One of Tesla's first employees just took an electric-truck startup public in a $2 billion deal. Here's how he sold FedEx and UPS on his tech.

 

Big news for Rob Ferber, a founding member of Tesla and the CTO of electric-truck-maker Xos Trucks, and client of Mark White!

Electric-truck developer Xos Trucks, which went public today through a SPAC reverse merger, uses a simple formula to attract new customers and sign deals: Get people in the driver's seat. 

Rob Ferber, the chief technology officer at Xos, told Insider that the secret to the startup's early success — which includes deals with the likes of UPS and FedEx — lies in giving customers a firsthand look at its technology.

"When you say: 'Here's a glossy brochure. It's beautiful. It's lovely. Here's what it will be' — that's in the future tense," said Ferber, a member of Tesla's founding team who worked on battery development. "If instead you say: 'Here's the truck. Here's the keys. Tell me what you think' — you have a materially different conversation."

Ferber has used his show-and-tell approach to appeal to Xos' investors and earliest customers. Founded by former fleet owners Dakota Semler and Giordano Sordoni in 2016, the Los Angeles company has electric-delivery-truck pilots with UPS and the cash-transfer company Loomis operating in Southern California. The startup builds vehicle frames on top of its modular X-Platform 1 skateboard, which can accommodate medium-duty bodies and offer up to 200 miles of range using its proprietary X-Pack battery. 

Xos has raised $20 million to date, Crunchbase found. The startup, formerly known as Thor Trucks, just went public in a $2 billion merger with the special purpose acquisition company NextGen Acquisition Corp.

Xos is looking to capitalize on the emerging electric-commercial-truck market, as 30% of new truck sales in Europe, China, and the US are expected to be zero-emission by 2030, the Hewlett Foundation found. That number is expected to grow to 83% by 2040.

In addition to the UPS and Loomis gigs, Ferber's strategy was effective in sealing the company's contract to build 120 electric trucks for FedEx. Xos plans to deploy those vehicles across 35 FedEx Ground operators, or independent service providers, in five states later this year and early next. All told, Xos will deliver 116 vehicles in 2021, and 2,007 vehicles in 2022, a spokesperson said. 

While the contract is only for a fraction of the 4,000 Ground operators in service, FedEx hinted that it may expand its deal with Xos in the future. (The shipping giant has also ordered General Motors' BrightDrop EV600 vans to power its shift to EVs.) The deal helps FedEx chip away at its goal to transition its entire parcel pickup and delivery fleet to cleaner energy by 2040.

"FedEx doesn't want maybes. They want real," said Ferber, who's also a former chief engineer at the high-speed-rail company Virgin Hyperloop. "Showing up to someone who's interested with a vehicle and saying: 'Let's go take it for a spin and see what you think. Put it through its paces. This isn't pie in the sky, and you don't have to wonder about what you're getting.'"

As it leans on its technology to wow potential customers, Xos is not interested in competing against those that already have a share of the market. 

Instead, Xos is "out to get the diesels," Ferber said. "It's that simple."

 
Samantha Gee