Taiga Motors Corporation

Welcome to Tega Motor Corporation's fourth quarter and full year 2021 results call. As a reminder, all participants are in the listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session, followed by an additional questionnaire statement before we conclude the call. To ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference, you may signal the operator by pressing star and zero. I would now like to turn the conference over to Shiraz Suzan, Director of Investor Relations with Tega Motors. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Sherry. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm here today with our Chief Executive Officer, Sam Bruneau, and our Chief Financial Officer, Eric Dossier. Today's discussion will include estimates and other forward-looking information from which our actual results could differ. Please review the cautionary language in today's earnings report, MD&A, and in our 2021 annual information form regarding the various factors, assumptions, and risks that could cause our actual results to differ. With that, let me turn it over to Sam to begin.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our fourth quarter and full year 2021 results call. 2021 has been a momentous year for us at Tyga. After spending close to six years solidifying our products and business plan from a clean sheet, including our manufacturing strategy, we went public in April last year, raising $135 million in net proceeds. Today, we are focused on ramping up production for both snowmobiles and personal watercraft that share the same electric powertrain. To get these products to market, we employ a four-pillar approach. The first two pillars are the core of our business. They are, first, the direct sales of snowmobiles and personal watercraft to recreational customers, And second, sales of our vehicles to fleet operators such as ski resorts, tour operators, and commercial fleets in multiple industries. The other two pillars of our strategy are more forward-looking. The third pillar revolves around supplying our modular powertrain assemblies to OEMs in adjacent industries. Our multi-generation powertrain is a modular hardware and software platform that is designed to simplify production and decrease development time for both TIGA and our OEM partners. This approach broadens the scope of Tyga's efforts to electrify off-road vehicles. And lastly, our fourth pillar involves aftermarket sales of parts, upgrades, apparel, and other accessories. I'd like to take a moment to focus on our manufacturing strategy. As most of you may know, at Tyga, we're aspiring for a vertically integrated production process for our off-road EVs. No doubt it is a challenging route today, but our efforts will yield long-term benefits, including greater ability to innovate at scale. The current supply chain uncertainties have validated our vertically integrated engineering, procurement, and manufacturing approach. We've seen several EV manufacturers begin to adopt this approach as well as move away from being overly reliant on third-party providers. We're fortunate to not be encumbered with the ways of the past and are starting with a clean sheet, which includes smart modular assemblies and in-house automation algorithms. Our two facilities in Montreal, which include a research and development center and an innovative manufacturing facility, are the foundation of our production strategy. Combined, the two facilities have over 180,000 square feet of space with a potential capacity to produce 8,000 units annually. As I mentioned earlier, supply chain has been a major pressure point in the industry, and we felt its impact on our production plans for the year. We started 2021 with the expectation of deliveries in the summer, but as the year went on, supply chain issues, along with other delays, pushed back our production plans. Despite the challenges faced by the team, we were able to begin snowmobile production in December. We then made our initial delivery on March 18th, 2022, and are continuing to coordinate deliveries with our recreational and fleet customers in the US for the short snowmobile production run. This is, without doubt, a historic milestone for us and the power sports industry as a whole. Tyga manufactured and delivered its first ever commercial electric snowmobile. This marked the shift in the power sports industry and we're leading the way on the industry's path to electrification. But we're not done yet. This is just the beginning as we are ramping up to meet growing demand. For 2022, we continue to be focused on our three priorities. Ramping up production and deliveries globally, building a culture of high performance and increasing our brand awareness. I'll give some color on each of these priorities, along with some commentary on achievements in the fourth quarter of 2021. In the fourth quarter, as I mentioned earlier, the company was focused on producing our initial snowmobiles. Following the landmark delivery in March 2022, our focus shifts to scaling our production as we continue to face supply chain headwinds and further optimize our manufacturing processes. Our teams have had to update software and hardware design, find multiple workarounds, and strategically plan our inventory well ahead to counter some of the supply chain pressures our businesses face. We currently expect supply chain pressure to persist for the remainder of 2022. On the production side, we are continuing to implement our manufacturing processes as we gradually scale up. As I mentioned earlier, we're confident our approach will enable us to build the foundations for high-volume manufacturing while being able to retain control over certain key components, allowing us to compete strongly in the future. Our teams are crucial in Tiger's success. Throughout the last 12 months, we've also focused on building a great team and prioritized developing high-performance culture. We've grown from a team of 54 at the end of 2020 to over 200 full-time employees as of today, and each one of our team members is vital to our mission. In February 2022, we welcome Mike Jelinek as Vice President of Supply Chain. Mike brings more than 20 years of experience in global supply chain management and procurement for large auto parts manufacturers, as well as another fast-growing company. making him an ideal fit to help Tyga manage through the global supply chain constraints and help set Tyga out for success on the procurement front. With Mike on the team, we now have over 130 years of combined experience at the senior management level. As we develop bench strengths, we've been conscious of the culture we're establishing at Tyga. In short, we're staying true to our roots and fostering a culture that rewards innovation and nurtures creativity. We've also been attracting talent that's invested in electrifying off-road vehicles, and as such, we believe we have built one of the largest and deepest teams of engineers working on EVs in the off-road segment. This is a key advantage for Tiger going forward. Being a pure electric company has its benefits for Tiger's brand awareness. Our electric-only brand matters when our customers select our products, and it shows in the pre-orders achieved. During the fourth quarter, we continue to see healthy pre-order levels across the globe for our products. the personal watercraft, and the snowmobile. As of December 31st, 2021, Tyga has received 2,356 snowmobile and PWC pre-orders from recreational customers and fleet operators, a 161% increase from the order book on December 31st, 2020. I'd like to take a moment and elaborate on the adjustment we made to our pre-orders. As you already know, Tyga is working towards a hybrid direct-to-consumer delivery process where dealers will be delivery and service partners to our customers globally. This allows our customers to order online through our newly redesigned website and select a convenient pickup point at a nearby partner. In this model, the dealer will no longer carry inventory as dealers traditionally would. Before the shift to the hybrid DTC model, we had received 345 pre-orders from dealers for their inventory. Given the shift, we're now canceling and refunding dealer pre-orders, and therefore, we are removing all 445 dealer units from our reported pre-order numbers post-December 2020. This delivery model is also beneficial for the dealers we'll be partnering up with. We will not be flooding them with inventory and pushing for sales targets, which can create sales environments that are not consumer-oriented. We'll instead provide incentives for referrals, and any unit goes through the dealer will already be sold. We continue to maintain a strong interest in applications from our dealers to become partners in our hybrid direct-to-consumer program. In the fourth quarter, we recorded a 5% sequential increase in dealer applications to provide customers delivery and post-sale servicing, bringing the total number of applicants to 1,724. We will be working diligently to ensure we select the optimal locations to service our customers and provide them with an experience that's tailored to their needs. To continue driving pre-orders and the adoption of electric off-road vehicles, we believe it is vital they have infrastructure in place to support customers, not just during the purchase process, but also for the life of the vehicle. Our pre-order performance was achieved with limited marketing and is proof of the demand we're seeing. For 2022, as we ramp up production, we'll also be doubling down and increasing brand awareness by offering more demos to current and prospective customers, as well as media. Earlier this month, we spent some time in the US giving top tier media and social influencers the chance to experience the Nomad snowmobile. The initiative culminated with a bespoke event with the governor of Vermont, praising our snowmobiles and the need for electrification. We further support our mission of accelerating the adoption of electric off-road vehicles, and industry-leading charging network is essential. Keeping that mission in mind, in October 2021, we officially launched our off-road charging network in North America, and have begun level two and level three charger installations in Ontario and Quebec. For 2022, we'll be working on developing strategic partnerships that will enable us to roll out charging networks at an increased pace. This is just the beginning. We have identified thousands of locations that can be targeted throughout North America, potentially unlocking up to 75,000 kilometers of off-road trails and waterways gradually by 2025. I'm very pleased with the progress of our teams have made on all fronts despite challenges faced. We look forward to revolutionizing the power sports industry, and thank you for joining us on this journey. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our CFO, Eric Bichard, to go over our financials for the quarter and provide further commentary on our 2022 outlook.

Thank you, Sam, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. I've been in my role for over four months, and what I've seen at Taiga is very impressive. I will echo Sam's earlier point on the team being crucial to Tyga's success, and in those short months, I've come across a well-qualified and experienced team that is highly engaged, invested in Tyga's success. I'm very proud to have joined such a team. Moving to the financials. In Q4, Tyga achieved commercial production of its electric snowmobile. However, delivery was not initiated until March 2022, given supply chain constraints, implementation of our manufacturing processes, and the ongoing certification process. The absence of revenue during the quarter is primarily due to these transitions. Let me take you to our expense line items for such full year of 2021, along with some color of what we saw in the fourth quarter. R&D expense were 5.9 million in 2021. The R&D expense were primarily related to the number of employees dedicated to research and development. as well as the shift from a full proof-of-concept unit to production-ready prototype. During the 12-month period, $7.5 million were capitalized as development costs relating to the snowmobile and the watercraft. TyGOT started capitalizing these costs in the first quarter of 2021 since the criteria for capitalization were met during the quarter. R&D expenses during the fourth quarter of 2021 totaled $2.2 million. The increase is mainly due to a higher number of employees dedicated to R&D and an increase in expense related to these projects. In addition, the company recorded an inventory write-down of $753,000 regarding the parts and tooling used for prototypes, which have been replaced for production. During the fourth quarter, $2.9 million were capitalized as development costs relating to the snowmobile and the personal watercraft. General and administrative expense increased to $13.7 million in 2021. This increase is due to the increase in the number of employees for administrative purposes as well as for upcoming manufacturing. During the fourth quarter, we reported $8 million of G&A expense, which included an increase in professional fees and insurance to catch up and support the rapid growth of the company. Some of these expenses were to the tune of about $2 million and were related to the ramping up, tying up, and starting activities as a newly publicly manufacturing company. This increase is also due to the number of employees for administrative purposes as well as for future manufacturing. The manufacturing team would normally be included in the cost of sales, but it is currently included in the G&E while it is ramping up for production and is not actively working on prototypes. The total headcount included in this section grew 50% during the quarter. Sales and marketing expense were $3.9 million for the full year of 2021. Sales and marketing expense were primarily attributable to the number of employees in sales and marketing. We're also shifting towards a more aggressive digital marketing strategy and have upgraded our corporate website to facilitate more streamlined and robust e-commerce capabilities. In the fourth quarter, our sales and marketing expense was $1.5 million. Our loss before other expenses was $23.5 million for 2021. The increase in the loss before other expense was primarily related to the expense I just mentioned. In the fourth quarter of 2021, we recorded a loss before other expenses of $11.8 million. As of December 31, 2021, the company had approximately $86.7 million in cash and cash equivalent compared to $7.8 million in December 31, 2020. During the fourth quarter, the team doubled down on preparing for initial production and secured $15 million worth of inventory, totaling $20 million as of December 31, 2021. Given the global supply chain pressure, we have strategically ordered electronics and power-trained components, including batteries, in anticipation of the production ramp-up for 2022 and beyond. Other use of cash during the fourth quarter involved $6 million in capital expenditures. our capital expenditure, which included the purchase of manufacturing equipment, tooling, and R&D equipment for our Montreal facilities, and some pre-ordering construction material for Shenougan, explaining the spike in the fourth quarter. For the full year of 2021, we recorded $9 million in capital expenditure. As mentioned earlier, we've also continued our spend in R&D and have accumulated intangible assets worth $8 million as of December 31, 2021. Between inventory, capital expenditure and R&D, Tyga invested $36 million in 2021. For 2022, we're not providing any official guidance given the continued macro volatility. I'd like to add some color around the insight we do have on production. In the context of the global semiconductor shortage, Tyga was able to secure chips for 1,000 units. However, production will also be constrained by other factors including the availability of raw material and other components, manufacturing process optimization, and equally important, volume-related cost efficiencies. For 2023, TAGA has already strategically procured certain long-lead components in line with its expected production ramp-up. On manufacturing process optimization, we're ramping up gradually and learning from our experience as we continue to scale and implement our production processes. On the cost front, we expect the cost per unit to start to gradually improve later in the second half of 2022 as we ramp up production. Given these factors, we expect limited production the first half of the year and ramping up in the second half of the year, building momentum as we head into 2023. As Samuel mentioned, our approach to manufacturing is a more challenging route, but we are confident it's setting up the foundation for us to scale efficiently and effectively. In conclusion, we're being prudent with our capital resources and we continue to diligently and strategically invest for the future. I now ask the operator to open the call for any questions.

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. And for participants using speaker equipment, It may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Our first question is from Derek DeLay with Canaccord Genuity. Please proceed.

Yeah. Hi, everybody. Just in your MD&A, you mentioned that you're planning now on, you know, what appears to be delaying the commissioning of the 340,000-square-foot facility to 2024. Can you just comment on the reasoning behind behind this and when we should expect first production from that facility?

Yeah, hi, Derek. I'm happy to clarify a bit on that. So, as I mentioned a call, we're focusing our efforts initially on the production ramp up here in our Montreal facility, having a capacity up to 8,000 units a year. It's close to home, and we're fully establishing our processes and vetting them there before transferring to the larger production facility plan for Schoeningen to be up and running in early 2024. So it's just kind of a logical continuance of the production ramp-ups or effective as it's kind of a first of its kind in Schoeningen, and we want to do it right here close to home in Montreal before scaling up.

Okay, and I believe you have some loans secured previously. specifically for the commissioning of that project. So assuming those remain in place and you're just able to, I guess, not draw on them until you start that construction.

That's correct. We finalized the agreement with one of the government entities and we're working diligently to finalize the others. But yes, so far there's no views of issues around that support for the timing that we just explained.

Okay. And then can you comment just in terms of the demand split, if possible, just between Snowmobile and PwC today on your order book?

We're not providing a detailed breakdown, but you can expect it to be around 50-50 at the moment.

Okay, that's helpful. And then just finally, just on the charging network, Can you perhaps just explain the business model behind the charging network? Do you collect a portion of the charging fee if there is one, or do you collect revenue on putting the charging stations in place? Any color on that would be helpful.

At the moment, we're deploying the initial infrastructure ourselves to provide a seamless experience for our customers looking to charge. And then as we evolve our time install, there are possibilities to start monetizing for other brands and for Tyga as well, plugging into the charging network as it grows out. Okay, got it. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question, please.

Yes, our next question is from Cameron. Dierksen with National Bank Financial. Please proceed.

Yeah, thanks very much. Good morning. I just wonder if you could elaborate a little bit more on the production plan for 2022. You sort of indicated that you've secured, I guess, enough semiconductors for up to 1,000 units. But just reading through what you're saying here and in the MD&A, it does sound as though that your expectation would be that for 2022 total unit deliveries will be something less than 1,000. Am I reading that correctly?

Hi, Cameron. Yeah. So I think on 2022, we're really focused on the manufacturing process, optimization, getting to volume-related cost efficiencies. Of course, that will be impacted by some further potential supply chain constraints with volume ramp-ups. So as we secured 1,000 ships for 2022, what we do foresee being potentially further constrained on certain materials and components for the year. And as was mentioned, that will be mostly skewed as we ramp up here lightly and then

heavier production starting in the second half of 2022 okay and and how does the i guess your production plan you know snowmobile versus personal watercraft and presumably you're you're delivering some snowmobiles now uh you know when do you switch to pwc production uh when do you switch back to snowmobiles during the year

We're not providing detailed forward guidance on exact timing at the moment, but you could expect personal watercraft deliveries to start early summer, and we're going to have further updates on that in the spring.

Okay. And on the pre-order activity, obviously there's the change in the way you're reporting that, but I'm just wondering how it's kind of trended. In more recent months, like since the end of December, you've been out, I guess, doing a little more media, and I guess with the milestone of actual first delivery, presumably there will be some more interest out there. So maybe you can just talk about how pre-order activity has trended in the last several months.

Yeah, I think we're seeing a strong trend in pre-order activity, definitely a slight uptick on momentum from previous months. that we've seen. And I think that's really great. Our focus really here is ramp up on production because we're remaining, we foresee remaining order constrained for the foreseeable future. So Tiger's focus is really on getting those deliveries to customers

Okay. And maybe just the sort of final question from me, just on the, I guess, the dealer interest, I think you said that you had now received a little over 1,700 applications from dealers and there was a sequential uptick there. So that's obviously good news. How are the dealers, I guess, sort of accepting your hybrid model? Have you had... you know, is this something that you're seeing, you know, significant enthusiasm for, or has there been any, you know, pushback from some dealers? I mean, obviously, it looks like there's still, you know, pretty good interest there. Maybe you can just talk about the acceptance that you're seeing on your distribution model.

Yeah, I've seen really strong interest, not only in Chaga, but in the distribution model itself. You know, just the model creates a strong win-win for dealers not having to carry a large inventory on their hands. And they've seen the demand firsthand. The reason they're applying is they have their customers walking in the store asking for electric units. I think that's something Tyga is excited to start tapping into as we ramp up production.

Okay, that's helpful. I'll pass the line. Thanks very much. Thank you.

Any more questions, Sherry?

There are no more questions.

And I think we'll conclude the call. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. And if you have any questions, please send it over to IR Attega. Thank you.

Before we conclude today's call, I would like to provide Attega's safe harbor statement. That includes important questionnaire regarding forward-looking statements made during this call. This call may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable security laws Although the corporation believes that expectations and assumptions on which this forward-looking information are based are reasonable under the current circumstances, listeners are questioned not to rely unduly on this forward-looking information as no assurance can be given that it will prove to be correct. Forward-looking information contained herewithin is made as of the date of this call and the corporation does not undertake any obligation To update, revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of events or circumstances occurring after the date you're of, unless so required by law. Please refer to the Forward-Looking Statements section in our latest MD&A for more information and risk factors section in our 2021 Annual Information Forum. Thank you for joining us for Tega's fourth quarter and full-year 2021 Results Conference Call. You may now disconnect.