What happened
Shares of Hyzon Motors (HYZN -0.66%) are headed for the skies this morning, trading up 16.9% as of 11:10 a.m. EDT. The manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cell heavy-duty commercial vehicles just bagged its biggest order yet since the stock went public on July 19 after a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, and investors can't contain their excitement.
So what
Thursday morning, Hyzon Motors announced an agreement to deliver up to 500 electric trucks to Shanghai Hydrogen HongYun Automotive, a China-based logistics company that's also among the leading fuel cell EV players in the nation.
Hyzon is a new entrant in the world of EV stocks in the U.S., but you'd be surprised to know the company's history. It is backed by Singapore-based Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies, one of the world's largest hydrogen fuel cell manufacturers with nearly two decades of experience. Hyzon currently sources all of its fuel cell systems from Horizon, but intends to become self-reliant once its manufacturing facilities in the U.S. become operational.
Image source: Getty Images.
China is the world's largest EV market, accounting for 41% of global EV sales in 2020. Today's development, therefore, has unsurprisingly sent Hyzon shares soaring. CEO Craig Knight said in today's announcement: "Hydrogen fuel cell technology has been adopted more quickly in China than in the rest of the world. This allows Hyzon to begin the critical work of decarbonizing the environment, while building experience, capacity, and expertise which will be applied globally."
One thing you'll want to note, though, is that Hyzon has only signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with HongYun Automotive for now, and will deliver 100 trucks this year and 400 in 2022 only after receiving firm orders from the company. Given Hyzon's expertise, though, I fully expect it to get the orders soon.
Now what
September is proving to be a busy month for Hyzon so far. Earlier this month, Southern California Gas agreed to try one of its electric utility trucks, and Hyzon also received an order from aircraft developer ZeroAvia, which wants to test its lightweight fuel cell stacks in airplanes.
As of now, Hyzon expects to deliver 85 EVs this year, but its shares were still under a bit of pressure this week alongside the broader markets. Today's news was the perfect trigger to give the EV stock a lift.
