(Reuters) -Swedish autonomous trucking company Einride said on Wednesday it has agreed to go public in the U.S. through a merger with blank-check firm Legato Merger Corp III in a deal valuing the company at $1.8 billion.

The listing comes after a wave of electric vehicle startups went public during the pandemic-era SPAC boom with the aim of capitalizing on the huge demand for clean-energy vehicles and government incentives for the purchase of battery-powered cars.

However, since then a number of trucking and vehicle tech startups including Nikola, Lordstown Motors, and Proterra have gone bankrupt due to competitive pressures, operational challenges, rapid cash burn due to high production costs, and an inability to achieve profitability.

Autonomous trucking firms are looking to automate

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