The Lion Electric Company (NYSE:LEV) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Marc Bedard: Yeah, I feel there’s many differences there. But as Nic was saying earlier, every time that there is a good news in the EV space, this is good news for the whole EV market. I think right now the battle is more about EV against the ICE market. So in some markets, that could be a resistance to change than anything else. So we’re glad when the other companies are having good news as well. We feel this is good for the whole EV market. That being said, though, we feel very good about our products and our DNA is really about adding purpose-built school buses and purpose-built trucks. So those trucks where we have the operator in mind the first day we started thinking about those, so that’s going to generate a lot of cost savings going forward.

And this is great for the operator. So we feel the total cost of ownership is very good. And the Lion8 tractor will be launched in two weeks in Las Vegas at the ACT show. And we feel this one is a game changer. And we can see that great momentum with the Lion5 as well. The people are driving the Lion5, we started the deliveries. As you know, those trucks, we feel will really respond to the needs of the operators. And this is all that matters. So great quality products, real EV products that are fully purpose-built, and also all the software and all the communication tools that we have benefited from the last eight years that we’ve been selling EV in the school bus space as well. So we feel that those trucks that we’re putting to market will be a great game changer in the EV space.

Michael Shlisky: My follow-up question was just on the Q1 numbers here, real quick one. Just the average price per vehicle was a bit higher this year over last year. Is that a function of just the mix between buses and trucks? I’m just trying to figure out whether any credit revenues from environmental credits or other things in there that we should be aware of or is it just purely all vehicles this quarter?

Richard Coulombe: All vehicles and charging infrastructure, nothing unusual there.

Michael Shlisky: So it’s just mix was the reason for the average.

Richard Coulombe: Yes, correct.

Operator: The next question is from Chris Souther from B. Riley.

Christopher Souther: Maybe just on the truck order book, it looks like it was reduced during the quarter beyond what the sales were during the quarter. Can you comment on what the moving pieces were there?

Nicolas Brunet: As I mentioned in the prepared remarks, we had an order of 65 units in the truck order book that was for a client that fought for creditor protection. So, in light of that, we took out those 65 units from the order book. That is the bulk of it, Chris.

Christopher Souther: I missed that. And obviously, a lot of moving pieces on some of the subsidy programs. I just think today, if we’re looking at the current order book and the visibility on deliveries, could you give us a refresh on the current order book between ZETF, EPA, other orders that are customer dependent on the timing and orders that are maybe less constricted on the delivery time?

Nicolas Brunet: Over half of the order book, Chris, is conditional on ZETF approval. As we mentioned this morning, first approval for an order of 200 units was obtained and we started delivering on that. As it related to the EPS, there is very, very little in there. Only what remains from the first round. And as I mentioned, there is $1.5 billion that we expect will be – and only available for orders very healthy and we’re having a very healthy – encouraging client dialogue for that, but there’s close to nothing in the order book as it relates to the EPA.

Christopher Souther: Just maybe last one, a little bit more clarity on the ZETF process to get subsequent orders, do you have any sense as to like what made the 200 bus order that you’ve recently received get through all the red tape and the like and where the other orders stand as far as that similar process. I just wanted to see if we can get some better sense of where we are with the rest of that piece of the order book.

Marc Bedard: With respect to the 200 orders, we are in discussion with the operators. Well, [Technical Difficulty] and it’s a matter of putting in the infrastructure and delivering those buses. So there will be deliveries, obviously, this year, and we’re coordinating with the operator to make sure that we please them and we deliver as soon as possible. As I said earlier, we see very good dialogue right now between the operators and the ZETF. Many of those have been in discussion for more than two years with the ZETF, but it’s a process where there are many steps and many of them are getting to the last steps. And hopefully, that will conclude into an approval of those files, but we see a good momentum right now, and we see a lot of willingness also from the operators to get their electric buses to carry the kids to school, which is great. So we feel that this order of 200 buses and this approval is a very good sign of where it’s going.

Operator: We have no further questions on the call, so I will hand the floor back to management to conclude.

Isabelle Adjahi : Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to a continued discussion with you. So, feel free to contact me for any further questions you may have.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you all very much for joining.

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