Hyzon, A Hydrogen Fuel Cell Truck Maker, In SPAC Deal Valued At $2.6 Billion

Hyzon Motors, a manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles agreed to go public by partnering with Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corp.

Decarbonization Plus, which trades on Nasdaq NDAQ NDAQ NDAQ NDAQ under the symbol “DCRB,” is another special purposed acquisition company, that has placed a bet on alternatives to the internal combustion engine.

Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are companies with no commercial operations that is formed exclusively to raise capital through an initial public offering in order to take acquire another company.

Based in Rochester, N.Y., Hyzon makes buses, medium-duty trucks and semi tractor-trailors powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Advocates of hydrogen fuel cells boast that they are cleaner than electric vehicles, because its only byproducts are oxygen and water.

But creating a viable distribution network of storage and fueling stations is a work in progress.

“We are excited to partner with DCRB at an important inflection point for our company, hydrogen and society,” said Craig Knight, Hyzon co-founder and CEO, in a statement. “Deliveries of Hyzon fuel cell powered heavy trucks to customers in Europe and North America will occur this year, and our committed sales pipeline is proof that the world is truly recognizing the need to develop innovative solutions to mitigate climate change and accelerate efforts to move the world economy down the path to net-zero emissions.”

The deal will provide Hyzon up to $636 million and values the combined companies at $2.1 billion. Underwriters include existing and new investors such as BlackRock BLK BLK BLK BLK , Federated, Fidelity Management and Research, Wellington Management and Riverstone Energy Limited.

Robert Tichio, director of DCRB and a partner at Riverstone Holdings LLC, said the transaction expands Riverstone’s 15-year record of investing in businesses working to reduce carbon emissions.

“As a differentiated, pure-play hydrogen-powere mobility company and emerging leader in the trucking industry, Hyzon is a perfect match bor our investment criteria,” Tichio said in a statement.

Hyzon’s deal with DCRB is the latest in a string of SPAC-driven investments in clean energy enterprises that increased after Nikola Corp. went public in a SPAC transaction backed by VectoIQ Acquisition Corp.

At one point Nikola’s valuation reached as high as $28.8 billion, even though it had no meaningful revenue. It has since declined to about $9 billion.

Hyzon was spun off from Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies of Singapore, which has

been working on fuel cell technology for about 20 years.

According to Bloomberg, Hyzon’s technology is in more than 400 commercial vehicles on the road, and it projects it will deliver about 5,000 fuel cell trucks and buses by 2023.

In July 2020, Hyzon announced that it will build a plant in the Netherlands as part of a joint venture with Holthausen Clean Technology BV. In August it agreed to make a fleet of hydrogen fuel cell buses for Fortescue Metals Group of Australia.