Documented cause
Xos Trucks was founded in 2016 as Thor Trucks in Los Angeles by Dakota Semler and Kingsley Afemikhe to build Class 5-8 medium-duty electric delivery trucks for commercial fleet operators. The company renamed itself Xos in 2020 and completed a SPAC merger with NextGen Acquisition Corp II in August 2021 at an implied valuation of approximately $800M, listing on NASDAQ. Early customers included FedEx, UniFirst, and Rush Enterprises, providing credibility for the fleet electrification thesis. Despite these partnerships, the company struggled to convert relationships into meaningful revenue and to control production costs. By mid-2023, cash reserves were nearly exhausted and the company could not raise additional capital at viable terms. Xos Trucks filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on September 11, 2023, just 25 months after its SPAC listing, and immediately ceased operations, laying off approximately 240 employees. The stock fell from approximately $10 SPAC price to effectively zero. Assets were sold to various buyers in the bankruptcy process, ending the company entirely.
Alternative account: Xos Trucks went public in August 2021 via a SPAC merger, raising $170M to manufacture electric medium-duty trucks for delivery fleets. The company had early customers including Pepsi and FedEx. But production costs massively outpaced revenue, supply chain disruptions drove up component costs, and the company burned through capital with no path to manufacturing profitability. Xos filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August 2023, exactly two years after its SPAC listing.