BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE:BWA) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Noah Kaye: I’ll stick with the battery theme for a minute here. So just given BEV is driving the majority of the organic growth outlook for this year, you mentioned battery is a significant contributor this quarter. And then you also called out higher growth expectations at Akasol, I guess, over the medium term? And just help us understand what’s driving your increased expectations for your own battery business? Is it just higher sell-through on the commercial EV side? Or are you picking up share gains in new platforms?

Frederic Lissalde: No. It’s simple. We have multiple customer awards for us higher volume from our core customers, and that’s leading to Akasol moving slightly — from under slightly $300 million last year to about $1 billion in 2025. And the impact that you see this year is part of that glide path. And we’re very pleased with our inverted role too and also very pleased on our motor or other wins across the portfolio. But on cases, about $1 billion already in 2025.

Noah Kaye: Okay. And then just a follow-up. I’m curious how much of your 2023 CapEx might be allocated to battery manufacturing in the U.S. And how the 45x production tax price that might benefit you if you’re making any investments.

Kevin Nowlan: Yes, because of the acceleration we’re seeing in the revenue in Akasol, as Fred mentioned, even up through ’25, we are accelerating some of the investments that we’re making both in Europe and North America related to that business. And then we’re also seeing part of the increase in capital expenditure on a year-over-year basis related to our other electrification businesses on the light vehicle side. So definitely a contributor. And as it relates to North America, we’re looking at the tax credits and how those might apply to us from a production standpoint as we go through ’23 and beyond.

Noah Kaye: Just waiting for treasury guidance to get full clarification?

Kevin Nowlan: I mean there’s some of that, making sure that we understand any clarifications that need to be had, but we’re pursuing the credits that we think were — that are available to us based on the production that we are executing here in the United States.

Operator: We have time for one final question, and that question comes from Mark Delaney with Goldman Sachs.

Mark Delaney: When you speak to your auto OEM customers, what do you think the gating factor is to light vehicle production volumes in 2023? And to what extent is volume gated by supply as opposed to demand?

Frederic Lissalde: The semiconductor availability is still alive, unfortunately. And I would say, to answer your question, it’s more capped from a supply availability standpoint and from a demand standpoint in 2023.

Mark Delaney: And second question was just in terms of how customers have responded to the announced separation of the business. You spoke about all the great momentum Werner is having on the product side. I’m wondering though, have you seen any change in customer engagement to design in NewCo products with the announced separation?