re eyesTo clarify my GUESS on the Volta saga
The original contract was done when Lion was in far better shape, and could be called a serious player in the commercial EV space.
When the 2 SMC contracts were announced and they both included tooling costs paid by the customer, that made me GUESS that the Volta deal did as well.As there has not been any repayment by GRA of funds provided by the partner, that makes me GUESS that they were unwilling or unable to complete. Lion fits that description, and being in Quebec it would have been a natural fit for grants and subsidies as well..
As time went by with no second partner and the other battery companies were struggling I became leery of the viability of Volta .
When the postpopnement was confirmed GRA would have had to announce any cancellation penalties they were subject to, and there were none disclosed.
If the Volta partner was a major player, Caterpillar, Paccar, Freightliner etc., they do not change course quickly, they have such a long lead time to engineer and tool up for a new product that once they committed to a project they would follow through, and would demand compensation if GRA failed to execute. That has not happened.
Those factors have made me GUESS that Lion is/was the first partner.
I am not negative on Lion, I hope they can succeed, I admire anyone willing to start a new venture like this, but the reality is that the company has not been able to execute, and have had to resort to restructuring their debt. I have no opinion on the company, and I feel for investors who believed the story, I hope they had a sell discipline to avoid riding a poor performer for years in a bull market.
Apologies for the long post,
best of luck to all