Solid Power, Inc.

Greetings and welcome to the Solid Power, Inc. First Quarter 2024 Financial Results and Business Update Call. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Jennifer Almquist, Investor Relations for Solid Power. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm joined on today's call by Solid Power's President and Chief Executive Officer, John VanSkoder, and Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Papsiski. A copy of today's earnings release is available on the Investor Relations section of Solid Power's website, www.solidpowerbattery.com. I'd like to remind you that parts of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements as defined by the U.S. securities laws. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions about future events and are based on currently available information as to the outcome and timing of future events. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, Solid Power disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances. For a discussion of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in today's forward-looking statement, please see Solid Power's most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be found on the company's website at www.solidpowerbattery.com. With that, let me turn it over to John VanSkoder.

Thank you, Jen. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining today's call. I'll begin today with a brief update on our progress. After that, I'll hand the call off to Kevin for the financial review. Then we'll open up the call for Q&A. When we last spoke, we outlined our 2024 goals. They are to expand our electrolyte capabilities and available market, advance to A2 sample cell designs, execute for our partners, and strengthen our presence in Korea. 2024 is off to a good start with continued strong execution on all four of these priorities during the first quarter. With respect to electrolyte, we expanded our sampling program with ongoing shipments to new potential customers. We made progress on our A2 cell design and are executing on a path that we believe will enable us to deliver higher performing cells by target dates. we continue to execute for our partners most notably through strong early execution on our sk on r d technology transfer and line installation agreements and we further established our team and offices in korea providing the basis for ongoing engagement in the region looking a little more closely at each of these goals starting with electrolyte we continue to see growing interest in our electrolyte powder During the quarter, we made shipments to our existing partners. We also made repeat shipments to a potential customer after receiving positive feedback and shipped our electrolyte to a new potential OEM customer we are excited to work with. Our electrolyte has now been shipped to 10 potential customers outside of our existing joint development relationships. We've also continued to invest in our new electrolyte R&D lab, which we are targeting to complete sometime mid-year. The goal of this lab will be to optimize continuous electrolyte production, reduce the cost of our powder, and develop future generations of even higher performing electrolytes. We continue to believe our proprietary electrolyte represents a great long-term opportunity for our industry and for our shareholders, and we remain committed to continuing to expand our capabilities in available market in this area. Turning to cell development, our team continues to refine our A2 cell design with a goal of delivering A2 cells to our partners by the end of this year. Our A2 cells are designed to improve our cell performance, including energy and power. We believe these improvements also represent an incremental step towards commercial solid-state technology. With respect to cell performance, our team has also been working hard to better address the handful of A1 cells that went into thermal runaway earlier this year. The team is improving our internal testing capabilities, performing detailed analysis of our cell reactions, and thoroughly evaluating the materials and processes used in production. We've been able to identify minor changes in our cell's chemistry and design, as well as improvements in our manufacturing process that we have factored into our plans for the A2 builds. Battery technology development is challenging, and our team is energized by the opportunity to overcome hurdles and demonstrate the potential of solid-state batteries. I'm proud of our team's work and want to express my appreciation for their commitment to driving realistic, thoughtful solutions. Turning to our partners, since signing the expanded agreement with SKON in January, we've begun collaboration in earnest. In April, we hosted SKON for three weeks here in Colorado to kick off the tech transfer process under our R&D license. During those three weeks, we conducted workshops, training, and other hands-on learning with respect to our cell production processes. This was valuable time spent and beneficial for both sides as we set a solid foundation for future collaboration. We also sent a team to Korea to begin work on the SK-ON line installation. I'm pleased to say that we're nearing design freeze on SK-ON's new EV cell line. All the line's major equipment is now on order, keeping us well on track to complete the line in the first half of 2025. Both the tech transfer and line installation efforts will ultimately increase collaboration and leverage the development efforts on our solid-state technology across the U.S., Europe, and Asia in the years to come. We also continue our close collaboration with both BMW and Ford under our joint development agreements. We continue to value these relationships and look forward to continuing to work closely with our OEM partners throughout the year. And lastly, Korea. We've made progress in solidifying our Korean presence. We now have an entire team on the ground in Korea with a combination of expat Solid Power employees and local expertise who onboarded in our SP2 facility a couple of weeks ago. This team is located in Seoul, where we are establishing a home base for driving further engagement across the peninsula with potential customers, vendors, government agencies, and others in the forefront of battery technology development. Before I wrap up, I also want to say we're making good progress on our planned investor event for later this year. We look forward to sharing more details with you in the coming months.