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spk05: Thank you. Good day and welcome to the Green Power Motor Company's second quarter earnings call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would like now to turn the conference over to Michael Seifert, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.
spk03: Thank you. This is Michael Seifert, the Chief Financial Officer of Green Power Motor Company. I would like to welcome everyone to our call to discuss Green Power's second quarter financial results for the period ended September 30th, 2020. I'm here today with our Chief Executive Officer, Fraser Atkinson, our President Brendan Riley, and our Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Ryan Chatterley. During today's call, we may make comments or statements about our future expectations, plans, and prospects. which may constitute forward-looking statements for the purposes of the Safe Harbour Provision under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in our quarterly interim results and MD&A filed on CDAR and on ICAR. In addition, these forward-looking statements relate to the date on which they're made, We anticipate that subsequent events and developments may cause the company's views to change. Green Power disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Also, during the course of today's call, we may refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures. Reconciliation of these non-IFRS financial measures can be found in our MD&A filed on CDAR and on EDGAR, and it's also located on our website at www.greenpowerbus.com. I'll now pass the call over to GreenPower's CEO, Fraser Atkins.
spk04: Thank you, Michael. During the quarter, GreenPower achieved a significant milestone with the uplisting of the company's shares on the NASDAQ capital market under the symbol GP, and completion of of our U.S. initial public offering for gross proceeds of $37.2 million. We plan on using the majority of the proceeds from the offering for the production of our all-electric vehicles, including various models on our EV Star platform, East school bus, and our EV250 low-floor transit stop bus. Since listing on NASDAQ, and with our significantly improved financial position, Prospective customers that we had previously conducted demonstrations of our vehicles have reengaged with Green Power, one of the many benefits that we sought from listing on NASDAQ and completing our financing already coming to fruition. In the past, we produced vehicles for sales from specific customer orders. Now we can accelerate production, shorten timelines for deliveries, improve costs and terms from suppliers, to support larger purchase orders, which will be drivers for GreenPower to attain profitability. Our EVStar platform offers various models for passengers as well as cargo and delivery. GreenPower is pursuing relationships that can drive repeat orders in each of these categories, and since the listing, we have entered into production for more than 20 EVStars per month. We anticipate these vehicles will start to deliver in two quarters time, and this level of production represents potential revenue of over $8 million on a quarterly basis. We also see tremendous growth opportunities next year with our all-electric purpose-built school bus, The Beast, which Ryan Chatterley will be speaking about in more detail further on in this call. As these vehicles take longer to build, we've commenced an additional production plan for 100 BEAST school buses for current orders and the anticipated demand, which will be available for delivery in the middle of next year. Our initial production rate of five per month represents potential quarterly sales of over $5 million. Michael Seifert will speak to our financial results shortly. but I wanted to highlight that our cash expenditures for the quarter were $1.7 million. This includes our general and administrative, selling and marketing, product development costs, cash costs for interest, everything all included before sales or the gross profit derived from sales. We will continue to manage our operations in a fiscally responsible fashion, and we see with increased growth, a much more measured or lower increase in this particular line item. With funds in the bank and low cash operational expenses, we are well positioned for significant growth. I'll now pass the call to Michael Seifer, Green Power CFO.
spk03: Thank you, Fraser. For the three-month period ended September 30, 2020, Green Power recorded revenues of over $2.8 million, cost of revenues of $1.95 million, generating a gross profit of over $883,000, or 31.2%. Revenue was generated from the sale of 20 EV stars for which the company provided lease financing and which were accounted for as finance leases, from the sale of one all-electric school bus to creative bus sales, which will be used for sales demonstrations, from the sale of spare parts to a transit customer, as well as revenue from existing finance and operating leases. For the six month period ended September 30th, 2020, Green Power reported revenues of over 5.1 million and cost of revenues of approximately 3.6 million, generating a gross profit of 1.5 million or 29.4% of revenues. Revenue was generated from the sale of 38 EV stars for which the company provided lease financing and which were accounted for as finance leases, from the sale of one all-electric school bus to creative bus sales, from the sale of spare parts to a transit customer, as well as revenue from existing finance and operating leases. We finished the quarter with finished goods inventory of approximately $1.5 million, comprised of three EV stars, two EV star cabin chassis, one all-electric school bus, one EV350, and charging stations. Our work and process inventory was $4.1 million, including 10 CKD units, 8 EVStar+, 5 EV250s, and production payments for the 100 EVStar projects, as well as parts inventory. After completing the NASDAQ uplisting and raising gross proceeds of $37.7 million in a common share offering, or approximately $34.8 million net of fees and expenses, we began planning for increased production of EVStars and B-School buses while continuing to progress our existing production of EV-STARS, EV-250s, and CKD units for Buy America production. Since the quarter end, we have increased work and process inventory by approximately 2 million as production continues to move forward. We received a significant number of warrant exercise notices both during and subsequent to the second quarter. During the quarter ended September 30th, we received over 3 million from the exercise of warrants and subsequent to quarter end, we received an additional $200,000. These funds combined with proceeds from the collection of trade receivables was used to repay loans to related parties. In addition, during the quarter over Canadian $1.25 million of our convertible debentures were converted into equity, further reducing leverage and interest expense. During the quarter, we provided the remaining convertible debenture holders with notice that we intend to repay the debentures by December 15, 2020, and we anticipate that the remaining convertible debentures will be converted into equity prior to this date. This reduction in leverage combined with the current nil balance on our operating line of credit will reduce our leverage and cash interest expense in the quarter ended December 31, 2020, and our fourth quarter results will reflect a full quarter of significantly reduced interest expense. Cash costs during the quarter were approximately $1.7 million, which is a return back to levels we experienced prior to the cost reductions that were made during the first quarter in response to COVID-19. Going forward, we continue to add employees and resources to prepare for anticipated sales and production growth. We anticipate the cash costs will increase over time as we continue to build out the business. I'll now pass the call over to Ryan Chatterley, Green Power's Vice President of Sales and Marketing, to discuss our recent activity in these areas.
spk01: Good afternoon, everybody, and thank you for being on the call. Despite the COVID-19 backdrop, it has been an extremely busy period with respect to onsite sales demonstrations and ongoing customer negotiations. I think that is somewhat of a sign of the sense of urgency reflected by both end users and OEMs to prepare for the broad transition to electric vehicles. I will take a few minutes to summarize the in-person demonstrations the Green Power sales team has undertaken in the last few months. along with their end use case, to give you an idea of what we are seeing on the front lines. In early and mid-July, we participated in multiple demonstrations at a ride-and-drive event that hosted transit properties from across the Plains states. This included seven transit properties, seven transit agencies who are looking to connect rural counties with more metropolitan areas. The purpose-built EV star shined in these demonstrations. And that shows that the Midwest is looking for ways to bolster their shared mobility efforts with their zero emissions vehicles. We had additional demonstrations in early August with transit properties in Northern California that are also seeking to comply with state regulations, increase shared mobility, and drive down operational costs. In mid-August and again in late September, we conducted extensive demonstrations in Northern California for our Beast all-electric school bus. We are all aware of the short-term uncertainties arising from the pandemic with the school bus market, but the reality is that the market is ripe with opportunity as aggressive stimulus and political mandates drive adoption. President-elect Biden has stated on his platform website, the campaign pledged to convert 480,000 domestic school buses to zero emissions by 2030. While we applaud the commitment to ED and aggressive ambition, that would be an extremely optimistic timeline. Nonetheless, I think you will see substantial substantial support at both the federal and state level for a transition to electric school buses. With regard to our competitive position in the school bus space, quite simply, there is nothing else remotely close to the value proposition that the Green Power Beasts All Electric School Bus provides. As Frazier and Michael described, we have started to invest the capital from our recent financing to build five school buses per month, which we expect to start delivering by the middle of next year. We believe we are perfectly positioned to take advantage of this opportunity and should enjoy a significant first mover position as the only purpose-built Type B unit on the market. I expect we will see school bus holders over the coming months as a result of these demonstrations and that this demand will grow as we get into calendar 2021. As we hit early and mid-October, we had a series of EV star demonstrations that we are really excited about with some very high-profile corporations in Northern California. These companies are seeking EV transportation services for their corporate campuses, and the EV Star is a perfect fit, not only operationally but financially due to reduced fill costs and lower vehicle maintenance over time. While the pandemic has made the sales process somewhat lumpy, we are doing demonstrations, performing follow-ups, and have several deals in the pipeline. I am really excited about the prospects because we have some customer names that would be tremendous validators for the GreenPower brand. While we are working hard to further the GreenPower name within the transit and school bus markets, we also are making considerable progress with potential OEM partners seeking an EV cabin chassis unit they can upfit to their specific needs. Quite simply, these OEM opportunities are massive. We performed on-site demonstrations last month and GreenPower cabin chassis units on-site at prospective OEM customers today. With our respective technical teams working through the logistics and integration, while customers are still not moving at pre-pandemic speeds, they are most definitely moving forward, and that pace seems to be accelerating. Subsequent to quarter end in October, we undertook our first demo of the new EV Star Cargo Plus to a prospective customer in California. The potential of this unit is exceptionally large given the increasing demand for the last mile transport of goods and services which we expect to accelerate in the quarters and years to come. We expect a remarkably busy demo period with this unit in the very near future as well. Before a recent capital raise, customers often showed interest but expressed caution giving our limited balance sheet. We are now seeing these interested parties come back to the table and revisit the conversation. There has never been a doubt that Green Power has built a great product at a competitive price point. But now that we have the capital to take full advantage, we are positioned for success. In closing, we continue to make tremendous progress with our sales pipeline. We are building a foundation of multiple small to medium-sized orders. We also are establishing our presence with major OEMs and other customers that could prove to be transformative. Finally, we have added a seasoned sales force to several key areas, including the southeast and southwest territories. With a proven track record in fleet sales and zero emissions knowledge, We look to expand our brand awareness across the country. These territory managers will work hand in hand on managing sales with ABC Bus and Creative Bus Sales within their respective regions. At this point, I would like to pass this call over to Brendan Riley, President of Green Power Motor Company, to discuss Green Power's operational highlights.
spk09: Thank you, Ryan, and thank you all that are here on the call today. As excited as I am about the progress the sales team is making, I'm equally excited about the substantial progress we're making driving costs out of our supply chain. I can't overemphasize how much of a priority this has been for us on the back of our recently completed financing. We've made incredible progress in the last 75 days. I learned very early on in my days at BYD that it's imperative to build a compelling product at a compelling price, independent of incentives. Subsidies are great and were critical to our access early on. And of course we'll continue to leverage them at every opportunity and moving into the future. That being said, it's critical that we stand on our own two feet and we're rapidly nearing the point that we can do that as a company. For those who've been following Tesla and have followed Tesla since its early days, we saw the exact same thing with some of their models. The Model 3, for example, initial sales were dependent on incentives, while costs were driven by supply chain. The end result was self-sustaining enterprise delivering a compelling product at a compelling price, and that's exactly where we're coming to here at Green Power. The Tesla Model 3 was originally dependent on a $7,500 tax credit people were taking advantage of. When that tax credit went away, Tesla had developed their supply chain to such an extent that they were able to remove that cost from the vehicle after that incentive went away. The reality is we have a significant competitive advantage regarding both price and performance. Similar vehicles to Green Powers are being offered by retrofitters at about a 50% higher cost that don't match our purpose-built vehicle's range, our payload, or independently proven reliability. They can't match our performance or really any of the product's performance because they're confined to the limitations of the retrofit vehicle that they're using to actually retrofit the electric components into our vehicle is a purpose-built from scratch vehicle that has been years in the making even with substantial resources this is recognized consistently by both customers and oems and recent demo tours and as a result we are seeing considerable growth in our sales pipeline with that i'd like to turn this over to our operator for questions and answers
spk05: We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then 2. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Christopher Souther with B. Reilly. Please go ahead.
spk02: Thanks for taking my question here. First point I wanted to ask about was the Green Commuter 100-unit follow-on. Were those expected to utilize the HVIP voucher program? And then maybe more broadly, does that program look to open back up? Curious how you and customers plan on approaching what looks like much less funding. Do you get a sense that some California customers might have been holding off that program opened back up before placing orders, and now that it's in place, they might move forward with or without vouchers. If you could just kind of talk about that a bit, it might be helpful.
spk01: Hey, Brendan, I can take that. This is Ryan Shetterly, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. So the Green Commuter deal will leverage some vouchers. However, there are several other programs that Green Commuter is able to take advantage of in order to further increase their fleet size over time. The Clean Mobility Program through the California Air Resource Board, which just closed last week, will be multiple rounds of funding, and that's just one of the additional programs that Green Commuter will be able to leverage. So there will be some HVIP vouchers, but it will be a healthy blend of multiple programs throughout the state.
spk09: and this is brendan speaking yeah we there there have been some customers uh that are waiting for hvip and are basically in the queue ready to place their orders right away we hope to service as many of those as possible before uh hvip funds you know the limited funds run out but uh yes that is typically what happens with incentives that people do wait around for them to become available often uh to purchase vehicles
spk02: Understood. And on the commercial vehicle side, can you talk about how the customer testing processes are going on that end? Maybe any initial feedback that you're getting from upfitters or other customers over there would be great.
spk09: So I'll let Ryan answer this after my quick comments. My comments, again, speaking with customers, is that they've never seen vehicles like ours before. They've only seen retrofit vehicles with our capability and capacity. So we're very optimistic. We'll see how many orders are placed and which ones place orders. But the initial responses that I've seen with customers meeting with them personally with the vehicles, has been incredibly positive and we are very optimistic that we're going to get some subsequent orders. And Ryan, you're in the throes of sales. Maybe you could put some color on this come.
spk01: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Brendan. So one of the statements that was made to us on one of myself and Brendan's several trips to the Midwest was, we understand that we're going to pay a premium for an electric vehicle. What we don't understand and we can't justify is paying a premium Ford electric vehicle with a reduced carrying capacity. That resonated a lot with Brendan and myself. It essentially validates where our position is at in the market. We bring a vehicle at a very competitive price point with a carrying capacity that allows for maximum flexibility in terms of how many passengers or how many wheelchair positions or how much cargo. can be carried on our chassis. That's one aspect of it. So financially, this pencils for some of the much larger builders out there. When you start talking to the engineering team, which they're not necessarily concerned with the dollars, they're concerned with how is this vehicle going to integrate with our fleet and how are we going to be able to load this up to capture the same success in the same market segments that we've been successful in so far. When they start talking about being able to carry, you know, the 4,000 to 5,000-pound range, their ears perk up. They've never seen anything like it, and they ask where we were at a year and a half ago.
spk02: That's good to hear. And then just the last one before I pass along. You know, we ended the quarter with three EV Stars and two EV Star cabin chassis in the inventory. As you look to build out the production over the next couple of months here, Is that a good ratio to think about where you see the sales pipeline developing as well? Or could you talk about just kind of the mix that you're seeing from the interest?
spk09: Well, Chris, we don't give guidance right now, but currently we're building 20 EV stars a month. And we have a run rate of five B school buses per month. And we anticipate that at the very minimum as our run rate. So that's where we are right now in production. We currently have some low floor transit products that are coming. They're going to be delivered here very shortly. And we don't have a run rate that we've talked about those. But as far as EB stars and school buses, we anticipate at the minimum a standard run rate right now of 20 a month plus five beasts per month.
spk03: And this is Mike Seifert here. Chris, just to add to Brennan's comments, in terms of timing, those 20 EV stars per month, we anticipate that those are going to begin delivering in two quarters time. And for the five B school buses, that run rate of five per month, we anticipate that's going to begin mid-2021. So just to give you a sense of timing.
spk02: Okay. No, that's helpful. Just the mix between, you know, transit versus cabin chassis, not something you can kind of give at this point, though. of that 20-month that you're building out?
spk03: I think what we do have within our supply chain is actually a lot of flexibility, such that in terms of the EV stars, there is the flexibility to move between different categories. But no, we have not provided that sort of granular detail. And over time, as you start to see announcements in terms of deliveries, At that time, we can certainly start to provide more guidance in terms of where we see that mix going.
spk02: Understood. Thanks, guys.
spk05: Our next question comes from Greg Lewis with BTIG. Please go ahead.
spk06: Yeah, thank you and good afternoon. I guess my first question is around conversations you're having. Clearly, you guys are out. out trying to drive incremental orders into the company. You touched on HVIP. But as I think about the customer mix you're looking at, realizing that everybody likes an incentive and everybody is interested in paying less if they can through a government subsidy, how much of the customer base that you're looking at are less sensitive to a government subsidy, i.e., you know, they're looking at a move into more environmentally friendly vehicles, they're doing a total cost of ownership analysis, and they simply want to do this regardless of subsidies. Any kind of color around that?
spk01: Yeah, so this is Ryan speaking. One of our key team members, Lisa McGee, who, you know, oversees and really puts out a lot of our data analytics, has produced a dozen or so route and fleet evaluations for customers all across the country. Once we show these customers what they're able to save as far as operational costs when it comes to charging and no transmission, no oil changes, they begin to see that this starts to pencil with or without subsidies. That's having key members on the team who are able to have that fleet knowledge and truly understand at a very granular level. It really helps us start building a case for some of these major fleets who are looking to transition to zero emissions, but just don't really understand what the benefit is going to be for them.
spk09: Yeah, and Chris, you know, this is, excuse me, Chris, Greg. This is Brendan speaking. Subsidies, we talk about subsidies being HVIP and other things, but there's also federal funding, which is in a way a form of a subsidy. Transit properties here in the US, most of them that leverage federal funding, which is most of them, to buy their buses, they get typically 80% of their bus purchase price paid for. So we see that market continually being driven The feds will pay for 80% of an electric bus or diesel bus. And we're seeing that there's interest in that space, you know, without the HVIP and other programs. There's also additional programs sprouting out in other parts of the world, including Canada, which is a big market for us. And we anticipate a lot of, as Fraser alluded to, we expect a lot of traction in that market But I would say from my humble experience and personal experience, anecdotally, that about half of the customers we talk to are not solely going to buy because of the subsidy. There's about a 50% customer base out there right now of customers that I've at least engaged with saying whether incentives come or not, they're going to be buying an EV. because they see, as Ryan alluded to, the savings and operations. And some just feel it's their ethical and moral responsibility to the environment not to drive polluting vehicles.
spk06: Okay, great. That was super helpful. And then just one more quick one for me. Just as it seems like we're seeing a reacceleration in COVID and potential lockdowns, at least in North America, As we think about, hey, we're planning to ramp up to the 20 vehicle, the 20 EV stars and the five beasts over the next, I guess, six months. Just in thinking about supply chain, is there any risk about that? If we start to see some lockdowns or shutdowns in terms of the company's ability to kind of hit those numbers, i.e. any kind of concerns around that?
spk09: Craig, that's another really good question. So we're not planning to ramp up. We are at a rate of 20 units per month right now as production. Again, there's a latency because you have to start production. It takes a while to build those things. But we're underway in production for that number of vehicles at that run rate. And yes, there is a risk with COVID. We don't We don't have rose-colored glasses on, and we're not telling people, don't believe your lying eyes. There is COVID possibly coming, and there's a risk to all of our supply chain and all of our production capabilities. This is not something we can really plan for right now. We do have a very, I would say, robust supply chain that does hedge us against any single place or any single location geographically that could be impacted by COVID. And we do have a very international, broad base of suppliers that we can pull from and even secondary and tertiary suppliers for the same product or the same type of product. But at the end of the day, there's no way to prepare really for a shutdown. A shutdown is a shutdown. But thanks for that question. That's a very good question.
spk06: All right. Hey, thank you very much for your time, and everybody have a great day.
spk05: Our next question comes from Craig Irwin with Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead. Craig, your line might be muted. Are you able to hear us?
spk08: Thank you. Good evening, and thanks for taking my questions. So the federal money out there is really the good news right now, right? And, you know, that money is basically in a lockbox, ready for many of these putative customers to spend. And the mechanics of that are what become pretty important. So can you maybe talk us through the process and procedures for individual customers to – to spend their money that they're awarded under, you know, low no, bus and bus facilities, and other major FTA programs. And, you know, how this can potentially end up being purchases for you, what the timeline ends up being, and, you know, how this impacts follow-on business with these customers.
spk09: Well, Craig, I think that's a good question for Ryan.
spk01: Yeah, absolutely. So this year, I'll start with the low no and I'll dissect this down a bit. But the low no program was announced pretty much right before everything shut down. We've had some indications that there would be some engagement with some transit properties. And then, of course, everything happened. So typically a process like that takes a few months. The first question that has to be addressed is, did the transit property write Green Power Motor Company into the grant? And if they did not, that will have to go through an RFP process. Sometimes transportation authority boards, right? So a transit property board may not allow to single source a product as they want to keep the competitive landscape running at an optimal level. In our case, we have not made any announcements regarding any low-no success, and I'll leave it at that. We will continue to support any transit properties who have received funds who may be interested in our product.
spk08: Okay, excellent. And then I guess, you know, several tech companies have even postponed back in the office work until June of next year, some even later. Um, but the, you know, the, the good news, I guess, is your, um, your school bus product is ideally situated for what's probably a nice uptake in, um, in longer term spending. So, you know, given that the kids so much lower, um, negative response to COVID and the importance of actually having children in the classroom, One would think that these buses see some pretty nice demand over the next couple of years. Can you maybe talk about the breadth of interactions you're having either through your sales partners or directly with individual school districts? How much of the overall buy in school buses in the next year do you expect to be electric, particularly in California? And is there anything specific about your product that you think makes it more competitive than some of these other offerings right now that might have us be optimistic on the sales outlook?
spk04: Yes, absolutely. Sorry, Craig. I apologize if I interrupted the last part of your question there. But I'll start with sort of a context or overview of and this somewhat ties back to the theme on some of the earlier questions on our call, is that one of the things that we found through the pandemic is that parents are taking on a much stronger role as advocates for the dependents in their household, and in particular the children. So whereas a year or two years ago, there was a much lower level of awareness in terms of harmful effects on children with diesel-emitting school buses, whether it's diesel or gasoline-powered school buses, these parents over the past six to nine months have a much better appreciation of the harmful effects on the development of their children's lungs And they're starting to speak out and they're starting to push for change. And one of the drivers of that change is that there are funds sprinkled across the US and various states with the VW mitigation trust funds, which have been very slow to be released in the market. But the one area that we've seen a constant on is that most states have an approach or a plan to disperse funds around zero emission school buses. So we think there'll be a combination of what Ryan was referring to earlier in terms of one of Biden's stated objectives on his website is to convert the school buses to zero emissions combined with funding that can be accessed or available. And that between the two, we see that as drivers for you know, the uptick in demand that we're starting to build for now. So it's important to note that, you know, that when we undertook this and after a lot of discussions internally in terms of the timing, you know, do we wait? Do we wait until everybody's back in their classroom and then start building? Or do we build now based on the demand that Ryan is seeing in particular with these, you know, these extensive on-site ride and drive and demonstrations that he's done in so many different jurisdictions. So that is a framework is, you know, we're not building for this fall or winter that given the timeline that it takes to build the product, you know, we're building for deliveries, you know, starting into the middle of next year before the next, you know, school season starts next September. So that's sort of our strategy, if you will. And then I'll let Ryan sort of speak to sort of the engagement at the street level in terms of his ride and drives that he's conducted.
spk01: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Frazier. So, Craig, to talk a little bit about the differences in our product and how the engagement has been with the market since uh earlier uh later the later part of september uh we actually did 10 demonstrations uh up to three per day typically it was one in the morning and one in the afternoon typically within the same region and what we're seeing is board members and superintendents show up to these and they want to know how our product compares to the market The Beast is truly unlike anything else. It's got about a 10% carrying capacity in terms of pupil capacity. It's got higher. It's got 194.5 kilowatt-hour battery pack, which is about 20% over everybody else's standard. Pass-through storage, air disc brakes, air ride suspension. I can go on and on and on. When I tell the transit – or I'm sorry, the school districts that, hey, we're not going to sell you a Cadillac and then bring you a Honda – We're going to, what we are showing you, what we're representing you is what we're going to deliver. That really resonates. You've seen some other companies come in and try to capitalize on grant dollars by proposing a bare bones bus and winning their category. And by the time the school district realizes that they need to get this vehicle up to their standards, as far as air conditioning and some of the other amenities that school districts in California are used to having. and they compare that spec to the Green Power Motor Company B spec, there's absolutely zero question. We've seen significant response from some of our recent demonstrations, and we look forward to capitalizing on those opportunities. Several of the school districts that we've worked with, and we did do a press release on the ride and drives, so several of the districts that we've worked with have already been awarded money and now they're just in the decision-making process. Is the beast going to stack up to the Lion product or the Bluebird product? And I'm very confident in what we're bringing to the table, and we look forward to some favorable responses here in the near term.
spk09: Great. Thanks again for taking my questions.
spk05: Our next question comes from Tate Sullivan with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.
spk07: All right. Thank you. And following up that last comment, it sounds like very busy with demos to school districts. Is it a scale of magnitude greater in terms of the frequency of demos to potential school bus customers versus delivery customers versus shuttle customers? Or is it about even across those three markets? Can you just comment on that, please?
spk01: Yeah. The beauty of what we bring to the table from a market perspective is we have something for We've got something for everybody. If the school bus market slows down, we've got a delivery vehicle. If the delivery vehicle slows down, we've got passenger transportation. There's something essentially for everybody. And the fluidity of the EV Star chassis is really what gives us that flexibility in terms of addressing different markets. What we're doing right now is we're sowing seeds. We're getting in front of the right people. We're getting in front of the top levels of the organizations that we're working with. through the contacts of Brendan Riley and myself and some of the other key members on the team. And we're showing them what we've got. It's not vaporware. It's there. In some cases, these vehicles have been left on property, as I said in my opening comments. And we're getting extraordinarily positive feedback. So we look to exploit Each market, as an exploit may not be the right word, but we look to explore each marketplace, and we will go where the business is at. But in any case, we've got something to show, whether it's school districts, delivery, paratransit, microtransit, regular transit properties, you name it, we've got something.
spk07: And thank you, and sort of tailing some of the other questions in the call, is right now in this current environment, is the pushback from customers that they want to see the specs from other companies or that they're waiting for funding, or can you just generalize some of the pushback you're getting from customers to finalize in an order, please, if possible.
spk01: Some of the things that we've heard, I mean, really, it's just a matter of timing, right? You know, the converters were doing demos, you know, a year and a half ago or two years ago, and that's kind of what I elaborated a little bit on one of my responses earlier in the call. Some, you know, some OEMs have dipped their toe in the water with people who are converting Ford products, right? And they convert those Ford products, they put their body on it, and they realize, oh, no, I've only got, you know, 1,000 pounds of carrying capacity. I can only fit eight people in this bus. Whereas on the Green Power bus, there's no – they're not giving up any passenger carrying capacity at all. And, you know, so it's more of a matter of timing. And then, you know, of course, you'll hear, oh, well, you know, COVID just really, you know, set us back a little bit. But the uptick in demonstration activity and the uptick for requests for quotes and the uptick in questions that, you know, start sewing some of these deals together have exponentially grown over the last couple of months, despite the uptick in COVID activity. We were at a San Francisco or a Silicon Valley campus yesterday, and their director of transportation said it was the first time he'd been on campus since March. And that's super encouraging. The guy came to see our vehicle and test it and validate it and do what he needed to do. And they're moving forward. So they're planning on opening back up, of course, all of the personal protection equipment and UV light treatment that would run through the HVAC system. That's all going to be additional equipment that we haven't had to install in the past, but we can do now. And we've taken our precautions. We've vetted out our customers. They know what they're looking for, and it's time to get back to work.
spk07: Thank you for all that context. Have a good rest of the night.
spk05: This concludes our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Frasier Atkinson, CEO, for any closing remarks.
spk04: Thank you everyone for listening in to our second quarter earnings call. As you hopefully can take away, we've really undertaken a massive step forward in terms of taking advantage of our production capacity that we worked on building up over the past year to two years. and have increased our sales activity despite the pandemic and despite the challenges with having to deal with the pandemic. So we're certainly very excited in terms of what we're going to accomplish between now and our next call. In the meantime, I would encourage you to, given that there's a number of EV manufacturers and startups and so on that are populating our overall system is I would encourage you to have a look at a short video that we posted under the Investor Center. It's only about a minute and a half long, and if you haven't seen it before, it highlights and features pretty much most, if not all, of our different products or product categories and really gives you a sense of our vehicles actually operating in in the environment that they're intended to so i'd encourage you to have a look at that and once again thanks for your time if you have any follow-up questions feel free to reach out to any team member and we look forward to talking to you in the near future the conference has now concluded thank you for attending today's presentation you may now discuss Thank you.
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