By Nick Carey
LONDON (Reuters) - The management of bankrupt electric truck maker Volta Trucks is urgently seeking a buyer to take the company out of administration and help it complete the ramp-up to mass production, a source familiar with the issue told Reuters.
Volta, which is headquartered in Sweden and has operations in the United Kingdom, filed for bankruptcy on Tuesday citing the bankruptcy in August of its supplier Proterra and uncertainty over its battery supplier, which had made it hard to raise sufficient capital.
The startup had picked a factory in Austria to make its trucks and had been working toward mass production.
"We were 30 days out from production," when the bankruptcy came, the source said, adding that the startup had raised a total around 460 million euros ($488 million) from investors. The source asked not to be identified.
Customers of Volta Trucks, which had taken orders for more than 5,000 vehicles, still want to take delivery of their vehicles and management has so far received initial queries from between 10 to 20 strategic or financial investors about buying the company, the source said.
Management now has a very short period while the company is in administration to find a suitable rescue bid for the company, before administrators start trying to minimize creditors' losses by selling off assets.
The startup's management began actively approaching investors on Thursday and will talk to more on Friday, with the aim of trying to drum up a bid by next week, the source said.
Representatives of executives at Alvarez & Marsal Europe (A&M), who have been appointed as bankruptcy administrators for Volta Trucks' UK operations, could not be reached for comment.
In a statement earlier on Thursday, the administrators said "we will continue to consider the options for the company as we search for a potential buyer to secure the future of the business."
After attracting billions from investors just a few years ago, many electric vehicle startups have struggled as rising inflation has shut off access to funding.
A few, including EV parts supplier Proterra and electric pickup truck maker Lordstown Motors (OTC:RIDEQ), have begun bankruptcy proceedings.
($1 = 0.9431 euro)