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spk01: Greetings and welcome to Exos Inc's second quarter 2022 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session. At that time, if you have a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone keypad. If at any time should you require operator assistance during the conference, please press star 0. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Exos' General Counsel, Kristen Romero. Thank you. You may begin.
spk13: Thank you, Operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Hosting the call with me today are Exos' Chief Executive Officer, Dakota Simler, Chief Operating Officer, Giordano Sordone, and Chief Financial Officer, Kinipli Afamiki. Ahead of this call, Exos issued its second quarter 2022 earnings press release and a presentation, which we will reference today. This can be found on the investor relations section of our website at investors.exostrucks.com. 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. Today's presentation also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures and performance metrics. Please refer to the information contained in the company's second quarter 2022 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, let me turn it over to Dakota.
spk02: Thanks, Kristen, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today for our second quarter 2022 earnings call. We are excited to update you on another quarter of growth in both deliveries and revenue for Exos. During our call today, I'll cover the business highlights we had over the quarter and also updates since the end of the quarter, including the additional fundraise we announced today. GEO will provide you an update on our manufacturing progress, as well as details on our recent engineering partnerships. And to wrap up, Kingsley will provide you a detailed review of our second quarter financial results and our outlook for the second half of 2022. But first, I would like to give you a brief reminder on our mission and the problems we are solving for fleet customers. At Exos, we are focused on providing the most durable and reliable electric trucks with purpose-built battery and powertrain technology designed specifically for the rigors of demanding commercial fleet applications. Our proprietary technology allows fleets the ability to unlock total costs of ownership or TCO savings unmatched in the industry. On top of that, our energy services, such as the Exos Hub and Exos Chargers, help fleets remove roadblocks for electric vehicle adoption by enabling fast, high-power charging for our customers. Our customer success initiatives, including our charging solutions and fleet management platform, enable fleets to seamlessly transition to electric vehicles while remaining focused on reducing total cost of ownership. Our efforts in building a robust sales and customer support organization are continuing to pay off as our revenue for the second quarter of 2022 was $9.8 million, up roughly 40% compared to the first quarter of 2022. We also announced some new partners during the second quarter. We entered an e-axle partnership with Allison Transmission, a leading supplier of transmissions and gear systems for the commercial vehicle industry, to develop vehicle and powertrain technology. We are also working with Thermo King, a leading manufacturer of transport refrigeration units, to develop zero-emission TRU systems for commercial fleet operators. Some of the highlights of our expanding customer relationships include the delivery of vehicles to FedEx ground operators in Canada, making them the first Canadian-based Exos customer, delivery of 58 vehicles to merchant fleet, and initial delivery to help them reach their goal of deploying 40,000 electric vehicles. In addition to expanding our customer relationships and deliveries, we have broadened our distribution network to put more trucks on the road. As I'm sure you all saw last week, we recently announced that we have signed a dealership agreement and made initial deliveries to Gabrielli Truck Sales, marking the entrance of our dealership distribution network into the Northeast region. With this new dealership agreement, Exos vehicles will now be available across New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. This is an exciting opportunity for Exos as we continue to build upon our already strong dealership distribution networks in the United States. It will also ensure we provide industry-leading support to commercial and municipal fleets in the region with the leading dealership group as our partner. We continue to work closely with all of our dealership partners in 10 different states and multiple locations to provide coverage to areas where EXOS does not already have existing support and distribution services. We expect our regional distribution and service footprint to continue to grow significantly as we make inroads with new fleet customers and service providers throughout the country. Our focus over the second half of 2022 is optimizing our supply chain and manufacturing operations to build profitable vehicles as we continue to scale. We also plan to commence manufacturing of our industry-first charging solutions, such as the Exos Hub, which will enable rapid deployment of charging infrastructure for fleets. In addition to our focus on customer and delivery growth, Exos has continued to build stronger partnerships with our existing strategic partner, the Algema Automotive Company. The Algema Automotive Company has been an incredible partner in Exos' growth through direct investment and facilitating commercial relationships with global fleet customers. The Aljamae Automotive Company continues to invest into Exos through an adjoining convertible, which Kingsley will discuss in a moment. In May, during our Fleet Week event, we launched Exosphere, our fleet intelligence software platform, which helps our customers minimize the TCO for electric fleets. Our fleet management platform is the most connected vehicle ecosystem for electric trucks available today. This platform is already in use by customers, including our launch customer, Unifirst, who's using the platform to track the health of its fleet in real time. We also showcase two new trucks to service Class 6, 7, and 8 fleet customers. The MDXT platform is a Class 6 or 7 medium-duty electric vehicle that can travel up to 270 miles on a single charge. We are proud to have Republic National Distributing Company, one of the nation's leading wholesale beverage distributors, as a launch partner. The HDXT, on the other hand, is a Class 8 heavy-duty tractor designed for regional haul fleets and can travel up to 230 miles on a single charge. McLean Company, a leading supply chain services and distribution company, has agreed to a pilot program with 10 HDXT vehicles. The launch of these new platforms will continue to help EXOS accomplish its objective to build the fleet of the future with our innovative solutions to produce platforms that go farther, last longer, and provide a more cost-effective vehicle for all of our customers. Finally, I would like to touch on the recent climate bill that the Senate approved this past Sunday. The climate bill includes an estimated $369 billion in expenditures related to climate change and energy security, including tax and other incentives to promote production of electric vehicles in the United States. We believe that this bill could provide an exciting opportunity to help grow our customer base and accelerate the decarbonization of commercial transportation in the U.S. We're excited to have more support, not only from the federal government, but also incentives from states such as California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Texas. With that, I will now turn the call over to Gio.
spk12: Thanks, Dakota. Key areas of focus for us over the quarter have been enabling the acceleration in step-down deliveries and improving our cost structure while laying the groundwork for better gross margins. We continue to accelerate the rate of production of both vehicles and battery systems despite supply chain headwinds. Given the supply chain environment, we've been taking on inventory of key components as a way to de-risk vehicle deliveries, and we've set ourselves up for growth over the coming quarters. This front-loading of inventory is temporary, and we anticipate being able to move closer to just-in-time inventory management as the supply chain environment improves. Our automated battery assembly line at FlexOne in Tennessee is producing its initial battery packs. Scaling up this line will be an important step in cost reduction on the Lyra series battery, both in labor and logistics, and it will allow battery production to catch up to chassis assembly, which takes place in the same facility. This automation project has come in under budget, and we remain focused on capital efficiency as we scale up. We've also continued to make improvements to our information system that will allow us to scale while controlling the quality of our vehicles and battery systems. The supply chain, manufacturing, and engineering teams are working closely on reducing the cost of producing our step-down. We have a clear path to begin delivering gross margin positive units in the first half of 2023. These plans include engineering and design changes to optimize the step-in architecture through more efficient packaging, part count reduction, and sourcing more content domestically. The supply chain team under Steve Iveson's leadership has been focused on reshoring efforts and entering into long-term agreements with key suppliers to bring costs down. The Exos manufacturing team remains focused on reducing the amount of time it takes to build a vehicle. From flowing quality parts to our plants, assembling those parts into a chassis, installing bodies, and supporting customer delivery. We feel confident in the adjustments we're making and the team's ability to execute on these important cost reduction initiatives. In addition to cost reduction efforts, we're also supporting additional vehicle deliveries by helping our fleet customers overcome charging infrastructure challenges. These challenges can range from permitting delays for charging infrastructure, long lead times on the equipment itself, project complexity for high-powered depot charging, and the expense of traditional DC fast charging options and associated construction costs. While these realities threaten to limit the rate of electric truck adoption across the entire industry, Exos is well-positioned to help fleets overcome these challenges with a suite of charging products and services. We recently began offering 30-kilowatt DC fast chargers that are easy and affordable for fleets to install. We've also made great progress on the Exos Hub. The Hub is a mobile charging station that can be used to charge five electric trucks simultaneously while minimizing the power draw from the electric grid. The Exos Energy team helps fleet choose the right charging solutions for their depots and assists with getting that equipment installed. And finally, we're extremely proud to have announced key strategic partnerships with industry leaders in their respective fields, Allison Transmission and Thermo King. We announced our partnership with Allison Transmission for the development of powertrain systems on our heavy-duty products in early May. The partnership with Allison Transmission is already off to a great start, and they have delivered the initial e-gen power e-axle hardware for integration. validation, and testing in the heavy-duty vehicle platforms that are designed and built by Exos. We continue to work closely with Thermo King to integrate their zero-emission refrigeration technology for vehicles to support applications like beverage and food delivery. So in summary, we continue to believe that we're on the right path to make significant progress in scaling our business, and we are proud of our team's hard work during the quarter. The opportunity for clean fleet and logistics solutions in both the public and private sectors remain immense. And we expect to continue to benefit from the secular shift to a net zero carbon economy. I'll now pass the call over to our CFO, Kingsley Abimiki. Thanks, Gio, and good afternoon, everyone.
spk10: Good to be back again. XS is making good progress in growing deliveries and establishing the systems we need as we scale. I will review our financial performance for the second quarter, our balance sheet and liquidity, and conclude with our outlook for the second half of the year. Our revenue for the second quarter increased by roughly 40% to $9.8 million, compared to $7 million in the first quarter of 2022. This is in line with our guidance, and was driven by an increase in units delivered by roughly 30% to 73 units compared to 56 in the first quarter of the year. Our cost of goods sold for the quarter was $14.9 million compared to $10.2 million in the previous quarter. Gross margin during the quarter was a loss of $5.1 million compared to a loss of $3.2 million in the previous quarter. We expect to be gross margin positive at the unit level in the first half of 2023. This will be driven by reductions in unit material costs due to our ongoing engineering programs, the benefits of increased scale, and also opportunities for price increases on the back of strong end-user demand. As Gio mentioned, this is a core area of focus for all our operations, and we are engaging with all divisions within the company to drive efficiencies at scale. Turning over to expenses, our second quarter operating expenses were $22.7 million compared to $20.3 million in the first quarter. Research and development expenses for the quarter were $7.6 million compared to $6.9 million in the first quarter. R&D expenses relative to revenue were lower for the quarter, but detailed in our last call, we expect this trend to continue over the rest of the year. Sales and marketing expenses were $3 million in the second quarter compared to $2 million in the previous quarter. Finally, general and administrative expenses for the quarter were $12.1 million compared to $11.3 million in the first quarter of 2022. Our non-GAAP operating losses were $25.8 million compared to $22.1 million in the first quarter of 22. Our operating cash flow less capex, or free cash flow, was $51 million, $6.5 million of which was investment in purchase of property and equipment. As Gio mentioned, we now expect there to be significant savings in capital expenditure relative to our prior guidance, and we expect cash use for PP&E in the second half of the year to be roughly in line with the first half. We close the quarter with cash, cash equivalents, and available-for-sale securities of $85.2 million, which includes $3 million of restricted cash. Over the second quarter, we raised $4.3 million in equity capital under our $125 million existing equity purchase agreement with Yorkville Advisors. Subsequent to the quarter, we issued $55 million in convertible securities, $20 million to the Algemea Automotive Company, an existing investor Dakota mentioned in us, and a strategic partner of Exos, and $35 million in convertible securities to Yorkville advisors. Pro forma for these transactions, cash, cash equivalent, and available for sale securities at the end of the quarter would have been $140.2 million. We have made significant progress since the end of the quarter in focusing operations and reducing cash use. As Gio mentioned, a significant amount of our cash used for operations was an inventory or prepaid inventory buildup. Having built up this safety stock, we will be making inventory investments selectively and expect the rate of increase in our inventory position to fall. In addition, we are taking a number of targeted steps to focus programs and reduce overall expenses, benefiting from the inbuilt, flexible, and variable cost structure of our business. Finally, wrapping up with our business outlook, we continue to be focused on growing and delivering sequential growth in deliveries over this year. For the second half of 2022, we expect deliveries to be in the range of 150 and 200 units, with expected revenues between $18.75 and $25.6 million. We also expect non-GAAP operating loss in the range of $43 million to $52 million. Thank you very much, and I will now turn you back over to Dakota.
spk02: Thanks, Kingsley. Before we open it up for questions, I want to express a great deal of gratitude to our team for their incredible efforts and constant contributions to our success, as well as our partners, customers, and shareholders for their ongoing support. We remain optimistic about the future for Exos based on market growth, our technology platform, and the exceptional talent we have here at Exos. I will now turn the call over to the operator to open the line for questions.
spk08: Operator? Thank you.
spk09: If you would like to register for a question, Press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a three-tone prompt to acknowledge your request. If your question has been answered and you would like to withdraw your registration, please press the 1 followed by the 3. And one moment, please, for the first question. First question comes from the line of Mike Schliske with DA Davidson. Please proceed with your question.
spk04: Okay, good afternoon and thank you. Can we start off maybe just talking about the cadence of deliveries between the third quarter and the fourth quarter? Just to confirm, you're expecting sequential increases both quarters, right, from the prior? Or are there unusual large chunks of shipments that might make that not happen this coming half?
spk02: Thanks, Mike, for the question. We are continuing to expect quarter-over-quarter sequential improvement in deliveries for vehicles. As you know, we have some large, large fleet customers that take big, bulky deliveries where it may not be 10 or 20 trucks. It might be a large volume of that quarter's portion of production. And so sometimes it can be chunky, but we're still focused on making quarter-over-quarter improvements.
spk04: Excellent. Outstanding. There were two terms on your prepared comments that I had not heard on 2Q conference calls so far, and that is just-in-time production and positive gross margins in the first part of 2023. So congrats on both of those things. Can we discuss whether – well, can we discuss first the just-in-time production story? I mean, obviously, it's something all manufacturers strive for. Once the supply chain is complete, Is that the, is just-in-time prepared to go, or do you have to have a little more volume to ensure that you get the kind of maximum out of the operation?
spk08: Hey, Mike, this is Geo.
spk12: Yeah, so we're working on both of those things, and like we said in our remarks, have clear sight to achieving those within the first half of next year. As far as just-in-time inventory goes, I think it's too early to declare a victory on some of our supply chain challenges. But as we noted, we've built up inventory and plan to move closer to just-in-time in the future. We are starting to see moderate signs of improvements and kind of light at the end of the tunnel from a supply chain perspective. Some of the key components that we're sourcing, including some that Involved chips have gone down from 52 weekly times down to 26. That's just one example in one of our computers that goes onto the vehicle. So we are seeing some improvement there, and I'll pass it to Kingsley to answer the other part of your question.
spk10: Hey, Mike. It's Kingsley here. Just building up on gross margins. Just to maybe take a level set, we've always believed that this is a high gross margin business, and just remind the group that we were positive gross margin in our deliveries in the first half of last year and also the year before that. This is a core area of focus for all of us in the company in a number of ways. First of all, we are selectively taking price action in the face of continued demand, and that's being well-received. Secondly, when you look at our R&D costs, yes, we're investing in new products, but a key part of our R&D is actually investments to reduce costs and to optimize the bond for the materials and working closely with GEO's team in the supply chain. Finally, when you look across the supply chain way, we're having discussions in a number of long-term agreements with certain key components, We have executed a number of those earlier this year, and that's what gives us the positivity, being positive about being positive growth margin towards the end of the first quarter, first half of the year, next year.
spk04: To follow up there, Kingsley, I mean, look, you have had, I think it was 15% positive growth margin in the past in certain quarters where you had, you know, somewhat low sales. Can you maybe ballpark for us? The levels, when you say positive, are we talking about, you know, just above zero, or can you get back to those 15% at some point next year?
spk10: Yeah, and that's a good question, Mike. I think we're not going to go through that right now and give an exact guidance on that. But, you know, what we will say is that in the medium to long term, we very much believe that this is a high-margin business, particularly on our step-down products. We have all gone through, for the last year, extraordinary supply chain disruption, which we as a company have co-focused in the entire sector as well. And the actions that we're taking, whether it's restoring here to North America, executing some long-term agreements, thinking through key parts of the bomb and the truck, are things that we're taking that gives us that confidence that we will be a strong margin business.
spk08: Okay. Thanks so much for the color, guys. I'll pass it along.
spk09: And the next question is from the line of Jerry Rivish with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.
spk06: Thanks. Good afternoon, everyone.
spk08: Good afternoon, Jerry. How are you doing?
spk06: Hi. Doing well, thanks.
spk07: Appreciate the time, Dakota and team. I'm wondering if we could just talk about at what volume levels do you folks anticipate getting to gross profit positive in the first half of 23. So sequentially, you folks are looking to, at the midpoint, increase production by about 50 trucks back half versus first half. Is that the same cadence that you envision, first half 23 versus back half 22, to get to that gross profit positive bogey? Can you just expand on that, if you don't mind?
spk02: Yeah, absolutely, Mike. Absolutely, Jerry, I apologize. Happy to give a bit more context on this. I think when we think about gross margin on a per unit basis, there's a few different components that comprise that. One is our direct material costs. Two are our allocated costs and our overhead costs. And when we think about those on a direct material cost basis, we actually are really confident, as Kingsley alluded to, because of our long-term agreements with suppliers, to be gross margin profitable and have really clear line of sight to that. I think that some of those other indirect costs that we see as being the levers that we need to turn, and that ties directly into your volume question. It's not entirely volume dependent. As you know, there's been some spikes and disruptions in the cost of freight or the cost of logistics over the past year, and some of those changes in indirect costs can impact our overall gross margin for each of those vehicles. So I don't want to guide to a specific number, but I think as we've mentioned before, we're going to continue to grow those deliveries quarter over quarter and really make sure that we're getting to a point where we can guide to a gross margin basis on a unit basis and then eventually gross margin for the quarter or for a period.
spk07: And Dakota, just to make sure we're on the same page with you, when you say gross profit on a per unit basis, do you mean just the gross margin that we see for the company as a whole, or does that exclude any overhead? I just want to make sure I understand what you mean when you say gross profit positive on a per unit basis.
spk10: Hey, Derek, Kingsley, I'll take that. So when we're talking about growth margin unit basis, we are including direct material costs, direct indirect costs, overhead rates, all of that. The number you'll see on the GAAP financials have certain GAAP adjustments, which are non-cash adjustments. So when we talk about unit basis, we are including overhead.
spk06: Okay, super.
spk07: And then can you just give us a rough flavor out of the cost structure as it stands today within cost of goods sold? You know, what proportion is fixed cost scalable overhead versus variable cost as we think about incremental margins?
spk10: Sure, absolutely. So when we look at the cost of each truck or step-down product, I'd say roughly 70% of that is direct material costs. And that number moves around, and sometimes it's a bit high, sometimes it's slightly lower. And the rest are, you know, other overhead costs and freight and rent and so forth. And when we think about the pathways for the gross margin, A, you're right, we're amortizing more trucks, fixed costs over more trucks. But in addition, there are very specific programs that we have with our engineering team that we believe will significantly bring down the direct material costs. And, Jerry, that is the benefit of having core engineering capability like we have in Exos. We're able to work across the whole company and focus and bring down costs in all categories and not just amortized trucks, fixed costs over more trucks.
spk06: Okay. I appreciate the discussion. Thank you.
spk08: Thanks, Jerry.
spk09: And the next question comes from the line of Dan Ives with Wedbush Securities. Please proceed with your question.
spk11: Hey, guys, Sam Brandeis on for Dan. Quick question. Within this macro environment, can you just talk about what the pipeline demand is looking for you guys right now and kind of how you see it going forward as well in the next six to 12 months? Thanks.
spk02: Absolutely. Thanks for the question. So I think even in this supply chain environment where we have continued to see disruptions to components that go into vehicles, The existing industry has not been able to keep up with the demand for traditional commercial vehicles. And so what we've seen in the last quarter, continuing into early 3Q, is that demand has remained strong, particularly as replacement vehicle stock has been relatively low. Customers are continuing to order more zero-emissions vehicles. The other thing that we're starting to see is fleets are taking a more proactive stance and really trying to proactively plan procurement over the next few years as several emissions regulations begin to hit their different operations in places like California and some of the EPA changes that will put some of their trucks out of compliance. So demand has remained consistently strong over the quarter, and we expect it to remain strong for the remaining half of the year.
spk08: Great, thank you.
spk09: And the next question comes from the line of Donovan Schaefer with Northland Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
spk05: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I want to follow up on the emissions, California, EPA stuff. that Dan was just asking about. So, I know, you know, there's the Inflation Reduction Act, as you say. There are other incentives, and that's kind of the, you know, the carrot part of kind of the carrots and sticks incentivization. But I want to get with the sticks part of it. You know, there's some niche things. I think in California, one of the emissions regulations is coming out sooner than later. is around the reefer units, the thermo-keying attachment reefer units. I think those need to start running on a dedicated electric source instead of auxiliary power running off of the diesel engine. So that has to get converted even before the vehicles do. And I believe you're able to provide batteries on a standalone basis, a battery module, just specifically for powering that auxiliary load. Then you also have, let's see. The, you know, small, other auxiliary loads could be affected. I know California is rolling out legislation that's going into effect that bans, you know, leaf blowers and other kinds of, you know, chore-type products. But there are, there can be auxiliary loads run on vehicles. So I'm curious if you can just give a breakdown or give an update on that. what some of those sticks are, kind of more specifically, and when they might hit or when they can really drive. I know police can be planning for it now, but just so we have the kind of full scope of what to monitor.
spk08: Can you give an update there?
spk02: Absolutely. Thanks, Donovan, for that question. So we'll start really with the areas that Powered by Exos, our powertrain division, is focused on. So as you mentioned, the transport refrigeration unit industry is one of the first industries that's going to be impacted by new CARB regulations. And there are various requirements with different phase-in dates, the first of which being in 2023 that will require a zero emissions component, which is going to have a huge impact on the refrigerated transport business. And that does mean that there will actually be some diesel vehicles with a zero emissions transportation refrigeration unit. We're particularly excited about this opportunity because, as you know, we have a relationship with Thermo King to co-develop zero emissions transport refrigeration units for truck and tractor applications and to really bring their existing zero emissions product line with our energy storage technologies to market in a way that's going to be compelling for fleets that operate in California. The other thing I'll add to that is While CARB sets the standards for California, they also set a great deal of the standard process for EPA. And the EPA generally follows suit with similar regulations that impact the commercial transportation industries. So while TRUs are going to require zero emission solutions in the near term here in California, we expect that to expand to really the rest of the country as the EPA continues to evolve their rules and regulations pertaining to TRUs. Beyond TRUs, there's also other spaces and industries that have been impacted by zero emissions regulations, one of which is the ports and port facilities, including airports in California. And those facilities also have specific phase-in requirements ahead of on-highway trucks that will require their vehicles operating in port facilities, whether those be marine ports, inland ports, or airports, to go to full zero-emission powertrains as well. And we've already started with one of our customers there, Wiggins Lift, as well as another customer we haven't announced yet in the Powered by Exos division that is providing – we are providing powertrains into that material handling equipment that will be used in those port applications. So we see both of these segments as really providing an interesting and fast-growing market segment. for our battery technology and our powertrain technology to be used and applied to different segments even outside of the on-highway truck space. The last area that I'll mention, which you alluded to, is some of the more consumer-facing applications around emissions regulation, such as blowers or weed whackers or small hand tools. While that's certainly an interesting market, it's not something that Exos remains focused on. We really are trying to leverage our technology for the commercial or industrial fleet applications that are going to have the rigorous, demanding use case that really aligns with our technology that we've developed with our battery systems and our software and vehicle control systems. So while we see a lot of opportunity in the off-highway space, really focus more on the heavy vehicle sector and industrial equipment sector.
spk05: Okay, great. And kind of following up on that, a pretty related topic, you know, it is the thing that I like about you guys is that you seem to be very focused on kind of, you know, have a more focused product offering versus some competitors that kind of try to provide, you know, every vehicle under the sun. And I also know, you know, you're trying not to build a model that's dependent on subsidies and so forth. But with that in mind, you know, I can't help but think about what appears to be a lot of state and federal funding going towards the electrification of school buses. On the face of it, you know, I would assume you guys are not really, you know, positioned to try and benefit from that, and in some ways perhaps would be deliberately trying not to, you know, to kind of, again, stick with that focus, which is great in a lot of ways, but I just want to double check and make sure I'm not missing something there. You know, the funding is for districts in general, so, you know, there can be a lot of vehicles that aren't that aren't strictly just school buses. So, you know, maybe there is more potential than I realize. And, you know, also there's the exit hub, which is perhaps something you could be providing to school bus fleets, even if you're not making the buses. So just curious, making sure I'm not overlooking anything there.
spk02: Yeah, it's a really, really relevant question. When we think about the school bus market, we're really, really focused squarely on the commercial vehicle fleet settings. So school bus doesn't traditionally fall into our definition of what we view as on-highway commercial vehicles. But as you know, whether you're looking at the Class A, Class B, or Class C type school buses, they leverage a lot of those commercial chassis platforms that exist within the industry today. So our focus leads us to really centering in on those industrial fleets, last mile delivery fleets, the customers that we've already started to announce and service and support by delivering customers and by delivering vehicles. However, we do see that as an interesting market opportunity. And if there's a potential partnership in that realm, we obviously wouldn't turn it down. But we're squarely focused on those commercial applications today.
spk05: Okay, great. And then last question, just So looking at the second half guidance for the second half of the year, well, actually, the first, just looking at the second quarter, it does look like you had a quarter-over-quarter increase in ASPs of about 7%. So, you know, curious to know how much of that was, you know, is that the start of product price increases coming through, or was that more product mix, kind of how much of a 7% increase was from price versus mix. And then, you know, do you expect that to continue? Is this sort of just the first signs of higher ASPs from higher costs getting passed through? And then for the H2 guidance from the midpoint, it actually looks like ASPs may come back down to the Q1 level. So I'll be curious if that's more mixed or, you know, lumpiness in the way with contracts, how price increases flow through. Kind of just curious about that.
spk10: Yeah, absolutely. And that's a great question, Alvin. So when you look at Q2, you're exactly right. It's a bit of both. So as you mentioned in the last call, we started taking price action and you're seeing the beginnings of that over the quarter and over the higher ESPs. And it's also due to a mix of different types of units that we deliver through different channels. We have a range of channels that we work through, and now we're serving a number of customers in quite a few states in the U.S. So we're going to be kind of strategic when it comes to ASPs, depending on the channel and the location. It absolutely is our focus on taking price action in the face of the inflationary pressure that we see today, and we will carry on doing so in discussions with our customers.
spk05: Okay, and so is it safe to say that the lower ASP in the second half of the year is, you know, it's not a reflection of something in terms of, you know, maybe there's just, like you said, different channels or mix, but you're consistently doing the ASP sort of on a like-for-like basis that's getting increased?
spk08: Yes, that is absolutely, yes. Okay, okay, great. Thank you, guys. I'll take the rest offline. Thanks, Donovan. Appreciate those questions.
spk09: And as a reminder to register for a question, press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone keypad right now. The next question is from the line of Sharif El-Sabahi with Bank of America. Please proceed with your question. Hi.
spk03: Good afternoon.
spk08: So my first question is –
spk03: Good afternoon. My first question is a bit more color on some of those cost steps you've taken. It's been widely reported last month that you cut a percent of your workforce. Could you provide a bit more color on why those steps were taken and where in the organization those cuts were made? And should we expect it to impact the R&D line, the SG&A line, and so forth?
spk02: Absolutely. Happy to provide more context. So over the course of the past few months, we've taken action to ensure that we're focused on delivering profitable products in the near-term future and continue to focus on growing the business towards gross margin profitability and eventually generating free cash flow positivity. And to do so, we really wanted to reiterate our focus on our existing products that are in production, including the StepVan platform that we're delivering every quarter and continue to make deliveries to customers. And ultimately, some of the other products that we think are really enabling for our business to continue to scale, such as our Exos Hub product, which we will go into production with in the near future and ultimately enable more rapid deployment of fleets with concentrated populations of vehicles. So our focus in building out the organization has been what are the teams, including our engineering teams, supply chain, SG&A teams, that are going to support those initiatives and those products moving forward. We still continue to invest and have an engineering team dedicated to our MDXT and our HDXT platforms that will be coming to market next year and believe that those products will also have a transformative impact on the market. The areas that we did cut and made adjustments to are really on future orientation and future initiatives beyond the scope of our existing products today, such as the Step-In and the Hub platform that are going to be core and critical to our business over the next 12 to 24 months. And those were areas that we really wanted to make sure all of our capital, all of our resources were deployed to the products that were going to be most profitable in the nearest term.
spk03: Understood. And are you able to give us a round figure or some sense of how much of a cost cut that is to your business?
spk02: We don't have an exact figure for you. The actual impacts of it were relatively small in terms of our personnel changes and the focus of our budgets on the products that were really going to be the products that we're building today. The areas that were impacted were areas that were looking further out into the future and future initiatives and product development cycles.
spk03: Understood. And then just looking at the cash burn, it accelerated a bit this quarter. And given the guidance of similar operating losses in the second half to the first half, that would suggest a somewhat similar level of cash burn. Is that correct? And If so, how do you feel about your capital position for the next 12 months?
spk10: Yeah, absolutely. I'll just go through that step by step. So if you look at our cash use over the quarter, well over half of that was investment into inventory, which is steps we've taken to de-risk future deliveries, which we took strategically. Now we've built up that position, we feel confident that the rate of increase of inventory investments will fall significantly from what you saw in Q2. Also, as you mentioned, we are being very focused on our programs and being very focused on our step-down products, on our very new products, MDXC, ATXC. And so we also expect, you know, operating costs in general to come down. So taking that into consideration, I think we're very comfortable where we are in our cash position. We ended up a quarter with considerable cash on the balance sheet. Really excited to have the continued investments in the company from the Algebraic Group, who've been with us for quite a few years, and also with the other conversable, the awful advisors that we've issued today. With the capital that we've raised, we feel very confident that we can put more and more trucks in the road, invest in our new products, and carry on focusing the business on driving a pathway to being positive gross margin in the first half of next year towards the second end.
spk03: Thanks for that. And just finally, do you expect to raise further capital in the coming year?
spk10: Yeah. Look, if you look at where we are, I mean, just maybe take a step back a little bit. So we went public last year. Extraordinary is coming up to a year now. And what we said at the time we went public is that Yes, we did not raise the full amount of capital that we intended to, but we were going to allocate that capital in growing revenue and growing deliveries and bringing on exciting new products, and we've done that. In the midst of the investments that we've made now into raising more capital, as we grow and as we scale, we believe that the company will become able to tap into non-dilutive financing, asset-backed lending, and other types of financing as well. We feel confident with the capital position that we have now, and we're looking forward to the second half of the year.
spk08: Thank you. You guys. Thanks, Bruce.
spk09: Those are all the questions that we have today. I will now turn the conference back over to Dakota for closing remarks.
spk02: Thank you, Operator, and thank you, everybody, for joining us today to discuss our second quarter results. We're making tremendous progress towards our objective to build the fleet of the future with our innovative solutions to produce new platforms that go farther, last longer, and provide a more cost-effective platform for our customers. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress, and we hope to see many of you at some of the upcoming conferences.
spk08: Thank you, everybody, for joining, and have a great day. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. This does conclude today's conference.
spk09: You may disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.
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