Westport Fuel Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:WPRT) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Tony Guglielmin: Yes. If I could jump in. It’s Tony here. Bill, Colin. Just a quick 2 seconds on the marine market because it’s a really interesting market. And Bill touched on, obviously, they’re one of the biggest polluters out there, particularly in the ocean going and bunker fuel. What’s interesting, of course, in marine markets, there are sectors within so many subsectors. And as you kind of start at the – I’ll say, the smaller to midsized, there’s a lot of the – suffice it to say, some of the engine manufacturers and marine are some names that also were engine manufacturers in some of the heavy-duty applications. So meaning there’s a fair – there starts to be some overlap at the smaller end of the space.

So where HPDI can make a fairly significant difference. So Bill is absolutely correct, early stage, but I think there’s some interesting opportunities where there’s potentially some OEMs who we know already or get to know particularly on the – not so much on the ocean-going side at this point, but perhaps on the smaller end of the marine scale. So I think some very interesting opportunities there, but early days.

Colin Rusch: Thanks so much, guys.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Eric Stine from Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Eric Stine: Good morning, everyone.

Tony Guglielmin: Good morning, Eric.

Bill Larkin: Good morning.

Eric Stine: Hey, so, I’m just curious, so this process with Volvo in working towards finalization of the joint venture, I guess part one of the question is anything you can share how the view of the opportunity has changed as you’ve gone through the process? And then really interested in how it accelerates the business beyond Volvo. I know that it’s become more commonplace for OEMs to collaborate together. And so just curious your thoughts on what this means more broadly for HPDI adoption.

Tony Guglielmin: Eric, it’s Tony here. I’ll let Bill go ahead first, and then I’ll pile on. So sorry, Bill, go ahead.

Bill Larkin: Yes. I think I mention it is this is about getting at the scale and scaling the technology and pulling out cost out of the complete supply chain to make this technology even more and more affordable in the truck compared to alternative or competing technologies like fuel cells or electrification. That’s where the huge benefit is. And because when you look at the end users, the operators, they know their cost per mile. They’re very economic driven. So they’re looking at what is the upfront costs, what’s the fuel price differential then ultimately, what’s the payback period for converting or buying a truck with HPDI systems on. And so it behooves us to scale, reduce costs, which ultimately reduce the end cost of the customer, which we make it more attractive for them. I think that’s…

Tony Guglielmin: Yes, Bill, it’s Tony here, just going to pile on. That’s absolutely spot on. I mean, the volume is what’s going to drive this. The other dimension to this, if I may just jump in, it was the – beyond Volvo, we had the opportunity this summer as we were – I’d say we, the board and management had an opportunity to spend some time with Volvo back at one of our meetings in Europe. And I’m just speaking from a personal point of view here is – I was actually very impressed with Volvo’s vision for this. They – to your point about there’s a changing dynamic and how OEMs are working with each other. And Volvo has a number of other partnerships, Europe, there’s many of these where shall we say, parties that you wouldn’t normally expect to be doing business together or and Volvo at the most senior levels indicated to us that unequivocally, their objective is to make this joint venture a successful business, which would, by definition, they’re looking at the opportunity well beyond their own needs for their internal products.