Nikola Corporation (NASDAQ:NKLA) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Thomas Okray: I mean, it’s case by case. Some of the national accounts are very committed to ESG and want to have a certain percentage of their fleets, which are zero emissions. There’s other accounts that want to participate in the voucher program. And there we’re working with the regulatory bodies in California to make sure we can get those vouchers processed efficiently and quickly, so we can get the vouchers back and restored. In some of them, it’s a penny game where they’re going against price of diesel, and then we need to make a decision internally what we’re going to do for the initial deal. And it really varies customer by customer.

Steve Girsky: Yes. Jeff, this is really about getting on the field. And we’ve talked about that FFO in the fourth quarter, in the first quarter, and that’s what these bigger accounts are now coming to us. They want to get on the field. They have the ability to buy lots of trucks, but let’s get on the field with a few smaller order and see how they work and see what use cases work best for this. And that’s what you’re going to see going forward.

Thomas Okray: Yes. And we’re confident once we get the big national accounts, there will be the, I don’t know what Steve called the fear of missing out with the not as big national accounts, who see the bigger ones doing this and want to get in on the game. And that’s all part of the flywheel. And we’re not going to ignore the smaller accounts, which we’ve been focusing on to date more. We’re going to continue to serve those as well.

Jeffrey Kauffman: Okay. So I guess from 10,000 feet, you’re becoming much more relevant. The bigger fleet discussions are starting to happen. And if there’s kind of trimming inventory here, adjusting there, or trimming, trimming’s the wrong word, adjusting price to activate that flywheel. This is just part of the evolution, I guess, is the message.

Steve Girsky: Yes. And I would say it’s not just the fleets that there’s interest in discussions. It’s other players throughout the ecosystem. There are other players who want this ecosystem to work that are interested in this. And those people are calling as well as we validate it.

Thomas Okray: Yes. We can sit back and pop out our chucks and be very tough on ASP and not have any volume. And then the suppliers can’t work with us credibly because we can’t give them the volume they need. That’s a road to nowhere. We need volume. We need to have Nikola trucks running around the road, delivering freight. And once that starts to happen in great numbers, then great things will happen.

Jeffrey Kauffman: Okay. Thank you for your answers and congratulations.

Thomas Okray: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from Jeff Osborne with TD Cowen. Please proceed.

Steve Girsky: Hi, Jeff.

Jeffery Osborne: Good morning, Steve. Morning. A couple quick ones on my side. Can you remind me what the CapEx is for a mobile refuel? Just the five additional that you’ve got going on here in that two to three.

Steve Girsky: In that 2 to 3?

Jeffery Osborne: In that zip code.

Steve Girsky: Okay. So should I think your prior CapEx guidance was 60 to 70? Should we bump that up by about 10 million? I just didn’t see the updated guidance for the year.

Jeffery Osborne: And I know some of these are, some of these are financed, so I mean, there could be an offset. Some of these, by the way, are other people are buying. So I don’t know what you guys.

Thomas Okray: Yes, we left it unchanged at 60 to 70, as you said, Jeff, and leave it at that for the time being. We are, as Steve said, we’re going through the details right now and we can have more to say on that in next quarter’s call, but it shouldn’t be a hugely different number. We had 20 for guidance and we came in at 16 and a half in this quarter. So it’s not going to be a huge difference. And Jeff, as we learn, just for context, as we learn more, some of these big customers may want their own fueler. They may want it on their site. They may want to. So there’s a lot of ways to skin this cat. They may want their own hydrogen. They may want our hydrogen and their fueler. So there’s a lot of ways to skin this cat.

Jeffery Osborne: Got it. And then just following up on the other Jeff’s question, the sort of one ish time items, just to be crystal clear, do you anticipate BEV repurchases in the second quarter at all? Just as we model top line trends, because the guidance only assumes the fuel cell portion. But I’m just curious, are there other dealers beyond the one that you repurchase 15 trucks from that have indicated that either you will or may potentially buy back?

Steve Girsky: No, we don’t have any knowledge of that now. And not to go into an accounting lesson, though, I mean, we reserve based on experience. So we have a number reserved which is greater than we have had returned already. So if there were to be additional returns, we’ve got additional reserve for that.

Jeffery Osborne: Got it. Then just two other very quick ones. Your prior two predecessor CFO’s that talked about not using the flywheel term, but volume to reach gross margin and EBITDA outbreak. Even as you’ve studied the numbers for the past two months, Tom, and looked at that flywheel, is there a way you could update us on that with this new initiative as it relates to national accounts and potential changing in pricing?

Thomas Okray: Yes, I think it goes back to the three characteristics, which I view them as different than the past, a much more focused on national accounts and within those national accounts, being much more forgiving for the initial deal, wanting them to get in the product, delight them, and then having a further discussion after that. And then the third one is the geography. We’re still going to be focused on California and Canada, but we’re going to expand our geography, so we’ve got a bigger total addressable market. So working backwards, total addressable market. A more attractive first deal to get in these big customers to get the flywheel going. I think all three of those are different than has been done in the past. And the way to grade us is to watch the order book.