Dragonfly Energy Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ:DFLI) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

John Marchetti: So yes, in the broader sense, we kind of throw rail into that market. We have fleets. We have long-haul trucking, and we have work trucks, things like ambulances or equipment for utility companies, things along those lines. We lump all those together in the work truck category. But those 4 broad categories, if you will, we lump all under transportation.

Q – George Gianarikas: And then maybe last question, you — your pilot line to working this — should be making cells, full cells at the end of this year, and you should have cells in customers’ hands or prospective customers’ hands to sample by the end of the calendar year.

Denis Phares: That’s right, George. Conventional cells with conventional liquid electrolytes, we can deposit basically any type of anode or cathode. So we’re not exclusively tied to lithium-ion phosphate off of the pilot line. So that opens up some more diverse potential for us.

George Gianarikas: Excellent. And have you — what sort of interest have you seen for people to get their hands on those cells and test them and work with it as you ramp up production?

Denis Phares: We’ve had some interest in what I can say that it was interest that was not necessarily pertaining to our core markets, which was pleasant — pleasantly surprising for us.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Brian Dobson from Chardan.

Brian Dobson: So as you’re looking out of the trucking market, do you think you could perhaps put some type of ballpark TAM around the, call it, trucking battery replacement market. If you do announce an agreement later this year, do we expect to see revenue from — meaningful revenue from that agreement in 2024?

John Marchetti: Sure. Thanks, Brian. I think the short answer to your second question is we do expect meaningful revenue from that, that transportation market, certainly in 2024. And then if we’re able to announce a win or 2 before year-end, we would expect those to be real contributors to growth for us next year. So we are very bullish on those opportunities and then what they hold for us here in the intermediate term. In terms of the overall TAM, I mean, it’s very, very large, depending on exactly how you want to break it out. I mean, as we look at things like fleet, for example, right, there’s opportunities to do a lot of different in cabin or even in some cases, in the back of these delivery vehicles for AC, for lighting or things along those lines because these are trucks that aren’t allowed to idle at a delivery location or things along those lines, and they’re increasingly looking at battery powered solutions to do that either from a retrofit or even from a new build perspective.

In long haul, you have opportunities to do, in a way, a lot of what we’re already doing in the RV market in terms of powering the house side or the cab side of the long-haul trucking market. So that as drivers either do crew rest or things along those lines, they don’t have to idle trucks. They’re not wasting fuel. They’re not — they’re certainly getting the benefits of being able to use batteries to power the in-cabin home side of things, where today, a lot of that, if it is lead acid, those batteries typically are not performing the way they’re meant to or in a lot of cases, you’re running into situations where the driver is forced to idle the vehicle to power a lot of that. And increasingly, they’re getting door knocks, but it’s also obviously a big ROI opportunity for fleets and trucks because you don’t have some of the engine wear and tear and you certainly have fuel savings that are associated with not having to idle the trucks to do that.

Work trucks, it depends on kind of which category you’re in, about how battery dependent they are. And in rail, there’s a lot of opportunities, not just in the trains themselves, but in a lot of the yard equipment and then some of the signaling equipment as well. So these are very big TAM opportunities, but we’re looking to, again, be very methodical in where we are targeting ourselves because we see it as, again, a lead-acid replacement opportunity within the majority of these markets.

Brian Dobson: Yes, that’s very helpful. And you mentioned that industry associations or your contacts within the RV industry, sales volumes flattening out in the near term with the potential for a recovery in ’24. I guess, what gives them the confidence that sale — the pace of sales is going to plateau here? Is it that interest rates look to not be going much higher than current levels? Or is there something else?