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Harbinger Motors Raises $100M for Medium-Duty Electric Chassis

Harbinger Motors Inc. raised a $100 million Series B round to scale production for its electric truck and van platform, co-led by investors with ties to Tesla Inc. and the Volkswagen Group.

A large portion of the proceeds will go toward investments in costly activities like tooling and automation, according to Chief Executive John Harris.

Harbinger makes stripped chassis—the supporting frame and motor of the vehicle—to be custom-outfitted into delivery vans and other medium-duty electric trucks.

“This is really about continuing to improve the economics of what we’re doing to make it compelling for our customers and as a production entity,” Harris told the Business Journal.
The Series B financing brings Harbinger’s total funding to $200 million. It’s the largest funding round in Orange County for a previously-held company so far this year.

The startup moved from Gardena to Garden Grove in 2023 and is in growth mode.

The company has more than doubled its employee headcount from 140 to 300 in the past six months.

Harbinger last May announced that it landed 4,690 binding pre-orders totaling more than $500 million from customers including Bimbo Bakeries USA, the largest bakery company in the U.S., and Thor Industries.

“They’re moving along successfully,” Harris said.

Harris said that the company has primarily focused on converting the pre-orders to purchase orders and that more information regarding the delivery timeline is coming soon.

Investor Ties to Volkswagen, Tesla

The Series B financing was co-led by the Technology Impact Fund (TIF) of Capricorn Investment Group, a Pasadena-based venture capital firm that manages approximately $10 billion in assets, and new VC firm Leitmotif with investors in Palo Alto and Munich.

Other existing and new investors include Tiger Global, The Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund, ArcTern Ventures, Thor Industries and its investment partner TechNexus, Ridgeline, Maniv Mobility, Ironspring Ventures, Schematic Ventures and Overture Climate.

One of the most beneficial takeaways of the round was the addition of “knowledgeable, experienced people” in the EV market to the team, Harris said.

Joining Harbinger’s board of directors is Jens Wiese, managing partner at Leitmotif.
Wiese previously oversaw mergers and acquisitions at Volkswagen Group prior to co-founding Leitmotif last year. He’s credited with accelerating Volkswagen’s transition to electric cars and helped develop its battery strategy.

“Jens has enormous automotive experience that he brings to the table,” Harris said.
At Capricorn, managing partner Dipender Saluja was an early investor in 2006 in Tesla, which has become the world’s most valuable EV maker with a $1.3 trillion market cap (Nasdaq: TSLA).

“Harbinger has demonstrated a remarkable ability to reach significant milestones far quicker than other EV companies,” Saluja said in a statement.

“The market has been impressed by their ability to develop large portion of the vehicle in-house to drive down costs, while remaining capital efficient.”

Harbinger has assembled a management team hailing from notable automakers such as Ford Motor Company and Honda Motor Co. Ltd., as well as Orange County’s hottest new companies.

Harris comes from Costa Mesa-based Anduril Industries Inc., where he was the principal mechanical engineer and head of Sentry Tower Hardware.

Prior to Anduril, he was an aerospace structures design lead at Boeing and battery engineer at EV startup Faraday Future Inc. and electric commercial truck manufacturer Xos Trucks in Los Angeles.

The company last March announced former Rivian Automotive Inc. and Tesla executive Steve Gawronski as vice president of supply chain and logistics.

Gawronski led supplier readiness for the launch of the R1T and R1S at Rivian, which sports a $13 billion market cap (Nasdaq: RIVN), and spent seven years at Tesla where he rose to senior group manager of supply chain for lighting and seating.

Challenges in EV Financing

Harbinger raised funds amid a difficult time for EV companies.

Several EV makers went out of business in the past two years, including local companies Cypress-based Romeo Power Inc. and Lordstown Motors Corp., which had an Irvine center alongside its Ohio headquarters.

“On one hand, it’s great to have less competition,” Harris said. “On the other hand, it’s bad for the industry.”

While there’s a strong market for EVs, as evidenced by Tesla and Rivian, it’s not enough to solely rely on the demand, according to Harris.

The main issue, he said, is that many of these new vehicles aren’t well thought out.
These companies build vehicles that are too expensive, lack range and are unpleasant to drive with the idea of eventually improving them he said.

“I think that’s one of the things that this market has struggled with,” Harris said.

Harris said that Harbinger aims to follow in the footsteps of Tesla, which has found success in “a limited product portfolio with a very narrow focus on execution.”

Both Romeo Power and Lordstown’s downfall highlight investor views of the industry being too risky.

Concerns over slow market adoption and delayed profitability decreased private equity and venture capital investments in EV companies last year, according to a S&P Global report.

Globally, it estimated private equity and venture capital in EV companies totaled $3.3 billion in the first three quarters of the year, compared to $4 billion in combustion engine companies.

In 2021, then-President Joe Biden pledged to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 50% below 2005 levels by 2030.

As part of this effort, Biden enacted a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 for EV purchases.
President Donald Trump is now considering eliminating some of these Biden-era policies with an executive order he signed on Inauguration Day titled “Unleashing American Energy.”

World’s First Hybrid RV

Last September, Harbinger unveiled a collaboration with Thor described as the world’s first hybrid Class A motorhome.

The Thor Test Vehicle is built on Harbinger’s electric chassis and has a low-emissions gasoline range extender that can recharge the electric battery system, delivering an estimated 500 miles of range.

Recreational vehicles (RVs) are a good example of where hybrids are a better solution than an EV, Harris said.

“One of the biggest challenges with electrification is use cases where the range is not predictable,” he said. “A hybrid is a way of closing that gap, which is particularly valuable for commercial vehicles where the batteries are even bigger and more expensive.”

Harbinger and Thor’s hybrid RV differ from parallel hybrids like a Toyota Prius.

The Thor Test Vehicle is a series hybrid, which Harris explained as essentially an EV with a small generator to provide extra range when drivers want to go further distances.

It additionally comes with a solar rooftop and its hybrid platform can also double as a backup home power source, eliminating the need for a generator.

Thor expects the vehicle to become commercially available sometime this year.

 

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Yuika Yoshida
Yuika Yoshida
Yuika Yoshida has been a reporter covering healthcare, innovation and education at the Orange County Business Journal since 2023. Previous bylines include JapanUp! Magazine and Stu News Laguna. She received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. During her time at UC Irvine, she was the campus news editor for the official school paper and student writer for the Samueli School of Engineering. Outside of writing, she enjoys musical theater and finding new food spots within Orange County.
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