MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and
ARLINGTON, Texas,
Sept. 1, 2021
/PRNewswire/ -- Wallbox, a leading provider of electric vehicle
(EV) charging solutions, today announced the selection of
Arlington, Texas as the location
of its first U.S. manufacturing facility. The 130,000 square foot
high-tech plant will have enough capacity to fully support
Wallbox's expansion plans in North
America for the next decade. Production is expected to start
as early as June 2022 with production
lines for Wallbox's Pulsar Plus AC chargers; lines for Quasar, its
DC bidirectional charger, and Supernova, its DC fast charger for
public use, are anticipated to follow in the first half of 2023.
Wallbox expects to manufacture a total of 290,000 units annually in
this facility by 2027 and reach its full capacity of 500,000 units
by 2030.
The Arlington facility will be
Wallbox's fourth manufacturing site, additive to two facilities in
Europe and one in China. A global company with a presence in 68
countries, Wallbox operates with a vertically integrated supply
chain and does its product manufacturing in-house from design to
production. The U.S.-based facility will play a vital role in
expanding the company's presence in North
America, a market that is making a big push into automotive
electrification with the Biden Administration targeting 50% of all
new car sales to be electric by 2030. The new facility is
anticipated to create approximately 250 direct jobs in the region
by 2030, with local hiring for the facility to begin immediately
and on-site retooling beginning in October of this year.
"The U.S. automotive and energy markets are at an inflection
point. Automotive electrification will accelerate significantly due
to initiatives aimed at meeting aggressive greenhouse gas emission
targets, which will significantly increase the demand for our EV
charging and energy management solutions," said Enric Asunción,
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wallbox. "This new
factory will be an instrumental step in our expansion in the North
American market, enabling us not only to meet the growing demand,
but also to accelerate the launch of new products and enter the
business and public EV charging segments as we bring our production
stateside."
Wallbox made the strategic decision to select Arlington, Texas as the location of its first
North American Manufacturing hub for a variety of factors including
the city's position as a central transit hub between the East and
West coasts, its access to cross-country highway corridors and
central location to other major cities in the region including
Dallas and Fort Worth.
"Between the highly successful launch of our residential charger
Pulsar Plus and our recently announced strategic alliance with
SunPower to offer packaged EV charger and solar installations
across the U.S. market, Wallbox has made great strides in
establishing and growing its brand in the country this year," said
Douglas Alfaro, GM of North America at Wallbox. "The U.S. factory is
another important milestone to expand our local footprint. Wallbox
will be able to better serve American customers, increase its
solutions offerings and support the nation's transition toward
electric mobility," he
concluded.
Transaction with Kensington
In June, Wallbox and
Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp. II ("Kensington") (NYSE: KCAC) announced a business
combination that is expected to result in Wallbox becoming a
publicly traded company on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "WBX".
For additional information, please visit www.wallbox.com.
About Wallbox
Wallbox is a global technology
company, dedicated to changing the way the world uses
energy. Wallbox creates advanced electric vehicle
charging and energy management systems that redefine users'
relationship to the grid. Wallbox goes beyond electric
vehicle charging to give users the power to control their
consumption, save money, and live more
sustainably.
Wallbox offers a complete portfolio of charging and energy
management solutions for residential, semi-public and public use in
more than 80 countries.
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Barcelona, the company now employs over 700
people in its offices in Europe,
Asia, and the Americas.
For additional information, please visit www.wallbox.com.
About Kensington
Kensington Capital Acquisition
Corp. II (NYSE: KCAC) is a special purpose
acquisition company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger,
stock purchase or similar business combination with a business in
the automotive and automotive-related sector. The company is
sponsored by Kensington
Capital Partners ("KCP") and the management team
of Justin Mirro,
Bob Remenar, Simon Boag and Dan Huber. The company is also supported by a
board of independent directors including Tom LaSorda,
Nicole Nason, Anders Pettersson,
Mitch Quain, Don Runkle and Matt
Simoncini. The Kensington team has completed over 70
automotive transactions and has over 300 years of combined
experience leading some of the largest automotive companies in the
world.
For additional information, please visit www.autospac.com.
Additional Information
This communication is being
made in respect of the proposed transaction involving Wallbox
Chargers, S.L. ("Wallbox"), Wallbox B.V. and Kensington Capital
Acquisition Corp. II ("Kensington"). This communication does not
constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy
any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor shall
there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such
offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration
or qualification under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. In
connection with the proposed transaction, Wallbox B.V. will file
with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") a registration
statement on Form F-4 that will include a proxy statement of
Kensington in connection with Kensington's solicitation of proxies for the
vote by Kensington's shareholders
with respect to the proposed transaction and other matters as may
be described in the registration statement. Wallbox and
Kensington also plan to file other
documents with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction and a
proxy statement/prospectus will be mailed to holders of shares of
Kensington's Class A ordinary shares. BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING OR
INVESTMENT DECISION, INVESTORS ARE URGED TO READ THE FORM F-4 AND
THE PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS REGARDING THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION
AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS CAREFULLY IN THEIR ENTIRETY WHEN
THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT
INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. The proxy
statement/prospectus, as well as other filings containing
information about Wallbox and Kensington will be available without charge at
the SEC's Internet site (www.sec.gov). Copies of the proxy
statement/prospectus can also be obtained, when available, without
charge, from Wallbox's website at www.wallbox.com. Copies of
the proxy statement/prospectus can be obtained, when available,
without charge, from Kensington's
website at www.autospac.com.
Participants in the Solicitations
Wallbox, Wallbox
B.V., Kensington and certain of
their respective directors, executive officers and other members of
management and employees may, under SEC rules, be deemed to be
participants in the solicitation of proxies from Kensington's shareholders in connection with
the proposed transaction. You can find more information about
Kensington's directors and
executive officers in Kensington's
final prospectus dated February 25,
2021 and filed with the SEC on February 26, 2021. Additional information
regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a
description of their direct and indirect interests will be included
in the proxy statement/prospectus when it becomes available.
Shareholders, potential investors and other interested persons
should read the proxy statement/prospectus carefully when it
becomes available before making any voting or investment decisions.
You may obtain free copies of these documents from the sources
indicated above.
No Offer or Solicitation
This communication does not
constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy
any securities, or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor
shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which
such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to
registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such
jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by
means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of section 10 of the
Securities Act, or an exemption therefrom.
Caution About Forward-Looking Statements
The
information in this press release includes "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act
and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact
included in this press release, regarding Kensington's proposed business combination
with Wallbox, Kensington's ability
to consummate the transaction, the development and performance of
Wallbox's products (including the timeframe for development of such
products), the benefits of the transaction and the combined
company's future financial performance, as well as the combined
company's strategy, future operations, estimated financial
position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs,
prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking
statements. When used in this press release, the words "are
designed to," "could," "should," "will," "may," "believe,"
"anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "expect," "project," the
negative of such terms and other similar expressions are intended
to identify forward-looking statements, although not all
forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. These
forward-looking statements are based on management's current
expectations and assumptions about future events and are based on
currently available information as to the outcome and timing of
future events. Except as otherwise required by applicable law,
Wallbox disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking
statements, all of which are expressly qualified by the statements
in this section, to reflect events or circumstances after the date
hereof. Wallbox cautions you that these forward-looking statements
are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, most of which are
difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the control of
either Kensington or Wallbox. In
addition, Wallbox cautions you that the forward-looking statements
contained herein are subject to the following uncertainties and
risk factors that could affect Wallbox's and Kensington's future performance and cause
results to differ from the forward-looking statements herein:
Wallbox's ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the
business combination, which may be affected by, among other things,
competition and the ability of Wallbox to grow and manage growth
profitably following the business combination; risks relating to
the outcome and timing of the Company's development of its charging
and energy management technology and related manufacturing
processes; intense competition in the electric vehicle charging
space; risks related to health pandemics, including the COVID-19
pandemic; the possibility that Wallbox may be adversely affected by
other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; the
possibility that the expected timeframe for, and other expectations
regarding the development and performance of, Wallbox products will
differ from current assumptions; the occurrence of any event,
change or other circumstances that could give rise to the
termination of the business combination; the outcome of any legal
proceedings that may be instituted against Kensington or Wallbox, the combined company or
others following the announcement of the business combination; the
inability to complete the business combination due to the failure
to obtain approval of the shareholders of Kensington or to satisfy other conditions to
closing; changes to the proposed structure of the business
combination that may be required or appropriate as a result of
applicable laws or regulations; the ability to meet stock exchange
listing standards following the consummation of the business
combination; the risk that the business combination disrupts
current plans and operations of Kensington or Wallbox as a result of the
announcement and consummation of the business combination; costs
related to the business combination; changes in applicable laws or
regulations; and underlying assumptions with respect to shareholder
redemptions. Should one or more of the risks or uncertainties
described in this press release, or should underlying assumptions
prove incorrect, actual results and plans could different
materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements.
Additional information concerning these and other factors that may
impact the operations and projections discussed herein can be found
in Kensington's periodic filings
with the SEC, and the proxy statement/prospectus of Wallbox B.V. in
the registration statement on Form F-4 filed with the SEC.
Kensington's and Wallbox B.V.'s
SEC filings are available publicly on the SEC's website at
www.sec.gov.
Contacts:
For Wallbox
Investors
ICR, Inc.
investors@wallbox.com
Media
ICR, Inc.
WallboxPR@icrinc.com
For Kensington
Dan
Huber
dan@kensington-cap.com
703-674-6514
Related Links:
www.wallbox.com
www.autospac.com
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SOURCE Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp. II