XOS Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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August 13, 2024

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

At this time, all participant lines are in a listen only mode. For those of you participating in the conference call, there will be an opportunity for your questions at the end of today's prepared comments. Please note today's conference call is being recorded.

Operator

At this time, I'd like to turn the floor over to the General Counsel of Axos, Christian Romero. Thank you. You may begin.

Speaker 1

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Hosting the call with me are Chief Executive Officer, Dakota Simler Chief Operating Officer, Giordano Sardoni and Acting Chief Financial Officer, Liana Pogoshian. Ahead of this call, Axos issued its Q2 2024 earnings press release, which we will reference during the call. This can be found on the Investor Relations section of our website at investors. Exostrucks.com.

Speaker 1

On this call, management will be making forward looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from our forward looking statements if any of our key assumptions are incorrect because of factors discussed in today's earnings news release, during this conference call or in our latest reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These documents can be found on our website at investors. Exostrucks.com. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward looking statements.

Speaker 1

Today's presentation also includes references to non GAAP financial measures and performance metrics. Please refer to the information contained in the company's 2nd quarter 2024 earnings press release for definitional information and reconciliations of historical non GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures. Participants should be cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward looking statements. With that, I now turn it over to our CEO, Dakota.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Kristin, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. On today's call, I will cover highlights from the Q2 of 2024, during which we generated $15,500,000 in revenue, delivered 90 units and achieved our 4th consecutive quarter of positive gross margin. Gio and Liana will then provide operational and financial updates, respectively. Starting with sales and deliveries, revenue is up 18% quarter over quarter and 2 27% year over year. The majority of our 90 units delivered were step vans for fleet customers, namely UPS and FedEx Ground contractors, supplemented by powertrain sales to Bluebird and hub sales to multiple new customers.

Speaker 2

We expect 2024 volumes to be meaningfully higher than 2023 and similarly weighted towards the second half of the year as customers respond to incentives and charging infrastructure comes online. Demand for EXOS products remained robust throughout the year. In May, we attended the industry's largest conference, the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo, where potential customers demonstrated strong interest in both our vehicles and our latest generation hub. In addition to our own booth, EXOS technology was also on display by Bluebird, one of the largest school bus OEMs and a leader of EVs in the sector. We announced our exciting new powertrain partnership with Bluebird during the quarter and at the show they displayed a pair of parcel delivery chassis built with Exos powertrains.

Speaker 2

Bluebird's decision to partner with Exos and showcase our powertrain underscores our reputation as a leader in EV technology. The partnership resulted in significant attention to EXOS products. Over the course of the show and weeks that followed, the Bluebird partnership came up repeatedly with both fleet buyers and industry insiders as a vote of confidence in Exos' technical capabilities and the company's future. Turning now to our charging products, where we are experiencing stronger than expected sales activity, the hub, Exos' mobile energy storage and charging product is filling gaps felt by customers. They recognize the value of pivoting their fleets and equipment away from fossil fuels, but have to confront the realities of lagging permanent infrastructure installation timelines, limited charging options in remote locations and the complexity of accessing grid power from work sites.

Speaker 2

This quarter, hub sales were particularly strong with firms outside our Step Van customer base, including a large government fleet. Operators across the industries are demonstrating a clear need for more flexible charging solutions, and we expect that charging solutions will grow into a robust part of Exos' overall business. The strength of the sector is evidenced by the attention it received at the ACT Expo this year, where more than a dozen firms showcase combined charging and energy storage products. We view the increased number of options as a healthy evolution of the EV market and ultimately beneficial for Exos. As a first mover in the space, the hub has a strong sales pipeline and is a mature and cost competitive product.

Speaker 2

New market entrants are bringing more visibility to the product category than Exos alone can generate and also provide alternate paths for customers to discover Exos and our products. Most importantly, the advancement of alternative charging options will support faster adoption of our vehicles and expand the EV market to include more of the fleets without access to traditional permanent chargers. For more detail on how we are fulfilling the strong demand for Exos products, I'll hand it over to our COO, Gio for an operational update.

Speaker 3

Thank you, Dakota. Exos' engineering, supply chain and manufacturing teams remain focused on scaling production and delivering further margin improvements. Our engineers are developing a longer 208 inches wheelbase variation of the Ekso StepMan to support a wider range of bodies requested by our customers. In fact, we've already secured signed sales orders for this new variation. Some of the first units will be delivered to Mission Linen as part of the order that we announced in the Q1.

Speaker 3

Lengthening the vehicle is a relatively simple change with efforts primarily focused on changes to the frame rails, extensions to wiring harnesses and durability testing of the updated chassis. This means we're able to launch the new variant quickly and with minimal R and D investment. We expect the new long wheelbase step van be in customer hands by the Q1 of 2025. Also within engineering, our software and controls team has made improvements to our connectivity platform that will translate into cost savings on both complete vehicles and powertrains. As commercial vehicle customers begin to expect features like over the air updates and real time telemetry, our in house software capabilities have differentiated Ekso's as both a vehicle manufacturer and a technology partner to legacy OEMs.

Speaker 3

Furthermore, our teams continue to find opportunities to grow our margins by reducing direct costs. This quarter, XOS brought the greater portion of logistics or completed chassis in house, which translates to lower costs overall. Our manufacturing team is focused on scaling vehicle production efficiently, integrating hub and powertrain production to the factory floor. As I mentioned last quarter, we're preparing for production rates of up to 8 hubs per month in 2024 alongside our step van and powertrain volumes to satisfy strong demand from existing and new Exos customers. As a final note, we're tracking the potential tariff changes that could impact our China source components.

Speaker 3

Exos is preparing for any such development by identifying alternative sources and exploring tariff mitigation strategies. At this point, we do not anticipate significant tariff related disruptions or impediments to our production schedule, but we will continue to monitor any developments in this space. With that, I'll pass it to Liana.

Speaker 4

Thank you, Hugh. For the 2nd quarter, our revenue increased to $15,500,000 from $13,200,000 in the Q1 of 2024, primarily as a result of our increased deliveries. Our cost of goods sold during the quarter increased to $13,500,000 compared to $10,400,000 in the 1st quarter. GAAP gross margin during the quarter was a profit of $2,000,000 or 13.1 percent compared to a profit of $2,800,000 in the 1st quarter or 21.2%. The Q1's GAAP gross margins included beneficial adjustments related to our inventory reserves and inventory accuracy processes.

Speaker 4

GAAP gross margin during the Q2 was negatively impacted by lower average selling price due to product mix, write off of excess materials and adjustments to our reserves due to overall higher inventory balances. We continue to see margin improvements in our step downs as we realize the efforts of our engineering, supply chain and manufacturing teams. We have been able to work with our suppliers in reducing the cost of several critical components as we scale production, leading to lower direct material costs for each unit. Additionally, our engineering and production teams continued to gain efficiencies in the design and build of our step end, reducing labor costs, while increasing the durability and reliability of each unit produced. It should be noted that GAAP gross margins for our vehicle OEM are impacted by a range of reserves that combined with changes in the sales mix between direct, dealer and prior model inventory sales introduced higher levels of volatility in quarterly results.

Speaker 4

We continue to share a consistent non GAAP gross margin that adjusts for inventory reserves and physical inventory and other related adjustments that you can find in today's earnings press release. Turning to expenses. Our 2nd quarter operating expenses of $13,400,000 remained broadly in line with the first quarter's figure of 13,000,000 dollars Non GAAP operating loss for the Q2 was $9,700,000 GAAP operating loss was $11,400,000 Excitedly, our operating profitability is following a promising trajectory. Following last year's efforts to reduce spending on non core projects and the release of the current Step Van platform, our non GAAP operating loss improved to negative 63% this quarter from negative 3 57% 1 year ago. We expect to see continued improvements over the coming quarters as our volumes grow and our operations teams continue to identify and implement cost saving changes to our products.

Speaker 4

Turning to the balance sheet. We closed the quarter with cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash of $20,700,000 compared to $47,300,000 at the end of the Q1. The reduction in cash above our historical trends was primarily the result of our elevated accounts receivable balance of $29,700,000 at the end of the quarter compared to $20,300,000 in the Q1. This resulted from a concentration of deliveries made at the end of the quarter as well as a temporary buildup in government incentive receivables. The substantially higher deliveries we expect to make in the second half of the year also played a role as inventory increased to $41,400,000 in the current quarter from $36,600,000 in the Q1 to support higher production rates.

Speaker 4

We have taken steps to improve our incentive collection processes and expect our accounts receivable and inventory balances to stabilize over the coming quarters. In addition, we are actively pursuing options for non dilutive working capital to fund the growth of our business and preserve liquidity. Relatively, operating cash flow less CapEx or free cash flow of negative $26,100,000 for the quarter was a decrease from negative $14,600,000 last quarter. Unfavorable changes in working capital driven by higher accounts receivable negative free cash flow. Based on the initiatives we discussed, we expect to see more favorable changes in working capital in the coming quarters.

Speaker 4

Finally, we are reaffirming our full year 2024 guidance of revenue in the range of $66,700,000 to $100,400,000 a non GAAP operating loss of between 43.7 to $48,700,000 and 400 to 600 units delivered. I'll now turn the call back over to Dakota.

Speaker 2

Thank you, Liana. To wrap up, Axos is positioned to win. We are growing deliveries, demonstrating our leadership in commercial EVs via partnerships with established OEMs, powering forward with a strong margin trajectory and building a self sustaining business. Diversifying our product portfolio by leveraging our Step Van technology to satisfy unmet demand for powertrains and hubs is adding to our strong backlog of step vans. Our technology portfolio and highly competitive pricing has made us a partner of choice for OEMs like Bluebird.

Speaker 2

Our relentless focus on capital efficiency and cost reductions translated into 4 consecutive quarters of positive gross margin this year and continued progress in the company's path to profitability. With that, let's open the line for questions.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin the question and answer session. And our first question today comes from Mike Schliskey from D. A. Davidson. Please go ahead with your question.

Speaker 5

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. So folks, if I'm looking at this correctly, given the $9,700,000 non GAAP operating loss in 2Q, roughly what you saw in the Q1. Do you still expect to have the $43,000,000 to $48,700,000 loss for the full year, but you've got revenue increasing in the back half. So kind of curious what's dragging on income in the back half year.

Speaker 5

You have sales increase and pretty good momentum in most areas. What should we expect to be a challenge in the second half from a profitability perspective?

Speaker 2

Yes. So we can start and I can address your first part of your question, Mike, which is why the high increase there in Q2. First, that was driven really by a ramp up in inventory spending because of the demand for orders that we're seeing in the second half of the year. The other component, as Liana touched on, is really that collection or those collections of government incentives. So a number of our customers get the benefit of state, local or federal subsidies, some of which are paid out on longer terms, might go beyond the traditional net 15 or net 30 terms that we have with our customers.

Speaker 2

And so some of those carry across into the second quarter or into the 3rd Q4 for vehicles delivered at the end of Q2. And a big part of that has just been our ability to collect against those receivables for those government incentives, where they operate by a different set of terms than what our standard customer terms and conditions apply. When we're looking at our guidance for the rest of the year, we are very, very confident in staying within the realm of our guidance at the volume level or at the unit level. And that's where we're driving our operating loss assumptions and our gross margin assumptions for Q3 and Q4. So ultimately, we do expect that we'll recover a lot of the cash that came from those incentives for vehicles delivered in the first half of the year and the second half as well as convert that work in process or the dollars used to purchase inventory into finished goods and ultimately sell those vehicles to customers in the second half of the year.

Speaker 2

It's a process that we've been continuing trying to improve and hone, but ultimately something that I think will only get better in the quarters to come. Okay.

Speaker 5

Okay. My thought on that one offline. You didn't mention much in the prepared comments about sort of the sales pipeline and the backlog that you might have. Can you comment on, existing customer interest, new customer interest and where you think things are headed into 2025 here?

Speaker 2

Yes, absolutely. So even in the macroeconomic context right now where we've seen a little bit of a slowdown in the broader EV sector and a slowdown in growth, not a slowdown in overall sales, we continue to see strong interest, particularly from large national accounts. I would say sales closed in the 2nd quarter have skewed more towards our large national accounts than our smaller regional accounts. And there are several factors that are influencing that. One is just the cost of capital right now for a lot of those smaller fleets.

Speaker 2

When they're looking at capital financing or lease financing of these vehicles, the interest rate market today is elevated and that's driving some of the slower purchasing rates we've seen in the small and regional fleets. But on the national fleet side, we're still seeing strong demand and many of the customers are trying to meet some of the implementation timelines for regulations such as the advanced clean fleet rule in California. A lot of our customers, the big parcel delivery customers, we highlighted 2 of our largest groups of deliveries, which is UPS for Q2 and then obviously FedEx Ground Contractors, both of which are ramping up orders pretty significantly to comply with that ACF regulation. And we expect that will continue to grow in the years to come as more states adopt some form of ACF locally or a combination of ACF or ACT regulations. So overall, sales backlog continues to grow.

Speaker 2

And as we touched on, there's other products that are now coming into the fold, like the Exos Hub and our Powertrains business powered by Exos that are also starting to add into that backlog. And we expect those will continue to grow over the quarters to come as there's still strong, strong interest in electrifying those school bus industry and the school bus platform as a broader commercial vehicle and specialty vehicle space.

Speaker 5

Great. Maybe one last one for me to follow-up on your Bluebird comments. Are there potential powertrain partnerships that you're looking at beyond Bluebird and Winnebago? And I guess I'm curious to see if and Gio, you mentioned you made the longer wheelbase version on a relatively inexpensive way, just a bit of an adaptation. Are the products you're looking at to go into further adaptation from here?

Speaker 5

Or do you have anything kind of newer, more radical or even larger in the pipeline here?

Speaker 2

Yes. Yes. The Powertrain

Speaker 3

team remains active and the deals that we've announced with Winnebago and Blooper definitely add some momentum there. So there are other things we're working on that we can't quite share yet. And then while the variations to the step van, whether we make the step van a bit longer or a bit shorter, that does tend to open up some new customer avenues, both on a step van body platform and also to other powertrain customers that might be more interested in some of those adaptations for their particular use case. Of course, in the past, we had talked about medium duty and heavy duty trucks as well. Those are still things that we think make a lot of sense in certain environments.

Speaker 3

But right now, our core focus is the electric chassis for delivery vans, our powertrain unit as well as the hubs.

Speaker 5

Great. Thanks for answering my questions. I appreciate it.

Operator

Our next question comes from Donovan Shafer from Northland Capital Markets.

Speaker 6

1st, I want to just follow-up on Mike's first question about kind of with the guidance. And I can imagine a lot of possibilities, but I think what he's getting at is like not on a cash basis because of course on a cash basis, the changes in working capital could make Q2 a larger cash consuming quarter. But on an accrual accounting basis, since you're giving us for the outlook, you're giving revenue and a non GAAP operating loss, which there's adjustments there, but it's still more accrual than a cash flow type number. So if we sort of in order to square those, the revenue guidance and the operating loss guidance, it seems like either ASPs would have to come down or I guess maybe I'm thinking maybe gross margins, it seems like gross margins maybe would have to come down. So is there something like that that you see in Q3 and Q4 gross margin compression or operating expense increasing more materially.

Speaker 6

Is that something you've identified and seen? Or is it more just from a conservatism or consistency standpoint, you just have a desire to kind of stick with what you initially put out, just sort of reiterating as a way of being cautious or conservative?

Speaker 4

Thanks, Donovan. With respect to the non GAAP operating loss, I would say our overall guidance is on the conservative basis. As you can see in the non GAAP operating loss for the 6 months ended, we were at about $19,000,000 And we would expect that same or better trajectory for the second half of the year.

Speaker 6

Okay. I see. That's very helpful. Thank you. And then as a second question, looking just focusing just on the revenue piece of it, we've talked in the past that I think you've the belief or expectation is that you hope to be able to have sequential revenue growth sort of each quarter.

Speaker 6

So now that we're kind of in August, just wanted to double check and see if that's still the thinking that you still think Q3 will be higher than Q2 and Q4 will be higher than Q3, if that's the anticipated pattern, or if there's anything sort of from a seasonal or a timing standpoint where Q3 would be the bigger quarter versus Q4? I

Speaker 4

mean, I think that you're directionally how you're thinking is correct. You should expect to see a sequential increase in revenues. I think one of the key aspects also with respect to revenue is average selling price, which there is some variability between quarter to quarter. But one of the things that I think is also important is with respect to the product mix, not only within our step end products, but also within hubs and as well as powertrains, there is that variability from period to period. But sequentially, there should be an expectation of an increase.

Speaker 6

Okay. Okay. And then one last one, if I can squeeze it in, is just with the hubs that last quarter we talked about ramping the ability to manufacture hubs for the second half of the year. I think the goal was 4 hubs per month, I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong on that, but that was the goal sort of for the second half.

Speaker 6

Just curious if we can get a specific update on kind of where we're at if you've hit that capability of 4 per month or not? And if and then if you have it that capability or just in general, what is the kind of run rate right now? Yes, run rate of production of the hub?

Speaker 3

Yes. Donovan, I appreciate the question. The hub line setup has gone really well and we are building hubs more consistently. Our supply base has caught up and so we're really We're not quite getting all the way up to 2 per week every We're not quite getting all the way up to 2 per week every single week, but we are just about to be there. So often it will be 1.5 plus per week and then the next week we'll get out 2.

Speaker 3

So more or less at least by the end of the month here we'll be at 2 per week and have reached that capacity.

Speaker 6

Fantastic. All right. Thanks, guys. We'll take the rest of my questions offline.

Speaker 3

Thanks.

Operator

And ladies and gentlemen, at this time, I'm showing no further questions in the queue.

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Key Takeaways

  • In Q2 2024, Axos generated $15.5 M in revenue (up 18% QoQ, 227% YoY), delivered 90 units, achieved its 4th consecutive quarter of positive gross margin, and reaffirmed full-year guidance of 400–600 units and $66.7 M–$100.4 M revenue.
  • Demand remained robust, with the majority of step vans delivered to UPS and FedEx Ground contractors, and the powertrain partnership with Bluebird showcased at ACT Expo underscoring Axos’s leadership in EV technology.
  • Charging solutions via the Exos Hub saw stronger-than-expected sales, filling gaps in permanent charging infrastructure and positioning hubs as a key growth driver in mobile energy storage and charging.
  • Operational enhancements include development of a 208-inch wheelbase variant for broader customer needs by Q1 2025, software upgrades for OTA updates and telemetry, and bringing chassis logistics in-house to reduce costs.
  • Despite cash declining to $20.7 M due to elevated receivables and inventory build for ramped production, Axos is pursuing non-dilutive working capital, expects AR and inventory stabilization in H2, and anticipates improving working capital trends.
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Earnings Conference Call
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