STOCKHOLM, June 10 (Reuters) - Swedish electric and

autonomous trucking firm Einride began trading on Nasdaq on

Wednesday after merging with SPAC firm Legato.

Einride's listing reflects renewed interest in SPAC mergers

as an alternative to traditional IPOs, after a lull following

the pandemic-era boom that took EV startups such as Polestar

and Nikola public.

Here are more details:

* The company plans to use part of the proceeds to grow its

business with existing customers in North America and Europe,

CEO Roozbeh Charli told Reuters.

* The merger initially valued Einride at about $1.8 billion,

but that was later revised down to about $1.35 billion following

additional financing.

* Einride - whose customers include Lidl, PostNord, Oatly

and Carlsberg - currently has about 200 electric trucks.

* However, only a handful of those vehicles are fully

autonomous, though that number is expected to rise to around 20

by the end of the year. The bulk of its business is

manual-driven electric trucks running on Einride's driver

platform.

* Despite growing investor interest in autonomous and

electric vehicles, several firms including Lordstown Motors and

Proterra have gone bankrupt due to strong competition,

operational challenges, and high costs that eroded cash

reserves.

* Einride's investors include Swedish EQT and

Ericsson, with Charli stating that all current shareholders were

rolling their holdings into the new structure.

* SPAC, or special purpose acquisition company, mergers

enable private companies to go public by merging with listed

firms set up solely to find an acquisition target. Charli said

the SPAC deal was chosen as the "quickest and most efficient"

route to public markets.