Workhorse Group (NASDAQ: WKHS), which manufactures electric delivery vans for UPS, FedEx and other fleet operators, has secured $35 million in new financing from Marathon Asset Management. Workhorse will use the proceeds to repay a July 2018 round of senior secured notes, and to acquire parts to fulfill customer orders.

Marathon will provide the funds in two separate tranches: a $10-million lump sum that will be used principally to satisfy repayment of the senior secured notes; and a $25-million revolving credit line from which Workhorse may draw as necessary to meet existing and future purchase orders.

“This agreement provides meaningful near-term funding that will go directly toward building and delivering vehicles to customers in 2019,” said Workhorse CEO Steve Burns. “[Also], we have repaid, in full, our previous debt obligations from July, which will remove all covenants associated with that arrangement, including the obligation to sell our eVTOL aircraft, SureFly.”

Workhorse also announced that it continues working with Duke Energy to create a battery leasing program designed to provide customers with a cost-competitive EV alternative. Last November, as the first step in the relationship, a subsidiary of Duke purchased 615,000 Panasonic battery cells for $1.3 million from Workhorse. Duke intends to explore further development of eFleet solutions to Workhorse customers, which may include single-point management and financing of all the Behind the Meter (BTM) infrastructure necessary to support depot-wide electrification, vehicle/battery leasing and distributed energy resources. Duke and Workhorse believe a seamless integrated solution will help reduce the overall costs of converting fleets to electric power.

Source: Workhorse