hyzon said Knight told Bloomberg last Wednesday that the company expects to deliver 500 to 700 fuel cell vehicles this fiscal year. The company said the claim was not to be taken to imply anything regarding the selling of new shares.
“Hyzon aims to make 2022 a watershed year for hydrogen in heavy mobility,” Knight said in the company’s press release.
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