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spk05: Greetings. Welcome to the EVE Air Mobility fourth quarter 2022 earnings call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to your host, Lucille Aldworth. You may begin.
spk09: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. This is Lucio Alders, the Director of Investor Relations at EVE, and I wanted to welcome everyone to our fourth quarter 2022 earnings conference call. I have here with me co-CEOs Jared DeMuro and Andrei Stein, as well as our CFO Eduardo Couto. After their initial remarks, we're going to open the call for questions. We have prepared a deck with a few slides and additional information, and this is available at our investor relations website at ar.eaveairmobility.com. So feel free to download it. Let me first start by mentioning that this presentation includes forward-looking statements or statements about events and circumstances that have not yet occurred. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projects about future events and financial trends affecting our business and our future financial performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, including, among other things, general economic, political, and business conditions, both in Brazil and in our market. The words believe, may, will, estimate, continues, anticipates, intends, expects, And similar words are intended to identify these forward-looking statements, when they take no obligation to update publicly or revise any statement because of new information, future events, or other factors. In light of these risks and uncertainties, the forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this presentation might not occur. Our accurate results could differ substantially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. With that, I will now turn the presentation over to Jerry. Jerry?
spk14: Thanks, Lucio.
spk06: Good morning, and thank you to those joining the call today as well. We had a very eventful 2022, accomplishing a number of milestones for the program and for the company. We, as many of you know, are actually a product of Embraer's technology accelerator, Embraer X. The first eVTOL concept was actually introduced in and being developed in Embraer X in 2018. And we were then spun out and eventually we merged with Xanite and went public in May of last year. Going public, eVTOL now has the autonomy and agility of a startup. yet the resources and experience and the backing of Embraer so that we feel we can be a major player in the UAM market. We listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EVEX last May, and we listed with net proceeds of about $355 million from the D-SPAC that included investments from our pipe investors as well as United, which came along later in September. Later in the year, we secured almost another $100 million worth of credit lines with the Brazilian National Development Bank. So that gives us a total liquidity of over $400 million. We believe this is enough to fund our major R&D efforts as well as our sales and support activities well into 2025. You will recall that operating with our critical mass, mostly in Brazil, gives us tremendous OPEX and CAPEX advantages. Thus, we think we'll be well set through the R&D program again through 2025. And our EVTOL program has matured significantly over the last year. We have been testing systems and subsystems to validate our design through sophisticated model-based engineering and very high fidelity simulations. We're refining the final design not only through the use of these advanced engineering tools, But we're also using subscale models and advancing to full-scale, commercially representative prototypes eventually in 2024. This flexible approach allows us to thoroughly test and validate components separately. We're following an effective and efficient process proven over many years by Embraer, which has certified more aircraft in the last 25 years than any other aviation OEM. Our goal, of course, is a safe and reliable EV call with the lowest total cost of ownership. And that's what drove us to a Lyft Plus Cruise configuration that is truly optimized for the urban air mission. 2022 also saw us introduce our cabin mock-up at our customer advisory board last spring. We had great reviews. And it will also be available at our investor event this April. in Melbourne, Florida. We also initiated our type certification process in 2022, which will be done through ANAC, the Brazilian Aviation Authority. While the type certification will be done through ANAC in Brazil, it will also be followed by FAA through a bilateral agreement that ANAC and FAA have had for many years. And typically, this allows a much more efficient process with only limited additional testing and final endorsement of the certification process by FAA. We also began dialogue with EASA, and we intend to follow a similar approach there. But we think we have a significant advantage by being first in line with ANAC and using ANAC as our primary certification authority versus, for instance, multiple applicants at the FAA, all with unique configuration. Our plan remains to enter into service sometime in 2026. In 2022, we also ran a number of simulations with helicopters in Rio and Chicago, and most recently in India. The goal of these simulations was to gather critical intelligence to help us scale the global UAM ecosystem. We also tested use cases of the eVTOL in actual congested urban areas. Now, for the next slide. I'd like to call my co-CEO, Andre Stein, to talk a little bit more about the program advancements in the last quarter.
spk15: Thanks, Jerry. We made some real progress this quarter and intensify our supplier engagement. We shortlisted potential suppliers of critical systems, such as motors and batteries, and now have more detailed visibility as to the specifications of these components. With that, we can fine-tune our development, refine our flight control laws, performance envelope, fly-by-wire systems, and so on. It also gives us a much better sense of controllability of our aircraft and expected performance under different conditions. In parallel, we have been employing dedicated motor propeller rigs to test under different conditions and other rigs for batteries and other components and systems. This part of our approach were task systems and components independently and incorporate them in our design, optimizing the configuration. This allow us to quickly and efficiently evolve the design and reduce program development costs. All these steps mean that you are reaching a critical point in the maturity of our aircraft. I'm going to talk about this in a few moments. But besides having defined that the first production site to be in Brazil, which we announced late last year, we have concluded our manufacturing strategy with the support of Porsche to define model size, flow management, and other logistics related specifically to the manufacturing process. Lastly, we defined the system requirement for the urban air traffic management software and successfully deployed an earlier version in our Chicago simulation last September. Our goal is to enable the safe management of aircraft flow within controlled aerospace and improve efficiency in operations and invert ports by reducing waiting times and aircraft overall energy consumption. We can achieve this by optimizing flight plans and integrating flight paths of different aircraft for a cohesive system. Now onto slide four. In the end, our strengths translated into the largest and most diversified backlog by number of customers and regions in the industry today. In total, we have non-binding LOIs, these are letters of intent, for 2,770 aircraft from 26 different customers spread over 12 countries and different business from mainlines to regional airlines to helicopter operators, ride-sharing platforms, and leasing companies. We believe this pipeline offers strong long-term revenue visibility and will help EVE to smooth cash flow consumptions in the years to come as we start to convert the existing letters of intention into firm orders and collect pre-delivered payments, known as PDPs. Beyond that, we are developing a strong network of partners in areas such as infrastructure and energy, addressing one of the largest challenges ahead of urban air mobility, which is creating a whole new ecosystem beyond simply developing aircraft. Now, let me call Edu to talk about our financials. Edu?
spk13: Thanks, Stein. At slide five, EVE is a pre-operational company formed to develop its eVTOL in the urban air mobility ecosystem. We expect to start to generate material revenues outside of pre-delivery payments once we start to deliver our eVTOLs, currently estimated for 2026. So, our financial results for now reflect mostly the costs associated with our program development. I would like to start with the income statement highlights. We invested $18 million during the fourth quarter 2022 in our program development and 52 million in the full year. The majority was invested to develop our eVTOL and a portion for our service and support solutions and the development of our urban air traffic management system. We are the only eVTOL company with a complete solution, including the aircraft, maintenance, and air traffic control. In addition to R&D, We also deployed 9 million in SG&A during the quarter and 33 million in the year. Keep in mind that the EVE and Embraer teams dedicated to the eVTOL development have been growing as the program matures. Including R&D and SG&A, we reported a net loss of 20 million in the quarter and 174 million in the year. It's important to highlight that our 2022 results include non-cash and no recurring costs related to warrants issued to partners, as well as some listing expenses of our IPO in 2022. These non-recurring non-cash expenses were $111 million, so recurring loss for the full year of 2022 was $63 million. Now moving to cash flow, our operations consumed $21 million in the quarter and a total of $60 million in the year. We ended the fourth quarter with $311 million in total liquidity, down from $330 in the third quarter of 2022, without considering the recent long-term funding from the Brazilian Development Bank. Now moving to slide six, considering our current cash position, investments including with Embraer, and the credit lines from the Brazilian Development Bank currently signed, we have total liquidity of more than $400 million. we feel comfortable that this is enough to carry our operations development and certification efforts through 2025. I also want to call your attention to some of our cost-competitive advantages. We have full access to 1,500 identified and skilled engineers from Embraer on a first-priority and as-needed basis. This means we don't need to bring hundreds of engineers into our P&L, which helps reduce our development costs. On top of that, most of our team is located in Brazil, where we have specialized engineers and a more favorable cost rate. In the end, our R&D dollars last longer in Brazil compared to U.S. and Europe, where our competitors are located. Lastly, we also have access to Embraer's facilities, reducing investments related to infrastructure and CapEx in general. As Stein mentioned, our R&D efforts are intensifying. This will require an increase in our structure to support the expected development growth in the years ahead. For 2023, we expect EVE's total cash consumption to be between $130 and $150 million, which, considering our total liquidity above $400 million, gives us good comfort to keep our eVTOL development in the years to come. With that, I conclude our financial highlights And I would like to call Stein to talk about our development milestones.
spk15: Thanks, Edu. During 2022, one of our focus was to put the necessary structures in place, engage the right people, and fund the development and certification program of our aircraft, as well as other products for the urban air mobility market. With funding now secured, we are accelerating our program as planned with the milestones you see on slide seven. The first, as I alluded to earlier, is the selection of the primary suppliers of the most critical components of our aircraft, such as propulsion systems and batteries, which will be completed in the first half of 2023. Once we define these suppliers, we continue to refine and validate our estimates for aircraft production, performance envelope, and operating costs. The selection will also result in much more detailed specifications of these components, such as dimensions, weight, power output, and the system's interface. This is critical for us to define the final aircraft architecture at the complete system level, which we plan to also accomplish in the first semester of this year. With the final design established we expect to begin fabrication of our prototype as planned in 2023. Last but not least, we plan to deploy the most recent version of our urban air traffic management in the second half to start testing in field trials with potential customers. With that, we conclude our prepared remarks and would like to open for the call for questions. Operator? Thank you.
spk05: At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. And one moment, please, while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from the line of Andre Shepard with Cancer Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.
spk07: Hi, good morning, everyone. Congratulations on the quarter, and thanks for taking our questions. I was wondering if maybe you can give us a little bit more color in terms of the flight, the test flights, and particularly as the prototype is expected in the second half of this year. Can you give us a sense of how and when you expect to begin ramping up test flights? Thank you.
spk03: Yes, Stein, do you want to take that one? Sure, sure.
spk15: As you know, we came from a strong aviation background. As any aviation company, we do not disclose beforehand dates for first flights. There are a few reasons for that. One is to assure that safety, it is the ultimate goal. So we don't want to put additional pressure through the disclosure to the market. And the second is that our goal is and will continue to be the end goal to certify, develop and deliver the aircraft. So we are not disclosing first dates of first flights. But what I can say that we are on track, according to the plan, we will start the assembly and manufacturing of the prototype this year, as we mentioned, and we will start by task campaign when at the right time, again, following our plan to assure our entry service and entry to the market, assure our final goal. We believe a lot and having been done that in several previous programs, to develop the things in the right order, not necessarily not bring forward some of the most visible aspects of the development, but really assure that you are always maturing, moving ahead with the parts of the problem, the different parts of the problem.
spk06: Yeah, Andre, if I could add one thing. This is Jerry DeMuro, or a couple of thoughts to that. Our goal, we are using the term, or you've heard the term, commercially representative prototype. We're flying subscale models, doing a lot of model simulation, proof of concepts. And as we select, as Stein had said, as we select our vendors here, we can refine our models and actually when we fly, quote, what you're defining as a prototype, it will be as close to representative of the vehicle we intend to take into certification as we can possibly make it. That's kind of our process. Subscale models, proof of concept vehicles, and then something that we think is fairly representative of what we're going to take forward. So that's why the progression through the second half of this year, after we define our critical suppliers, as Stein alluded to, We'll make, we'll refine that design and that's what we intend to fly, begin assembling at the end of the year and fly next.
spk07: Understood. Thank you. That's very helpful and very comprehensive. Appreciate that. Maybe one last quick follow-up. On the liquidity side, right, so now 310.6 million as of Q4. including the lines of credit, total liquidity north of $400 million. Is the expectation, I know you mentioned today that you believe that that current liquidity is sufficient to fund operations designs and certifications into 2025. So I just wanted to clarify, does that include then, is the expectation, is that sufficient to fund
spk03: certification with ANAC, the FAA, and EASA? Thank you.
spk04: Sure.
spk06: I'll turn over the liquidity question in total to Edu. But the last part of your question I think I can answer. We expect ANAC and FAA to be virtually simultaneous with, through the process that we described FAA validating essentially the program that we're working with ANAC because they will have a significant input into that program. EASA will follow sometime subsequent to that. So I would expect that EASA might be after the 2025 timeframe, but the R&D efforts through 2025, we should have sufficient funding to get through that. Edu, do you want to add anything?
spk14: No, just to say that in terms of liquidity, We're feeling very good, right? We have more than 400 million in liquidity. And as we mentioned, we expect to consume this year between 130 to 150. So that gives us multiple years of development, right? We already have the cash. So we are not concerned at all about liquidity and we feel very good.
spk06: Yeah, Andre, one thing I would add to that, we have not yet begun to calculate into those liquidity figures pre-delivery payments or progress payments, if you will, as we work through the definitization of the LOIs that Stein referred to. That will add to the cash balance. And so, again, we feel pretty good about getting through the first steps of certification. EASA will probably follow the first two.
spk07: Wonderful. Thank you so much. Congrats again on the quarter and all the accomplishments in 2022. I look forward to speaking again soon.
spk03: Thanks. I'll pass it on. Thank you.
spk04: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of with Raymond James.
spk12: Hey, good morning, everyone. Just a bit of more of a follow-up to the earlier question that Andres had. How long do you think the testing campaign with the kind of the, the close to commercial prototype will last before you're ready to kind of assemble the kind of certification compliant model. I'm just kind of curious what, given that you've done so much kind of testing ahead of time with the sub scale prototypes, if that might be faster than what we've seen at other competitors.
spk15: Morning, Savvy Stein.
spk06: You want to get that one?
spk15: Sure. So if you look in our previous programs, typically it's around 18 months for a certification flight test campaign.
spk12: Okay. That's with this kind of prototype and then also then creating the final version that qualifies for certification. Is that right? Or is this kind of prototype that you're building will be qualified for certification testing?
spk15: So I was referring to our previous experience, right? So from previous problems, that's typically what you see. In this case, as Jerry mentioned, we are doing more. So we have been applying proof of concepts. We have been doing subscale models. And we brought the flight control laws, flight simulator earlier on in the process. So there are different steps there. But that's what we've seen in other programs. There are some additional steps here.
spk12: Makes sense. Okay. And then just on the PDP collection front or even kind of, you know, where do you need to be in the testing campaign before you can start firming the LOIs? And then how long after that do you think you can start collecting PDPs? Like in relation to all your milestones, I'm trying to figure out when we can see some of the firming and the actual PDPs coming in.
spk15: Yeah. Sure. So on that, I think one very expressive milestone is actually the selection of the suppliers that we intend to do this year. That's when we'll have a more clear view on the actual cost of the aircraft, and that will put us in a much better position to start firming orders. That is the big milestone.
spk12: That's very helpful. Thank you.
spk06: So savvy just to complement what Stein has said, as we move through this year, we will be identifying not only and refining the final configuration. Now that we have supplier data, the final supplier data, but we will also be working with some of our partners and identifying the launch customers. So we would expect some of that revenue to start to flow in the 24 timeframe. And then naturally, as you progress through the certification milestones, there would be additional payments prior to delivery.
spk15: Yeah, thanks. And one more point just to complement on that last line, Jerry. That's an important aspect. I mean, we have this big portfolio of customers, and we are working very closely with them to refine how the operation will be, what will be the necessary aspects of the operation, necessary infrastructure, lounge cities and so on. So that allow us to be very assertive on that future deployment.
spk12: Makes sense. Can I clarify in terms of headcount, you know, how does that progress through that 2025 timeframe? Are we at like peak headcount because you have that flexibility in the MSA to kind of switch out the type of engineering kind of know-how and knowledge you need to get you through this?
spk15: So I'll give a first answer on that. We are not expecting to see a big increase in headcount with FinEVE as we are, as you know, using Embraer for the majority of the development. So that's where we are increasing the headcount. Typically, we would expect to have around 800 people all together at peaks.
spk12: Got it. Perfect. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.
spk03: Thank you, Sebi. Thank you, Sebi.
spk05: Our next question comes from the line of Sheila Tiaglu with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.
spk11: Hi. Good morning, guys, and thank you for the time. I wanted to ask about your cash usage. You know, you've targeted 130 to 150 million of cash use in 2023, following 60 million in 22. How much of that is related to R&D? And should we still think about cash usage being in the 100 to 150 million on a per annum basis?
spk04: Yeah, I can take that, Shayla.
spk14: Sure. The big jump is really on R&D, right, or the increase is majority in R&D. From the 130 to 150 this year, around 100 million should be fully dedicated to R&D. Of course, we have the EV structure and, you know, the development team, some other areas. that constrain the remaining 30 to 40 million. But the big jump and the big chunk by far is R&D and the program development.
spk11: Okay. And then I wanted to sort of understand where you guys are with your supplier base. You know, how you think about what percentage of suppliers have already been selected and how much of that may be, you know, what you're, who you're targeting to select in 2023. or what parts, and how much of that overlaps with Embraer's base?
spk06: All right. Well, I'll turn it over to Stein in a moment. I'm not sure what your, I would ask a little clarification about the overlap with Embraer. This is a unique vehicle. Our major suppliers will be unique. Given that you're dealing with aviation, You may have typical suppliers, as you've seen in our partner list, partners like technology partners like Thales and Rolls-Royce and even BAE. They are typical suppliers in aviation, but the equipment here would be unique. And we're in the down select right now for the major suppliers we call G0, and Stein has been intricately involved in that process. on a daily basis, and that includes things like the power management, battery systems, the motors, the propellers, and then moving to avionics. Stein, you want to expand on that?
spk15: No, I think you mentioned it. So there is no direct overlap. That said, of course, you can leverage a lot the existing Embraer relations. Also, there are newcomers to the market when you're talking about electrification and so on. So, there are new players in this aerospace market, which is great, but creates more of a level field. And we, throughout the year, we are selecting the majors, as Jerry said, but also we are moving on with the selection of other aspects like fly controls, like even interiors, everything that needs to be in place these years. So we can have a very, very significant portion of both the cost of the product as well as all the technical aspects covered.
spk11: Okay, that's helpful. I just wanted to get an understanding of you know, who some of the suppliers are and, you know, how, how comfortable you are with them and how, you know, where you are in the process with them. Okay. Thank you.
spk04: You're welcome. Our next question comes from the line of Marcelo Mata with JP Morgan.
spk05: Please proceed with your question.
spk08: Hi everyone. Uh, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Uh, first question is related to the sales campaign. So just wondering, you know, uh, you guys already have a very, you know, sizable, uh, book of orders, intention of purchase. So just wondering, you know, if there's still more to come, if you guys are like actively marketing the product, you know, as you reach the new milestones, we should see new orders flowing through the book. And also, I mean, related to that question is, who do you think are the, let's say, the eagerest clients to get the baby toes, you know, just to think about, you know, the ramp up that you have forecasted on your let's say on your IPO, I mean, could this be anticipated if there is more demand? I mean, this is related to, you know, supply chain bottlenecks or what will need to happen for us to maybe see, you know, a faster deliver or faster ramp up of production. So those are the two questions. Thank you.
spk04: Sure.
spk15: So to your point, yes, we are continuing with our sales campaigns. Also, we are strongly engaged with the existing customers we have on our backlog to really deep dive on understanding how the concept of operations will be. All these exercises will be done related to concept of operations, simulations, and so on, to help us to understand the needs so we can bring not only the customers, but the infrastructure partners and energy providers to the table and to the discussion to assure that we uh from the market perspective we can have that deployment so the market being ready to receive these airplanes so we have these two tracks yes we're continuing to talk of a diverse portfolio of the customers beyond the ones we already acquired but there is also strong for uh strong focus on on uh on engaging with the existing customers and developing this plan On top of that, as you know, last year we've worked together with Porsche to understand the requirements for manufacturing, how we can ramp up the production, how we can do that in a rational way as well. So I think it's fair to say that we are in good shape for that ramp up that you saw there on our IPO. There is an optimum there, how much you want to ramp up and still be able to support and service these aircrafts in a very professional, very complete way. We leverage the existing infrastructure from Embraer, so we don't need to reinvest from scratch on existing infrastructure, Embraer being present in over 80 countries around the globe. That helps a lot for that earlier operation, but we don't want to Overly ramp up and or over promise that ramp up beyond what you believe will be sensible.
spk04: Perfect, thank you very much. Our next question comes from the line of David Azula with Barclays.
spk05: Can you proceed with your question?
spk10: Hey, thanks for taking my question. Just I guess a clarification on some of the questions we've had earlier on testing. For those of us less familiar with the ANF process, the prototype you're building now and the components, are you planning to do any four-credit testing for that, or is that going to come from one prototype that you'll be building?
spk04: Stein, the short answer is no.
spk06: Stein can expand on the process.
spk15: I'm not sure if I get the whole question, if you wouldn't mind to repeat it.
spk10: Just about the amount of, I guess, when do you expect to be able to start for credit testing that ANAC will give you credit for certification?
spk15: Okay. There is, as I said before, in terms of dates for flight test campaign, we don't disclose that ahead of time for all the reasons I've explained. What I can tell you that we have already engaged with ANAC to start the formal process of ANAC. earlier this year. Sorry.
spk04: So I'm saying that to go ahead.
spk10: And then could I just ask about the urban air traffic management development, how that's progressing and if there's any expenses going to be related to that in 2023?
spk15: Oh yeah, that that's a good question. Yes, the development expenses are included on the. On the the cost that it on the guidance that Eduardo said, I do want to comment a bit more on that, but as I said as well, we are planning to deploy earlier versions this year with potential customers and we actually have around six customers already today for the for the software so we can have this. the series of interactions should keep keeping on the software development. We've read the play earlier version last year in Stamford during our trials in Chicago, again, to fine tune the software development, but it's going as planned. We like we're doing with the aircraft to where we are using a lot of the Embraer resources with the software development we are using and engaging with ATAC, which is part of the Embraer group that has been developed that type of software not only for the Brazilian aerospace, so that they basically developed the whole software here for the Brazilian aerospace, but as well for other countries. So it's going as planned, and yes, it is included in our predicted expense for this year. Edu, I'm not sure if you want to comment on the last bit.
spk14: I think that's it. It's part of the $100 million. We have an R&D. It's a small portion.
spk04: The focus, the bigger chunk is David Paul, but it's there. Great. Thanks very much. Appreciate the question. Our next question comes from the line of Josh Milberg with Morgan Stanley.
spk01: Please proceed with your question. Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for the question. You guys made the comfortable nature of your liquidity position crystal clear. But in spite of that and the PDP collection, I just wanted to ask if you are contemplating at all the possibility of additional equity investments by either your existing shareholders like United or new ones. And then my second question is just on the broader EV toll environment. You talked about the advantage, your advantage on the certification process relative to the multiple applicants at the FAA. And I wondered if you could elaborate on that point and also just provide some additional perspective on how you see the industry having evolved in recent months. with respect not only to the whole issue of certification, but also in terms of design, maybe proof of concept and manufacturing strategies. Obviously, in terms of higher interest rates and some other respects, the environment has gotten somewhat more challenging. Not sure how much you can say on your competitors individually. Thank you very much.
spk06: All right, let me kick it off, and then we'll turn it over to the team. On the first question about do we contemplate additional equity investments, that's certainly an option that we have available to us. We have a number of strategic partners, as you know. That's pretty much all that was included in the pipe. There are potentials there. We will wait and see what is the most advantageous course of action for us, as you know. when we came out of our listing, we had a very, very clean balance sheet, and we were able to be opportunistic and look at the most cost-effective ways to get the capital that is required. So that is an option that we will consider. And again, we have the luxury of significant time and allow the situations to mature and be opportunistic. With respect to the FAA, the comment really is that Whether it's ANAC or FAA, they have to develop or combine existing requirements from different parts of the regulations today, and that will take some time. The comment that we make about being really the singular focus of ANAC is a bit advantageous because we're all resource limited, right? There's only a certain number of experts in these areas, whether they be in FAA or ANAC. As you have multiple applicants, they may find that there's a resource constraint in processing. That's really what we were alluding to there. You know, in terms of the industry maturing, you have early phases, as you do in any industry, where some are better capitalized than others. Some designs will be more effective than others, and I think you're just seeing a natural evolution in that regard. You know, I'll turn it over to Edu and Stein to see if they want to pick up on any of those topics any further.
spk15: Just one comment on that thing. I think we are passing beyond the stage of hype, and realistically, there was a point in this industry there was a lot of hype. We are beyond that or passing through that point of the curve already. So now it's when you are really seeing the potential future consolidations and so on. And we are seeing a smaller number of places, let's put it this way. At a certain point, you were talking about 200 different projects for eVTOLs and so on. Now it's all but a handful already. And that's when we are starting to to see the final results, right? But I do believe we are moving beyond the high curve already.
spk14: On the liquidity side, we are not anticipating any new equity.
spk04: Okay. Thank you very much for those detailed responses. Have a nice day. Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Marvin Fong with BTIG.
spk05: Beautiful to see you with your question.
spk02: Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a couple for me, kind of building on previous questions. So first one, just Eadu, if you could discuss, you know, in terms of PDP payments, do we have any more visibility? Do you think that that might come in in 2024? Or is that more of a 2025 or even 2026 event? And then a question just on the overall environment. I think you added about 700 orders to your book in the last six months. Just wondering if you could kind of characterize the current demand environment. Do you expect the ability to bring in new orders to be as active as it was in 2022? Or do a lot of the potential players, have they already made their orders? And we should sort of think about the order activity kind of slowing down. Thanks a lot.
spk04: Uh, okay, thanks.
spk14: So, in terms of the, the, of course, we are highly engaged with all our customers rights to define. Well, see, just to find the potential skyline of the leaders and. And we find all these, these orders. Um, we, we believe, uh, you know, it's, it's difficult to know exactly when we're going to start to collect the higher. We may start to see something 2024, definitely going higher in 2025 and 2026, but we are fully engaged with our partners, right, our customers, and we believe that could be an interesting cash inflow to the company that today we are not considering.
spk06: On the second piece, Marvin, yes, we expect to add some strategic customers. But if you look at our backlog and our business plan, we really have enough coverage there in the LOIs for the first several years of production. So the issue isn't so much for us in building backlog at this particular time. It's what are the right regions and strategic customers to add. And as Stein talked about, we want to be able to support and service not only the aircraft, but support operations on a global basis. And we're recognizing, again, that there's likely to be dispersed implementation and adoption, and that has to be resourced properly. So simply adding backlog is not our focus right now. It's about strategy and now defining, as Stein talked about, launch customers, launch cities, and what is the total plan to support launch in those cities. Stein, do you want to add anything to that?
spk15: No, I think a corporate... yes we might expect to see uh additional customers but our main focus is we are in a comfortable position in terms of pipeline and backlog that you can uh put a lot of focus on assuring how the deployment will be that's very helpful thanks guys
spk04: And the next question we have is coming from the line of Savvy Sith with Raymond James.
spk05: Please proceed with your question.
spk12: Hey, thanks for the follow-up. Just a quick clarification on the UATM side of things. As that develops, when do you expect that that could start generating revenue? When can that segment get stood up?
spk06: Stein, you want to talk about the six customers we have and the plan for implementation?
spk15: Yeah, there are a few points there. One that we're already doing, actually, it is even on consulting about air traffic management and the concentration. So we are actually generating some revenue already on that. Even before the actual software development, that's already an outcome on all the It's small, really, still at this point, really small revenue, but it's already there. But that's already an outcome of the work we've done in developing, creating these blueprints in terms of concept of operations. We can expect that to increase in the years to come, to have continuous to do that work together with partners in terms of developing the air traffic management ecosystem as a whole. And with the software itself, a few years down the road before, but even before the entrance service of the aircraft, keep in mind that the software is agnostic. So we don't need to wait our entrance service necessarily to start having revenue from the software. It's not at the same scale as particularly the aircraft service and aircraft sales, but it is very strategic, and that's how you're seeing it. It's more about being a strategic part of the puzzle that would allow the eVTOLs to fly more efficiently and at scale.
spk12: When do you think that that could be meaningful in terms of revenue? Does that depend on when the industry gets some certified eVTOLs?
spk15: Yeah, yeah, it is. Again, it is like an ask. It's applicable even before evitals are in place because there's already some form of urban air mobility going on with helicopters. So it doesn't need to wait. But in terms of scale, yes, it's really when the industry starts to grow that you could expect more sizable revenue out of it.
spk12: That's very helpful. Thank you.
spk04: And we have reached the end of the question and answer session. And I'll now turn the call back over to Lucille Aldworth for close remarks.
spk09: Thank you, Shamali, and thanks to everyone who joined the call today. We look forward to updating you on our continued progress throughout the next few quarters as we achieve the operating milestones we just talked about. And we also look forward to meeting you in the upcoming events we're going to attend. If you have any questions, as always, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. And thanks, and have a good day.
spk04: And this concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your line at this time. Thank you for your participation.
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