DETROIT (Reuters) – U.S. commercial electric vehicle maker Electric Last Mile Solutions Inc (ELMS) on Wednesday cut its target for the number of electric delivery vans it will build this year, citing the supply-chain constraints.
The Troy, Michigan-based company said it now expects to build between 300 and 500 of its Class 1 small electric delivery van, instead of the 1,000 it said in August it was targeting. ELMS said it would deliver the rest of those orders in the first quarter of 2022.
ELMS Chief Executive James Taylor said suppliers had been hit by constraints, including the tighter availability of shipping containers, port congestion and delays in the freight system.
“We had really good line of sight on 300 to 500 based on where the parts were coming through the system … but the 1,000 number was unreasonably out of reach,” he said in an interview.
ELMS has not revealed its 2022 full-year production targets yet.
Taylor also said ELMS, which went public in June through a reverse merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), is on track to launch the certified production version of the Urban Delivery van in December.
The startup, which has an assembly plant in Mishawaka, Indiana, also said its 2021 capital expenditures are expected to be in the range of $20 million to $25 million.
Following the small van launch, ELMS has said it plans to build a larger Class 3 truck in the second half of 2022, but Taylor said customers are pushing the company to accelerate that timeline.
(Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
