Beam Global (BEEM) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to the Beam Global first-quarter 2023 financial results and corporate update. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this event is being recorded.

美好的一天，歡迎收看 Beam Global 2023 年第一季度財務業績和公司更新。 （操作員說明）請注意，正在記錄此事件。

I would now like to turn the call over to the Chief Financial Officer, Kathy McDermott. Please go ahead.

我現在想把電話轉給首席財務官 Kathy McDermott。請繼續。

Thanks, Joe. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in Beam Global 2023 first-quarter conference call. We appreciate you joining us today and hearing an update on our business. Joining me is Desmond Wheatley, President, CEO and Chairman of Beam. Desmond will be providing an update on recent activities at Beam followed by a question-and-answer session.

謝謝，喬。大家下午好，感謝您參加 Beam Global 2023 第一季度電話會議。感謝您今天加入我們並聽取我們業務的最新消息。與我一起的是 Beam 總裁、首席執行官兼董事長 Desmond Wheatley。 Desmond 將提供有關 Beam 最近活動的最新信息，然後是問答環節。

But first, I'd like to communicate to you that during this call, management will be making forward-looking statements including statements that address Beam's expectations for future performance or operational results. Forward-looking statements involve risks and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. For more information about these risks, please refer to the risk factors described in Beam's most recent filed Form 10-K and other periodic reports filed with the SEC.

但首先，我想告訴你，在這次電話會議中，管理層將發表前瞻性陳述，包括闡述 Beam 對未來業績或運營結果的預期的陳述。前瞻性陳述涉及可能導致實際結果與這些陳述存在重大差異的風險和其他因素。有關這些風險的更多信息，請參閱 Beam 最近向 SEC 提交的 10-K 表格和其他定期報告中描述的風險因素。

The content of this call contains time-sensitive information that is accurate only as of today, May 15, 2023. Except as required by law, Beam disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any information to reflect events or circumstances that occur after this call.

本次電話會議的內容包含時效性信息，截至今天，即 2023 年 5 月 15 日，這些信息都是準確的。除非法律要求，Beam 不承擔任何公開更新或修改任何信息以反映本次電話會議後發生的事件或情況的義務.

And next, I will provide you with the financial results for Beam's first quarter of 2023.

接下來，我將為您提供 Beam 2023 年第一季度的財務業績。

Our first quarter revenue started out very strong increasing 245% over the first quarter of 2022 and 65% over the prior fourth quarter of 2022, which is typically our highest quarter. Revenues for the quarter ended March 31, 2023 was $13 million compared to $3.8 million in the same quarter in the prior year. The increase can be attributed to the increase in federal sales primarily to the US Army as a result of several large federal orders we received in late 2022 that we'll deliver through the end of 2023.

我們第一季度的收入一開始就非常強勁，比 2022 年第一季度增長了 245%，比 2022 年第四季度增長了 65%，這通常是我們最高的季度。截至 2023 年 3 月 31 日的季度收入為 1300 萬美元，而去年同期為 380 萬美元。這一增長可歸因於聯邦銷售額的增加，主要是由於我們在 2022 年底收到的幾筆大型聯邦訂單，我們將在 2023 年底交付這些訂單。

Our manufacturing operations have increased our production capacity by increasing our production team, close management of our supply chain and through improved tooling and design changes to allow us to fulfill this higher demand for our products. After many quarters of reporting a gross loss, we're happy to report a gross profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2023. Our gross profit was $0.005 million compared to loss of $0.3 million or 8.1% of sales for the first quarter of 2022.

我們的製造業務通過增加我們的生產團隊、密切管理我們的供應鏈以及通過改進工具和設計變更來提高我們的生產能力，使我們能夠滿足對我們產品的更高需求。在報告了多個季度的毛虧損之後，我們很高興報告截至 2023 年 3 月 31 日的季度的毛利潤。我們的毛利潤為 0.05 萬美元，而 2022 年第一季度虧損 30 萬美元，佔銷售額的 8.1% .

This improvement resulted from the increased production levels, providing favorable fixed overhead absorption and improved labor efficiency. Our material cost for steel and other components remain higher than Q1 2022 due to supply chain shortages and other inflationary pressures. Also, our cost of goods sold includes $0.2 million of noncash intangible amortization related to purchase assets from the AllCell acquisition.

這種改善源於生產水平的提高，提供了有利的固定間接費用吸收和提高的勞動效率。由於供應鏈短缺和其他通脹壓力，我們的鋼鐵和其他零部件的材料成本仍高於 2022 年第一季度。此外，我們的商品銷售成本包括 20 萬美元的非現金無形攤銷，與收購 AllCell 的購買資產相關。

Operating expenses were $3.8 million or 30% of revenues for the first quarter of 2023 compared to $2 million or 52% of revenues for the same period in the prior year. We acquired AllCell Technologies in March of 2022 and reported one month of expenses in Q1 2022, so $0.5 million of the increase is due to a full quarter of energy storage expenses in Q1 '23.

2023 年第一季度運營費用為 380 萬美元，佔收入的 30%，而去年同期為 200 萬美元，佔收入的 52%。我們於 2022 年 3 月收購了 AllCell Technologies，並報告了 2022 年第一季度的一個月費用，因此增加的 50 萬美元是由於 23 年第一季度的整個季度儲能費用。

In addition, we invested $0.4 million for additional resources in R&D, $0.3 million for noncash compensation expense, $0.3 million for audit fees, and $0.3 million for admin, salaries, and bonus expense. Our net loss was $3.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2023, compared to $2.3 million for the first quarter of 2022. These quarters included noncash expense items such as depreciation, IP amortization, and noncash compensation expense of $0.9 million and $0.4 million respectively. Net loss excluding these expenses would have been $2.9 million and $1.9 million respectively.

此外，我們還投資了 40 萬美元用於研發額外資源、30 萬美元用於非現金補償費用、30 萬美元用於審計費用以及 30 萬美元用於管理、工資和獎金費用。截至 2023 年 3 月 31 日止三個月，我們的淨虧損為 380 萬美元，而 2022 年第一季度為 230 萬美元。這些季度包括折舊、知識產權攤銷等非現金支出項目，以及 90 萬美元和 40 萬美元的非現金補償支出分別。扣除這些費用後的淨虧損分別為 290 萬美元和 190 萬美元。

At March 31, 2023, we had cash of $1 million compared to $1.7 million at December 31, 2022. The cash decrease was primarily from the net loss as well as an increase in accounts receivable partially offset by an increase in accounts payable. Our working capital decreased from $6.8 million to $5.5 million from December 31, 2022 to March 31, 2023.

截至 2023 年 3 月 31 日，我們的現金為 100 萬美元，而 2022 年 12 月 31 日為 170 萬美元。現金減少主要來自淨虧損以及應收賬款的增加，部分被應付賬款的增加所抵消。從 2022 年 12 月 31 日到 2023 年 3 月 31 日，我們的營運資金從 680 萬美元減少到 550 萬美元。

And with that, I will turn it over to Desmond.

然後，我將把它交給 Desmond。

Thank you, Kathy, and thank you to all of you shareholders, followers, and analysts who have joined this call to hear our Q1 2023 results. I'm going to make some comments, and then I'm looking forward to answering your questions before we close the meeting.

謝謝你，凱西，也感謝所有參加這次電話會議聽取我們 2023 年第一季度業績的股東、追隨者和分析師。我將發表一些評論，然後我期待在會議結束前回答您的問題。

Well, the Beam team really knocked it out of the park this quarter with record revenues and deliveries, a positive gross margin, and record Q1 sales orders and pipeline. This continues the team's trend of breaking records quarter over quarter and year over year. We generated by far the highest revenue of any quarter in our history, in fact about three times more revenue than in the first quarter of the previous year, more than half as much again as in the prior quarter, and a quarterly revenue rate that was higher than any full year in our history following 2022.

好吧，Beam 團隊本季度確實以創紀錄的收入和交付量、正的毛利率以及創紀錄的第一季度銷售訂單和管道將其淘汰出局。這延續了團隊逐季和逐年打破記錄的趨勢。我們創造了歷史上任何季度的最高收入，實際上收入是去年第一季度的三倍，是上一季度的一半多，而且季度收入率是高於 2022 年之後我們歷史上的任何一整年。

Q1 of 2023 is now our eighth quarter of consecutive revenue growth and continues a trend, which barring a few minor instances, goes back to a deal longer than that. 2022 was a year in which the Beam team generated a 548% increase in orders over the prior year, and the prior year was up significantly over its predecessor. Clearly, demand for the product is no longer a problem. The new question in everybody's mind was whether or not we could deliver on all this growth.

2023 年第一季度現在是我們收入連續增長的第八個季度，並且繼續保持一種趨勢，除非有一些小的例子，否則可以追溯到比這更長的交易。 2022 年是 Beam 團隊的訂單比上一年增長 548% 的一年，上一年比前一年大幅增長。顯然，對產品的需求不再是問題。每個人心中的新問題是我們能否實現所有這些增長。

In this first quarter of 2023, the Beam team delivered more EV ARCs and more battery systems than in any other quarter in our history. We delivered 150 EV ARCs, up from 103 in the fourth quarter of 2022. And again, this delivery rate was higher than any full year in our history except for 2022, which was, of course, a record year.

在 2023 年第一季度，Beam 團隊交付了比我們歷史上任何其他季度都多的 EV ARC 和電池系統。我們交付了 150 輛 EV ARC，高於 2022 年第四季度的 103 輛。同樣，這一交付率高於我們歷史上除 2022 年以外的任何全年，當然，2022 年是創紀錄的一年。

By the end of 2022, our team in Chicago was producing about 10 times more kilowatt hours of batteries than AllCell, the company we acquired, did during the months prior to our acquisition and that trend has continued through the first quarter of 2023 and was enabled without significant capital expenditure on our part. During the first quarter of 2023, the operations and engineering teams at Beam Global have continued to make improvements in our processes, fixtures, equipment, and product engineering. These improvements have taken place during the quarter and have resulted in a daily and weekly production rate at the end of the quarter, which is far superior to that, which we began 2023.

到 2022 年底，我們在芝加哥的團隊生產的電池千瓦時數是我們收購的公司 AllCell 在收購前幾個月的產量的 10 倍左右，這一趨勢一直持續到 2023 年第一季度，並已啟用無需我們方面的大量資本支出。在 2023 年第一季度，Beam Global 的運營和工程團隊繼續改進我們的流程、固定裝置、設備和產品工程。這些改進是在本季度進行的，並且在本季度末實現了每日和每週的生產率，這遠遠優於我們從 2023 年開始的水平。

I believe that the results of these activities will mean a continuation of our accelerating trend of production so that in Q2, Q3, and Q4 of this year, we will continue to increase our output absent any unforeseen event which is outside of our control. At any rate, even at our current run rate, we're on track to produce something like three times more EV ARCs in 2023 than we did in 2022, which, as I've already stated, was a record year and 144% over 2021. I've consistently stated that with increased volumes, we would see improvements to our gross profitability, and that assertion is certainly being borne out in this latest quarter. We reported a gross loss of 8.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022.

我相信，這些活動的結果將意味著我們的生產加速趨勢得以延續，因此在今年第二、第三和第四季度，我們將繼續增加產量，除非發生任何我們無法控制的意外事件。無論如何，即使按照我們目前的運行速度，我們有望在 2023 年生產比 2022 年多三倍的 EV ARC，正如我已經說過的那樣，這是創紀錄的一年，比 2022 年高出 144% 2021 年。我一直表示，隨著銷量的增加，我們的毛利潤率會有所提高，這一說法在最近一個季度得到了證實。我們報告 2022 年第四季度的毛虧損為 8.1%。

But in the first quarter of 2023, we generated and reported positive gross profits, albeit minor, and when including noncash amortization of intangible assets resulting from our acquisition of AllCell, the picture is actually a couple of percentage points better. I repeat, we made money at the gross profit line across the entire Beam Global platform, GAAP.

但在 2023 年第一季度，我們產生並報告了正的毛利潤，儘管毛利潤很小，而且當包括我們收購 AllCell 產生的無形資產的非現金攤銷時，情況實際上好幾個百分點。我再說一遍，我們在整個 Beam Global 平台 GAAP 的毛利潤線上賺錢。

And excluding the arcane accounting treatment of our very successful acquisition, we did better than we reported by about 2%. We achieved these improvements in gross profitability through combinations of increased efficiency, improved engineering, and the inevitable reduction of our per unit fixed overhead allocation that comes with growth. I've long stated that we received positive margin contribution from the sale of EDR systems. The GAAP numbers now show unequivocally that this is correct, as we've reached a point in our levels of production where all our overhead costs associated with producing the products have been covered, and we're now able to produce a gross profit across the company.

除去對我們非常成功的收購的神秘會計處理，我們的表現比我們報告的好大約 2%。我們通過提高效率、改進工程以及隨著增長而不可避免地減少每單位固定間接費用分配，從而實現了毛利潤率的這些提高。我早就說過，我們從 EDR 系統的銷售中獲得了積極的利潤貢獻。 GAAP 數據現在清楚地表明這是正確的，因為我們的生產水平已經達到了與生產產品相關的所有管理費用都已涵蓋的程度，而且我們現在能夠在整個生產過程中產生毛利潤公司。

I'm confident that these improvements in gross profitability will continue as our volumes increase and as we continually improve our processes and methods of manufacturing while upgrading our tooling and fixturing to increase our throughput and reduce labor hours per unit. But there will be other contributors to improving growth profitability, which I believe will have even more impact during the next two or three quarters. I'll describe the three most significant of those to you now.

我相信，隨著我們產量的增加，以及我們不斷改進我們的工藝和製造方法，同時升級我們的工具和夾具以增加我們的產量並減少每單位的工時，我相信這些毛利潤率的提高將繼續下去。但是，還有其他因素可以提高增長盈利能力，我相信這將在未來兩三個季度產生更大的影響。我現在將向您描述其中最重要的三個。

Firstly, our combined engineering team on both the battery and EV charging products side of the business has identified engineering and component improvements, which we believe will make the EV ARC a better product while at the same time reducing our cost to produce them by between $10,000 and $12,000. This reduction in cost should equate to approximately 16% to 20% improvement to the margin contribution from a base EV ARC. We expect to see the impact of these improvements starting in a small way in the second quarter but complete by the end of 2023.

首先，我們在電池和 EV 充電產品業務方面的聯合工程團隊已經確定了工程和組件改進，我們相信這將使 EV ARC 成為更好的產品，同時將我們的生產成本降低 10,000 美元和 12,000 美元。這種成本降低應相當於基礎 EV ARC 的利潤貢獻提高約 16% 至 20%。我們預計這些改進的影響會在第二季度開始產生小幅影響，但會在 2023 年底前完成。

Secondly, because of the exceptional demand for our EV ARC products from both governmental and commercial entities, we have decided to increase our sales price for the first time by approximately 8.25% on a base model system. Pricing in EV ARC has over the years been the subject of much discussion and analysis here at Beam Global. On the one hand, because we have a unique and well-patented product with no direct competition in the marketplace, there has been a strong argument to suggest that increasing our prices make sense.

其次，由於政府和商業實體對我們的 EV ARC 產品的特殊需求，我們決定首次將基礎模型系統的銷售價格提高約 8.25%。多年來，EV ARC 的定價一直是 Beam Global 討論和分析的主題。一方面，由於我們擁有獨特且獲得專利的產品，在市場上沒有直接競爭，因此有充分的理由表明提高我們的價格是合理的。

On the other hand, there's a competing argument that increasing acceptance of the product and hence volumes of production was so important that doing anything that might create a hurdle for increased adoption, like for example increasing our prices, might in turn have a negative impact on the overall health of the business. We have been patient, and we've been prepared to learn from the market. And I'm delighted to report, demand for our product is so strong and growing that after much consultation with our sales and marketing teams, we've come to the conclusion that we can increase our prices without having a negative impact on the order flow. On the contrary, we believe that the urgency of demand for our products will continue its long-term trend of increasing and accelerating.

另一方面，有一個相互競爭的論點認為，提高產品的接受度和生產量非常重要，以至於做任何可能對提高采用率造成障礙的事情，例如提高我們的價格，可能反過來對產品產生負面影響。企業的整體健康狀況。我們一直很有耐心，我們已經準備好向市場學習。我很高興地報告，對我們產品的需求如此強勁且不斷增長，在與我們的銷售和營銷團隊進行大量協商後，我們得出的結論是，我們可以在不對訂單流產生負面影響的情況下提高價格.相反，我們認為對我們產品的需求緊迫性將繼續其增加和加速的長期趨勢。

We've introduced this 8.25% increase in our selling price as a line item on our proposals addressing the inflationary environment in which we're currently operating. We believe that this line item will be well understood and accepted by our prospective customers, and we're also encouraged by the flexibility that this price increase strategy affords us.

我們已經將銷售價格上漲 8.25% 作為我們解決當前運營的通貨膨脹環境的提案的一個項目。我們相信，這個項目將被我們的潛在客戶很好地理解和接受，而且我們也對這種提價策略為我們提供的靈活性感到鼓舞。

The third contributor to our increasing profitability is the disinflationary impact to the cost that we're paying for components, commodities, and transportation. We first started to detect this trend towards the end of 2022, and we believe that we will see a decrease in the cost of materials and transportation throughout the remainder of 2023. I stress that the improvement of gross profitability in the first quarter of 2023 has not been assisted by this disinflationary trend as we and our vendors worked through inventories accumulated during the period of hyperinflation after the end of last year.

我們提高盈利能力的第三個因素是對我們為零部件、商品和運輸支付的成本的通貨緊縮影響。我們首先在 2022 年底開始發現這一趨勢，我們相信我們將在 2023 年剩餘時間內看到材料和運輸成本的下降。我強調，2023 年第一季度毛利率的改善已經沒有受到這種反通脹趨勢的幫助，因為我們和我們的供應商處理了去年底之後惡性通貨膨脹期間積累的庫存。

The result of this is that the EV ARCs and batteries that we sold during the first quarter of 2023 were still negatively impacted by the highest cost that we've ever paid. And yet, we were able to improve our gross profitability and generate positive gross profits in spite of these influences. We should start to see the positive impact of the disinflationary environment on our cost of goods sold starting in a minor way in the second quarter and continuing throughout the rest of 2023.

其結果是，我們在 2023 年第一季度銷售的 EV ARC 和電池仍然受到我們支付的最高成本的負面影響。然而，儘管存在這些影響，我們仍能夠提高毛利潤並產生正的毛利潤。我們應該開始看到通縮環境對我們的商品銷售成本的積極影響，從第二季度開始以較小的方式開始，並持續到 2023 年剩餘時間。

By taking the impact of all three contributors to improving gross profitability, along with our already demonstrated ongoing improvements resulting from increased volumes and efficiencies, we can do some simple arithmetic. 16% to 20% of improvement through engineering enhancements, 8.25% improvement due to our price increase, and an as yet unidentifiable improvement as a result of disinflationary activities amounts to a potential for approximately 24% improvement over our current positive gross margins. I've stated before that I'm targeting a 50% gross profit on our EV ARCs and other charging products. And I think you can see with the outlined improvements I've just described that we're taking the right steps to move towards that goal.

通過考慮所有三個貢獻者對提高毛利率的影響，以及我們已經證明的由於增加的數量和效率而帶來的持續改進，我們可以做一些簡單的算術。通過工程改進實現 16% 至 20% 的改善，由於我們的價格上漲導致 8.25% 的改善，以及由於反通貨膨脹活動導致的尚未確定的改善，總計有可能使我們目前的正毛利率提高約 24%。我之前說過，我的目標是讓我們的 EV ARC 和其他充電產品獲得 50% 的毛利潤。我認為您可以從我剛才描述的改進概述中看出，我們正在採取正確的步驟來實現這一目標。

Cost improvements are a process, not an event. And as I've said, we'll start to see the benefits of the steps we're taking in the second quarter but more dramatically in the third and fourth quarter of this year. In the interest of being abundantly clear, the price increase I just announced became effective on May 1 of this year and, as a result, had no impact on our gross profitability in the first quarter. All of the improvements in gross profitability in Q1 came as a result of increased efficiencies and volumes. The impact of this price increase will be on any new orders which come in and are delivered after we worked our way through our currently priced backlog.

成本改進是一個過程，而不是一個事件。正如我所說，我們將開始看到我們在第二季度採取的措施帶來的好處，但在今年第三和第四季度會更加顯著。為了清楚起見，我剛剛宣布的提價於今年 5 月 1 日生效，因此對我們第一季度的毛利率沒有影響。第一季度毛利率的所有改善都是由於效率和產量的提高。這種價格上漲的影響將影響我們處理完當前定價的積壓訂單後收到和交付的任何新訂單。

The other cost savings I've mentioned above will be impactful to elements of our currently priced backlog because we'll institute these changes as quickly as we possibly can. And as I've already stated, we expect to see these improvements take effect beginning modestly in this quarter and continuing with more vigor during the remainder of the year. Our constantly improving growth profitability provides the best type support for our cash position. We continue to manage cash carefully and with prudence.

我在上面提到的其他成本節約將對我們當前定價的積壓訂單的元素產生影響，因為我們將盡快進行這些更改。正如我已經說過的那樣，我們希望看到這些改進在本季度開始適度生效，並在今年剩餘時間繼續更有活力。我們不斷提高的增長盈利能力為我們的現金狀況提供了最佳類型的支持。我們繼續審慎謹慎地管理現金。

We have approximately $5 million in cash in the bank today which is significantly more than we reported on our balance sheet at December 31 or March 31 of 2023. We have over $100 million of liquidity because in addition to the $5 million we have in the bank, we still have the as yet unused $100 million line of credit issued to us by the OCI Group in London. As a reminder, this $100 million line of credit is liquidity that we can use at our discretion at the cost of SOFR or the secured overnight finance rate plus 300 basis points. There are no other fees or costs associated with using this money, and there is no equity impact whatsoever.

我們今天在銀行有大約 500 萬美元的現金，這比我們在 2023 年 12 月 31 日或 3 月 31 日的資產負債表上報告的要多得多。我們有超過 1 億美元的流動資金，因為除了我們在銀行的 500 萬美元，我們還有倫敦 OCI 集團向我們發放的尚未使用的 1 億美元信貸額度。提醒一下，這 1 億美元的信貸額度是我們可以自行決定使用的流動性，代價是 SOFR 或有擔保的隔夜融資利率加上 300 個基點。使用這筆錢沒有其他費用或成本，也沒有任何股權影響。

I'm aware that the cash position on our balance sheet has sometimes raised a few eyebrows. But as we very clearly demonstrated in the first quarter of this year, we have managed to dramatically increase our production and improve our profitability while maintaining a disciplined approach to managing our cash resources. Further insight into our cash out comes on looking at our working capital position, which stands at approximately $13 million when excluding noncash items.

我知道我們資產負債表上的現金狀況有時會引起一些人的注意。但正如我們在今年第一季度非常清楚地表明的那樣，我們已經成功地大幅提高了產量並提高了盈利能力，同時保持了嚴格的現金資源管理方法。要進一步了解我們的現金支出，請查看我們的營運資金狀況，如果不包括非現金項目，營運資金狀況約為 1300 萬美元。

It's essential to recognize the positive contribution margin from our products when understanding our cash. This has been made abundantly clear by our positive growth profitability in the first quarter of 2023. As we see increased volumes of products moving to our factory combined with our planned cost reductions and our pricing increase, we will see an increase in contribution margin which will have a further positive impact on improving our cash flow. We should continue to see this increase in volume, not only because we started 2023 with the highest contracted backlog in our history, but also because the Beam Global sales team has produced a record first quarter of selling while our operations team has produced a record quarter of production.

在了解我們的現金時，必須認識到我們產品的正邊際貢獻。我們在 2023 年第一季度的正增長盈利能力充分證明了這一點。隨著我們看到越來越多的產品轉移到我們的工廠，加上我們計劃的成本削減和價格上漲，我們將看到邊際收益增加，這將對改善我們的現金流有進一步的積極影響。我們應該會繼續看到銷量的增長，這不僅是因為我們從 2023 年開始的合同積壓是我們歷史上最高的，還因為 Beam Global 銷售團隊創造了創紀錄的第一季度銷售，而我們的運營團隊創造了創紀錄的季度生產。

The sales team sold more product in the first quarter of 2023 and in any first quarter in our history. But perhaps much more importantly, our pipeline now stands at over $130 million, which is the highest pipeline position we've ever had at this time of year. And last year, we took a beginning pipeline of $80 million and converted $76 million of it into hard contracts. We now have $130 million in pipeline, and while no one can say with certainty what percentage of that pipeline will convert to backlog, our historical performance has certainly been very good.

銷售團隊在 2023 年第一季度以及我們歷史上任何一個季度都銷售了更多產品。但也許更重要的是，我們的管道現在超過 1.3 億美元，這是我們在每年這個時候擁有的最高管道位置。去年，我們啟動了 8000 萬美元的管道，並將其中的 7600 萬美元轉化為硬合同。我們現在有 1.3 億美元的管道，雖然沒有人能確定管道中有多少百分比會轉化為積壓，但我們的歷史表現肯定非常好。

We will undoubtedly still see lumpiness in orders somewhat driven by degrees of seasonality amongst the various strata of customer prospects we target. But this very strong first quarter shows that even with the lumpiness, the general trend continues to grow and indeed accelerate. This lumpiness in order cadence has replaced what used to be lumpiness in revenues. However, we're no longer experiencing choppy revenue recognition. That has been replaced by consistent and dramatic growth.

毫無疑問，在我們所針對的各個階層的潛在客戶中，我們仍會看到訂單量在一定程度上受到季節性程度的影響。但這個非常強勁的第一季度表明，即使有起伏，總體趨勢仍在繼續增長，而且確實在加速。這種訂單節奏的波動已經取代了過去收入的波動。但是，我們不再經歷不穩定的收入確認。取而代之的是持續而顯著的增長。

A little over half the orders we received in the first quarter came from governments with the remainder coming from commercial entities, continuing a trend of a return from the commercial sector into our sales pipeline. We announced orders from one of the top global automotive OEMs as well as from the materials rehandling sector and a fascinating robotics company. On the government and pseudo-governmental side, we saw interesting growth from corrections and native nations. This healthy mix of government and commercial business looks set to continue and is certainly represented in our greater than $130 million pipeline. We are seeing no indication of a reduction in investments in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, energy storage, or energy security.

我們在第一季度收到的訂單中有一半以上來自政府，其餘訂單來自商業實體，繼續保持從商業部門返回我們的銷售渠道的趨勢。我們宣布了來自全球頂級汽車原始設備製造商之一、材料再處理行業和一家迷人的機器人公司的訂單。在政府和偽政府方面，我們看到了來自更正和本土國家的有趣增長。這種政府和商業企業的健康組合看起來將繼續下去，並且肯定會出現在我們超過 1.3 億美元的管道中。我們沒有看到電動汽車充電基礎設施、儲能或能源安全投資減少的跡象。

We will continue to grow our intellectual property portfolio on both the battery and EV charging side of the business. Already in 2023, we've announced new patents in Asia and Europe for both sides of the business. We intend to pursue our EV standard product as resources permit during the remainder of 2023, and our engineering teams will not cease from seeking methods to improve our existing products, making them a greater value for our customers while reducing our cost to produce them.

我們將繼續在電池和電動汽車充電業務方面擴大我們的知識產權組合。早在 2023 年，我們就宣布了業務雙方在亞洲和歐洲的新專利。我們打算在 2023 年剩餘時間內在資源允許的情況下開發我們的 EV 標準產品，我們的工程團隊將不斷尋求改進我們現有產品的方法，使它們為我們的客戶創造更大的價值，同時降低我們的生產成本。

We will continue to invest in sales and government relations activities, as well as R&D, and we will not shy away from opportunities to grow geographically, particularly where massive markets like Europe exists that are so well matched to the fantastic value proposition delivered by our products. None of these activities will, in any way, reduce our laser focus on continuing to improve our growth profitability and manage our cash. You need not to take my word for this, it's absolutely clear in this quarter's results.

我們將繼續投資於銷售和政府關係活動以及研發，我們不會迴避在地域上發展的機會，尤其是在像歐洲這樣的龐大市場，這些市場與我們產品所提供的絕佳價值主張非常匹配.這些活動都不會以任何方式減少我們對繼續提高增長盈利能力和管理現金的高度關注。你不必相信我的話，這在本季度的結果中是絕對清楚的。

In summary, the Beam team delivered more products than in any quarter in our history. We tripled our revenues over the same period prior year. We generated a positive gross profit across the company, and we have more cash in the bank today than we had at the end of 2022 without, and I stress this, without tapping our as yet unused $100 million credit facility.

總之，Beam 團隊交付的產品比我們歷史上任何一個季度都多。與去年同期相比，我們的收入增加了兩倍。我們在整個公司產生了正的毛利潤，而且我們今天在銀行的現金比我們在 2022 年底沒有的時候多，我強調這一點，沒有動用我們尚未使用的 1 億美元信貸額度。

We have clearly identifiable and achievable opportunities for continued dramatic improvements to our gross profitability to be executed during the remainder of this year. We continue to break sales records in a market which shows no signs of abating. We have increased our patent portfolio with it and, with it, the barrier to entry for the competition, and we have a road map of new and excellent products to bring to market.

我們有明確可識別和可實現的機會，可以在今年剩餘時間內繼續大幅提高我們的毛利潤率。我們繼續在一個沒有減弱跡象的市場上打破銷售記錄。我們通過它增加了我們的專利組合，並通過它提高了競爭的進入壁壘，並且我們有一個將新的和優秀的產品推向市場的路線圖。

So far, all of the success has been derived within the United States, but we continue to see opportunities to replicate and accelerate the success internationally. The public markets have certainly been a challenging environment for growth stocks like ours. I believe our share price has been impacted by factors which are clearly not linked to our performance. We cannot impact the behavior of the broader markets, but we can continue to deliver material and excellent improvements to our performance. We have done, are doing, and will continue to do exactly that.

到目前為止，所有的成功都來自美國，但我們繼續看到在國際上複製和加速成功的機會。對於像我們這樣的成長型股票來說，公開市場無疑是一個充滿挑戰的環境。我相信我們的股價受到明顯與我們的業績無關的因素的影響。我們無法影響更廣泛市場的行為，但我們可以繼續為我們的業績提供實質性和出色的改進。我們已經做過，正在做，並將繼續這樣做。

I'll now return the call to the operator and take any questions which you may have.

我現在將電話轉回給接線員並回答您可能有的任何問題。

(Operator Instructions) At this time, we will take our first question.

（操作員說明）此時，我們將提出第一個問題。

Just for a point of clarity before we take the first question, I am doing follow-up calls with all the analysts after this call. So don't be surprised if you don't hear a lot of analyst questions and analysts if you're listening. Feel free to ask me during the following up calls or now if you would prefer them. I'll take the questions at either event. Sorry for interrupting you.

在我們回答第一個問題之前，為了清楚起見，我將在這次電話會議後與所有分析師進行後續電話會議。所以如果你沒有聽到很多分析師的問題和分析師，如果你在聽，不要感到驚訝。如果您願意，請在後續電話中或現在隨時問我。我會在任何一個活動中回答問題。抱歉打擾你了。

No problem. We'll take our first question now from Tyler DiMatteo with BTIG. Please go ahead with your question.

沒問題。我們現在將接受來自 BTIG 的 Tyler DiMatteo 的第一個問題。請繼續你的問題。

So Desmond, I wanted to start out with a higher level one here and just how you're thinking about managing the growth of the business and really balancing that with an uncertain macro environment. I know you alluded to how you haven't EV charging demand letup, the order book continues to look very good. I was just curious to hear how you're thinking about kind of that balancing act and really growing the business here at a higher level.

所以德斯蒙德，我想從一個更高層次的開始，看看你是如何考慮管理業務增長並真正平衡它與不確定的宏觀環境的。我知道你提到你如何沒有電動汽車充電需求減弱，訂單繼續看起來非常好。我只是想知道你是如何考慮這種平衡行為並真正在更高層次上發展這裡的業務。

Well, first of all, we still have a great deal of untapped excess capacity in our factory facility. Even with these growth numbers, we've got a long way to go before we fill this place up, which means that we will be able to execute on growth, which we see coming without significant capital expenditures and while managing our cash as it is. But to your broader question, I mean, assuming we're talking about moving into a sort of recessionary environment if we're not already in one, I think, frankly, having an infrastructure product particularly one that is so key to energy security and so important to the electrification of transportation, which I view as an inevitability, is going to be one of the few bright spots in that recessionary environment, which I, frankly in my glummer days, believe we're heading into.

好吧，首先，我們的工廠設施中仍有大量未開發的過剩產能。即使有了這些增長數字，我們在填補這個空缺之前還有很長的路要走，這意味著我們將能夠實現增長，我們認為這不會產生大量資本支出，同時會按原樣管理我們的現金.但對於你更廣泛的問題，我的意思是，假設我們正在談論進入一種衰退環境，如果我們還沒有進入衰退環境，我認為，坦率地說，擁有基礎設施產品，特別是對能源安全和對交通電氣化如此重要，我認為這是不可避免的，它將成為經濟衰退環境中為數不多的亮點之一，坦率地說，在我陰鬱的日子裡，我相信我們正在走向衰退。

In fact, there's another side of this for us, which is that we're not seeing any letup whatsoever in demand for our products either on the EV charging or energy storage side of business. And at the same time, what we do anticipate is a reduction in costs across the board as a result of a less active economic environment. So transportation price, we've already seen come down dramatically. I think that's a leading indicator.

事實上，這對我們來說還有另一面，那就是我們在 EV 充電或儲能業務方面沒有看到對我們產品的任何需求。與此同時，我們確實預計，由於經濟環境不那麼活躍，成本將全面下降。因此，我們已經看到運輸價格大幅下降。我認為這是一個領先指標。

We believe that we're starting to see an increase in available labor. And then the commodity and component prices that we're paying at the moment, which is as Kathy and I both pointed out, we're still suffering from the backlog of inventory that we have for which we paid the highest prices than we've ever paid in our history. We believe all of those things are going to come down and probably even more quickly as a result of the recessionary environment.

我們相信我們開始看到可用勞動力的增加。然後是我們目前支付的商品和零部件價格，正如凱西和我都指出的那樣，我們仍在遭受庫存積壓的困擾，我們為此支付的價格比以往最高在我們的歷史上曾經付出過。我們相信，由於經濟衰退的環境，所有這些事情都會下降，而且可能會更快。

So I hate to say this, but frankly, I don't believe recession would be bad for us at all. I don't think we'll see any impact to the top line. Nothing in our pipeline will be impacted by it, but I do believe it will assist our ongoing efforts to improve our profitability.

所以我不想這麼說，但坦率地說，我認為經濟衰退根本不會對我們不利。我認為我們不會對收入產生任何影響。我們的管道中的任何東西都不會受到它的影響，但我相信它會幫助我們不斷努力提高我們的盈利能力。

Okay. Great. And then going off that then, Desmond, I guess how are you thinking about kind of prioritizing the order book here just given this robust backlog of infrastructure? And just how are you thinking about kind of managing the order book here?

好的。偉大的。然後開始，Desmond，我猜你是如何考慮在這種強大的基礎設施積壓情況下對訂單簿進行優先排序的？您如何考慮在這裡管理訂單簿？

Yes. Frankly, honestly, Tyler, that's one of the biggest challenges that we have at the moment because of the historically high backlog that we've reported, there's not a single customer in there that wouldn't take the product tomorrow. I mean, I'm being somewhat flippant with my words. But let's put it this way, there's no customer there that wants their product later than 2023, at least not the material. And so what that means is our challenge at the moment, is not -- it's not a matter of -- as I said in my comments, it's not a demand problem, it's a supply problem.

是的。坦率地說，泰勒，這是我們目前面臨的最大挑戰之一，因為我們報告的積壓量創歷史新高，沒有一個客戶明天不會接受該產品。我的意思是，我的話有點輕率。但是讓我們這樣說吧，那裡沒有客戶想要他們的產品晚於 2023 年，至少不是材料。所以這意味著我們目前面臨的挑戰，不是——這不是——正如我在評論中所說的，這不是需求問題，而是供應問題。

Now we are just ramping up to execute on the orders and get them out to customers as quickly as possible. Whenever a customer wants something faster than you can deliver it, there's always a bit of a conversation around that. But that's just -- we've seen this challenge coming for a long time. I've been anticipating this for us for a long time. We're executing on it. The operations team is doing a fantastic job. They're just getting better and better.

現在我們正在加緊執行訂單，並儘快將它們交付給客戶。每當客戶想要的東西比您交付的速度更快時，總會有一些關於此的對話。但這只是 - 我們已經看到這個挑戰很長一段時間了。很長一段時間以來，我一直在為我們期待這一點。我們正在執行。運營團隊做得非常出色。他們只是變得越來越好。

And again, we still have a whole lot of capacity left in the factory here. So we'll keep talking to our customers. And any way you look at it, an EV ARC, which is a little bit later than you were hoping to get it as a customer, is still a hell of a lot sooner than you could dig the trenches and go through the permitting and pull the concrete and everything else that had to do a grid-tied installation. So I think we're in pretty good shape where that's concerned.

再一次，我們這裡的工廠還有很多產能。所以我們會繼續與我們的客戶交談。不管你怎麼看，EV ARC 比你作為客戶希望得到它的時間要晚一點，但仍然比你挖掘戰壕、通過許可和拉動要早得多混凝土和其他所有必須進行並網安裝的東西。所以我認為我們在這方面的狀況非常好。

Okay, great. That's very helpful. Thank you for the time, guys. Really appreciate it. I'll turn back to the queue.

好的，太好了。這很有幫助。謝謝你的時間，伙計們。真的很感激。我會回到隊列中。

Christopher Souther, B.Riley.

克里斯托弗索瑟，B.Riley。

So on that $10,000 to $12,000 in cost down, it's pretty impressive. Can you walk through the magnitude of some of the main items there? But then [trying to place] on timing, do you think it's two, three quarters to kind of hit that full magnitude there potentially?

因此，在這 10,000 美元到 12,000 美元的成本下降上，這是相當可觀的。你能了解那裡一些主要項目的規模嗎？但是然後 [嘗試放置] 時間，你認為它可能有兩個，三個季度才能達到那個完整的幅度嗎？

Well, Chris, as you know, our product is fairly complex. We make it very, very simple for our customers and users to operate it, but there's a lot of complexity going on inside a lot of intellectual property. I'm not going to go down into detail on exactly where we're getting these cost savings because I'm not going to give anyone an instruction manual to do that. But suffice it to say, across batteries and some of the other components and the way that we're putting this thing together.

克里斯，正如你所知，我們的產品相當複雜。我們讓我們的客戶和用戶操作起來非常非常簡單，但是很多知識產權內部卻存在很多複雜性。我不打算詳細說明我們從哪裡獲得這些成本節約，因為我不會給任何人一個指導手冊來做到這一點。但足以說明，跨電池和其他一些組件以及我們將這些東西組合在一起的方式。

Again, I've been consistent with this over all of our reporting periods that we keep pushing the engineers and the operations teams to find ways to make the product less expensive, but not at the expense of quality or safety. And they have done yeoman's work where that is concerned. It is a bit of a process because obviously we've got product in process right now with working process products. And some of the new pieces and components that we'll have to integrate to the product have lead times to them.

同樣，在我們所有的報告期間，我一直堅持這一點，即我們不斷推動工程師和運營團隊尋找降低產品成本的方法，但不能以犧牲質量或安全為代價。在這方面，他們完成了自耕農的工作。這是一個過程，因為顯然我們現在已經有了正在處理的產品和正在處理的產品。我們必須集成到產品中的一些新零件和組件有交貨時間。

So as I mentioned in my comments, very early beginnings of improvement starting and then towards the end of this quarter with much more activity in the third and fourth quarter, but I fully anticipate that we will have all of the positive impacts from a cost reduction point of view that I have disclosed to you today in effect before the end of 2023.

因此，正如我在評論中提到的那樣，改進很早就開始了，然後在本季度末開始，第三和第四季度的活動更加活躍，但我完全預計我們將從成本削減中獲得所有積極影響我今天向您披露的觀點在 2023 年底之前生效。

The price increase is going to be -- actually, oddly enough, you think that would be the easiest one to do. But in fact, because as I mentioned, none of the product that we've delivered to date this year has been impacted by that price increase because, of course, we're not increasing the prices on products that we have already contracted. And so the price increases for now new orders that are coming in.

價格上漲將是——實際上，奇怪的是，你認為這是最容易做到的。但事實上，因為正如我所提到的，我們今年迄今為止交付的產品都沒有受到價格上漲的影響，因為當然，我們不會提高我們已經簽訂合同的產品的價格。因此，現在新訂單的價格上漲了。

Some of those you will inevitably see injected in because we will -- some of those newer orders, we will inject into our current backlog of deliveries. But you're not going to see the material impact from that until we work through this backlog. And then -- and so that, again, as I mentioned, everybody wants that by this year, so you should anticipate seeing the really material impact from the price increase once we work through that backlog.

您將不可避免地看到其中一些被注入，因為我們將 - 一些較新的訂單，我們將注入我們當前的交付積壓。但是，在我們解決這個積壓工作之前，你不會看到它的實質性影響。然後 - 所以，正如我提到的，每個人都希望在今年之前做到這一點，所以一旦我們處理完積壓的訂單，你應該期待看到價格上漲帶來的真正實質性影響。

Okay. That's helpful. Maybe as a follow-up, can you just give us timing of volumes you think in order for us to hit kind of EBITDA positive now that gross margin positive seem like it's here and here to stay?

好的。這很有幫助。也許作為後續行動，你能否告訴我們你認為的交易量的時間安排，以便我們能夠達到 EBITDA 正數，因為毛利率正數似乎已經存在並且會持續存在？

Yes. So let's assume that I am right and that we will hit these cost reductions and that we will increase our price the way that I've described it. Let's assume I'm right, and I remind you that I have been right about most of, if not all of the comments that I've made along these lines historically. I don't intend to start being wrong today. But assuming that we are right about that, then we would need to produce something between sort of 170 and 180 units in a quarter to soak up the net loss, which we reported in the first quarter.

是的。因此，讓我們假設我是對的，我們將實現這些成本降低，並且我們將按照我描述的方式提高價格。讓我們假設我是對的，我提醒你，我對大多數（如果不是全部）我在歷史上沿著這些思路所做的評論都是正確的。我不打算從今天開始犯錯。但假設我們對此是正確的，那麼我們將需要在一個季度內生產大約 170 到 180 個單位的產品來吸收我們在第一季度報告的淨虧損。

Well, as I just told you, we just produced 150 units in this quarter. So we're clearly not very far away from that. So without giving -- going into too much detail and giving anything that looks too much like guidance here, what you can clearly see is that with our current cadence and our current backlog, in the event that we are successful with the cost reductions that I've described, and we intend to be, then we're on a run rate right now that would get us to EBITDA positive.

好吧，正如我剛才告訴你的，我們在這個季度只生產了 150 台。所以我們顯然離那不遠。因此，無需給出太多細節並給出任何看起來太像這裡的指導，你可以清楚地看到，根據我們目前的節奏和當前的積壓，如果我們成功地降低了成本，我已經描述過，而且我們打算這樣做，那麼我們現在的運行率將使我們的 EBITDA 為正。

Now that, of course, can also be impacted by other things that we do. We might elect to make further investments in sales and government relations, I've already described our R&D. And I haven't shied away from the fact that I'm still acquisitive if these things come down the pipe. But based on our current book of business and our current order cadence, we're currently operating at about a level that, after these cost savings are introduced, would get us to EBITDA positive or thereabouts.

當然，這也會受到我們所做的其他事情的影響。我們可能會選擇在銷售和政府關係方面進行進一步投資，我已經描述了我們的研發。而且我並沒有迴避這樣一個事實，即如果這些事情發生了，我仍然會貪得無厭。但根據我們目前的業務簿和我們目前的訂單節奏，我們目前的運營水平大約是在引入這些成本節約後，將使我們的 EBITDA 為正或左右。

Okay. No, that's really helpful. I'll hop in the queue. Thank you.

好的。不，這真的很有幫助。我會插隊。謝謝。

Noel Parks, Tuohy Brothers.

諾埃爾·帕克斯，托希兄弟。

Just had a couple. I wonder if you could just talk a bit about the sales and marketing effort, and it was great to hear the detail you had as far as the commercial types of clients that you've had growth with and the government. But I'm just curious, at this point, as far as sort of inbound inquiries versus sales outreach, new customers versus repeat customers, just talk a little bit about your -- what you're seeing currently, what the trends look like?

剛生了一對。我想知道你是否可以談談銷售和營銷工作，很高興聽到你所擁有的關於與你一起成長的商業客戶類型和政府的細節。但我很好奇，在這一點上，就入站查詢與銷售外展、新客戶與回頭客而言，請談談你的——你目前看到的，趨勢是什麼樣的？

Well, we've certainly got a lot of repeat customers. That's good news and a great validation of the product even in the harshest environments across the country. Look, the sales team is active and aggressively going after the -- after the third quarter last year when we announced some extraordinarily large salespeople, the less optimistic people out there said, well, maybe that's one and done.

好吧，我們當然有很多回頭客。這是一個好消息，即使在全國最惡劣的環境中也能很好地驗證產品。看，銷售團隊在去年第三季度我們宣布了一些非常大的銷售人員之後積極主動地進行，那裡不太樂觀的人說，好吧，也許就這樣了。

Nonsense. The sales team has been aggressively selling and has not slowed down at all since that time. We don't believe -- we don't view this as an arrival. We view this as a first step. We continue to look for aggressive salespeople.

廢話。銷售團隊一直在積極銷售，從那時起就沒有放慢速度。我們不相信——我們不認為這是一次到來。我們認為這是第一步。我們繼續尋找積極進取的銷售人員。

And we got a lot of repeat orders. We do get a lot of incoming inquiries, and we also go to the trade shows. We were asked a couple of weeks ago, and we're very well received in those environments.

我們收到了很多重複訂單。我們確實收到了很多詢盤，我們也去參加了貿易展。幾週前有人問我們，我們在那些環境中受到了很好的歡迎。

And dare I say it, the more people understand what's required to deploy grid-tied EV chargers, the easier our selling proposition becomes. Remember that we're not competing with EV charging companies. We're deploying the charge points in the banks and the Electrify America and everybody else. We're not competing with them, we're assisting them.

我敢說，越多人了解部署並網 EV 充電器的要求，我們的銷售主張就越容易。請記住，我們不是在與電動汽車充電公司競爭。我們正在銀行、Electrify America 和其他所有人中部署充電點。我們不是在與他們競爭，而是在幫助他們。

But anyone who starts to understand the complexities of deploying a grid-tied infrastructure, they become a much easier sell for us. And so it's across the board combination. We've got healthy incomings from the website. We've got aggressive sales team, both government and commercial.

但是，任何開始了解部署並網基礎設施的複雜性的人，對我們來說，它們就會變得更容易銷售。所以它是全面的組合。我們從該網站獲得了健康的收入。我們有積極的銷售團隊，包括政府和商業部門。

I mentioned we had a 548% increase in year-over-year orders last year. I think it was something like 1,100% increase in commercial orders, albeit from a smaller number. So, yes, that commercial thing has come back just as I had already alluded in prior quarters to commercial returning post vaccine, post-COVID with a return to the office.

我提到我們去年的訂單同比增長了 548%。我認為商業訂單增加了 1,100%，儘管數量較少。所以，是的，正如我在前幾個季度已經提到的商業回歸後疫苗、COVID 後返回辦公室一樣，商業化的東西又回來了。

But it's a mixture of all three things. Repeat customers, incomings from the website or people who have just seen the product, and then the aggressive sales team that we have and that will continue to grow and train and given better and better sales as well. The videos we have on the website right now are by far the highest quality videos we've ever produced, really good explanation of the value of the product or anything else. You watch one of those videos for two minutes, and you understand everything you need to know about why you have to own our products.

但它是所有三件事的混合體。回頭客、來自網站的訪客或剛剛看過產品的人，然後是我們擁有的積極的銷售團隊，他們將繼續發展和培訓，並提供越來越好的銷售。我們現在網站上的視頻是迄今為止我們製作過的最高質量的視頻，對產品或其他任何東西的價值的真正很好的解釋。您觀看其中一個視頻兩分鐘，就會了解您需要了解的關於為什麼必須擁有我們產品的所有信息。

Terrific. And you touched on the international opportunities and largely untapped to this point. And as far as any conversion modification for the EV ARC to be compatible with charging hardware that, you don't say, not much an evidence in the US, is it relatively close to plug-and-play? Or are they just sort of user interface changes that need to be made or is that more of a sort of like a long-term development project for being able to sort of handle another generation and other regions charging?

了不起。你談到了國際機會，但在這一點上基本上尚未開發。至於 EV ARC 與充電硬件兼容的任何轉換修改，你不說，在美國沒有太多證據，它是否相對接近即插即用？還是它們只是需要進行的用戶界面更改，或者更像是一種能夠處理下一代和其他地區充電的長期開發項目？

So if you make an electric product for the United States markets. So then you try and make it -- and sell it into Europe, you have to make significant modifications to it because of the difference in cycles and voltages and everything else on the European grid. If you make a product which derives all its energy from the sun, you have no such problems. And so then it's just a question of whether or not we can convert sunlight and store sunlight and produce a current and the cycles that are required to operate European EV charging infrastructure.

因此，如果您為美國市場生產電子產品。所以你嘗試製造它——並將它賣到歐洲，你必須對它進行重大修改，因為歐洲電網上的周期和電壓以及其他一切都不同。如果你生產的產品的所有能量都來自太陽，你就不會有這樣的問題。因此，這只是一個問題，我們是否可以轉換陽光並儲存陽光並產生運行歐洲電動汽車充電基礎設施所需的電流和循環。

And the answer is resoundingly, yes. Not technically difficult at all. It will be no hurdle for us whatsoever.

答案是響亮的，是的。技術上一點都不難。這對我們來說將不是任何障礙。

Great. Thanks a lot.

偉大的。多謝。

Abhishek Sinha, Northland Capital.

Abhishek Sinha，Northland Capital。

Congrats again for the very good quarter here. I just wanted to make sure I understand this right. So I know, Desmond, you talked about that you had a very good quarter. All very good number of orders from last quarter that resulted in such a good or enhanced [DNSSO]

再次祝賀這裡非常好的季度。我只是想確保我理解正確。所以我知道，德斯蒙德，你談到你有一個非常好的季度。上個季度的所有訂單數量都非常多，這些訂單帶來瞭如此好的或增強的 [DNSSO]

Is the gross margin here based on the number of units that you have for future quarters? Would that be here for you to stay or would the numbers you still expect to be a little bit more lumpy here, and you still see gross margin up and down here. I just want to make sure I understand that right.

這裡的毛利率是基於你未來幾個季度的單位數量嗎？那會是你留下來的，還是你仍然期望的數字會在這裡更加不穩定，你仍然會看到毛利率在這裡上下波動。我只是想確保我理解正確。

Well, we do not anticipate that our gross margins will get worse than they are today. We anticipate that they will continue to improve.

好吧，我們預計我們的毛利率不會比現在更差。我們預計他們將繼續改進。

Sure. Thank you. And then just one -- as a follow-up here, I wanted to understand, you talked about earlier on basically in terms of the great orders that you got from the automotive company. And I know you did not give any specifics on that. I just wanted to make sure if you could talk about how you get in terms of orders, some kind of in terms of like how long does it take, and would you expect more repetitive orders from that company and what the other companies are reacting to that?

當然。謝謝。然後只有一個 - 作為這裡的後續行動，我想了解，你早些時候基本上談到了你從汽車公司獲得的大訂單。我知道你沒有給出任何細節。我只是想確定你是否可以談談你是如何獲得訂單的，比如需要多長時間，你是否期望該公司有更多的重複訂單以及其他公司的反應那？

Yes. Okay. So first of all, let me just be clear about why we don't name customers and sometimes the magnitude of the orders that we get. There are two reasons. The first one is sometimes it's the customer's request. And in this instance, the automotive OEM is a household name, and they do not wish to share with their competitors or with the market what they're up to at the moment.

是的。好的。因此，首先，讓我明確說明為什麼我們不說出客戶的名字，有時我們會收到訂單的數量。有兩個原因。第一個有時是客戶的要求。在這種情況下，汽車 OEM 是家喻戶曉的名字，他們不想與競爭對手或市場分享他們目前的工作。

And we, of course, will expect that because much as like we'd like to tell everybody who it is, we'd much prefer to have a long and fruitful relationship with them. The second reason that we don't announce orders, and this is actually more true on our energy storage side of the house than it is on the EV ARC side of the house as where there's really no competing product. It's because frankly we don't want to inform our competitors who they should add to their prospect list.

我們當然會期待這一點，因為就像我們想告訴每個人它是誰一樣，我們更願意與他們建立長期而富有成果的關係。我們不宣布訂單的第二個原因，實際上在我們的儲能方面比在房屋的 EV ARC 方面更真實，因為那裡確實沒有競爭產品。這是因為坦率地說，我們不想通知我們的競爭對手他們應該將誰添加到他們的潛在客戶名單中。

And so we have to sell against them in that [part] As I say, that's much less of a concern where the EV ARC is concerned because we don't really have any competitors where that product is concerned. But on the battery side [that's it].

因此，正如我所說，我們必須在那個 [部分] 中與他們進行銷售，這在 EV ARC 方面的問題要少得多，因為我們在該產品方面確實沒有任何競爭對手。但在電池方面[就是這樣]。

So those are the two reasons why we don't name -- either to respect the customers' wishes or because we do not wish to inform our competitors as to who they could be adding to their list. But in every instance, I don't think we sell to anybody where we think it's not going to be bigger. And I would say in the case of the automotive OEM, we recognize that as a very, very large opportunity, we can never know if it will indeed blossom into one of those things with any certainty, but we certainly will continue to work towards that, and we believe that we have a very, very good value proposition for them and some very interesting things to do with them in the future.

因此，這就是我們不透露姓名的兩個原因——要么是為了尊重客戶的意願，要么是因為我們不想告知我們的競爭對手他們可以將誰添加到他們的名單中。但在任何情況下，我認為我們都不會出售給我們認為不會更大的任何人。我想說的是，就汽車原始設備製造商而言，我們認識到這是一個非常非常大的機會，我們永遠無法確定它是否真的會開花結果，但我們肯定會繼續努力實現這一目標，我們相信我們對他們有一個非常非常好的價值主張，並且將來會與他們一起做一些非常有趣的事情。

Does that answer your question? Sorry.

這是否回答你的問題？對不起。

Sure. No. Yes, I understand that. Just wanted to make sure if you could kind of [provide] how long does it take for you guys to get --

當然。不，是的，我明白這一點。只是想確定你們是否可以[提供]你們需要多長時間才能得到——

Yes, that's right. That's right. I knew there was something that I've missed Okay. So as far as order -- the length of time is concerned, this is frankly the other good news where our business is concerned. In the early days, we used to get small orders, and it used to take a very long time to get from initial inquiry to purchase order. We are getting increasingly large orders, and they are converting from pipeline into backlog increasingly quickly.

恩，那就對了。這是正確的。我知道我錯過了什麼好吧。因此，就訂單而言——就時間長度而言，坦率地說，這是我們業務方面的另一個好消息。早期的時候，我們拿的都是小訂單，從詢價到下單需要很長時間。我們收到的訂單越來越多，而且他們正在越來越快地從管道轉變為積壓訂單。

As already mentioned, last year, we converted about $80 million of pipeline into $76 million of backlog within the year. So it's accelerating and increasing the size of the orders. But they're still -- some of them happen very quickly. Some of them still take a long time to happen. But the good news is they seem to happen with much more reliability now and with more speed than any time in our history.

如前所述，去年，我們在年內將大約 8000 萬美元的管道轉化為 7600 萬美元的積壓訂單。因此，它正在加速並增加訂單的規模。但它們仍然——其中一些發生得非常快。其中一些仍然需要很長時間才能發生。但好消息是，它們現在似乎比我們歷史上任何時候都更可靠、更快速地發生。

Tate Sullivan, Maxim Group.

泰特沙利文，馬克西姆集團。

I think you said earlier you have $5 million in cash today. Is that related to accounts receivable. And I see in the queue that 80% of accounts receivables is from the Army. Does the Army have lump payment terms? Can you go into a bit on the $5 million in cash?

我想你早些時候說過你今天有 500 萬美元現金。是否與應收賬款有關。我在隊列中看到 80% 的應收賬款來自軍隊。陸軍有一次性付款條款嗎？你能談談這 500 萬美元的現金嗎？

I think if you're interested in looking at our cash position and understanding AR versus AP and all that, the good news is all of that is outlined in our filings. And so working capital is the best indicator of that. And as I said in my comments and in fact, Kathy mentioned it too, be careful looking at our working capital because it looks smaller than it in fact is because it's negatively impacted by just under $7 million of noncash amortization of a contingent consideration for an earn-out payment based on our acquisition and a couple of other things, which as I've said before, making those earn-out payments is the best thing that we can possibly do. They're not cash, and they are a strong indication of the strong performance of the acquisition that we made.

我想如果你有興趣查看我們的現金狀況並了解 AR 與 AP 等等，好消息是我們的文件中概述了所有這些。因此，營運資金是最好的指標。正如我在評論中所說，事實上，凱西也提到了這一點，請仔細查看我們的營運資金，因為它看起來比實際要小，因為它受到將近 700 萬美元的非現金攤銷的負面影響基於我們的收購和其他一些事情的收入支付，正如我之前所說，進行這些收入支付是我們可能做的最好的事情。它們不是現金，它們有力地表明了我們進行的收購的強勁表現。

So that's where to look at that. Cash is -- part of the reason that I've mentioned the cash position is because I want people to understand that cash is going to jump around all over the place. It's impacted by AR and AP and vendor prepayments and all sorts of other stuff. And we described that adequately.

所以這就是要看的地方。現金是——我提到現金頭寸的部分原因是因為我想讓人們明白現金會到處亂竄。它受到 AR 和 AP 以及供應商預付款和各種其他因素的影響。我們對此進行了充分的描述。

But I do think it's important to note that while on the balance sheet, we reported a decline in cash position. Part of that is temporal, and that's part of the reason that we thought it was important to let people understand that, in fact, we have more cash in the bank today than we reported at the end of the quarter.

但我確實認為重要的是要注意，在資產負債表上，我們報告現金頭寸下降。部分原因是暫時的，這也是我們認為讓人們明白這一點很重要的部分原因，事實上，我們今天在銀行的現金比我們在本季度末報告的要多。

And the US Army as a large customer, do -- can you talk -- where do they -- I think another company, I heard, mentioned that the Army has an active decarbonization effort $7 billion in spending through now in 2027. Does it come does -- does the Army order -- did the Army orders come from the GSA contract structure or another budget?

美國陸軍作為一個大客戶，你能談談嗎？他們在哪裡？我聽說另一家公司提到陸軍在積極的脫碳努力中，到 2027 年將花費 70 億美元。是嗎？來了 - 陸軍命令 - 陸軍命令是來自 GSA 合同結構還是其他預算？

Yes. So broadly speaking, you are right that the Army has a nice, very significant amount of money. You're also right when you're looking at the fact that this Army, like every other federal entity, is obliged to convert all of its light-duty vehicles to zero emissions by 2027 and all -- essentially all of its non-tactical vehicles by 2035. So we believe that there will continue to be a significant order stream coming through our GSA contract. It's certainly a very useful vehicle, which allows federal entities to acquire products without having to go through a competitive process because that has already been done.

是的。所以從廣義上講，你是對的，陸軍有一筆可觀的、非常可觀的錢。當你看到這樣一個事實時，你也是對的，即這支軍隊和其他所有聯邦實體一樣，有義務在 2027 年之前將其所有輕型車輛轉換為零排放 - 基本上所有非戰術車輛到 2035 年的車輛。因此我們相信，通過我們的 GSA 合同將繼續有大量訂單流。它當然是一種非常有用的工具，它允許聯邦實體無需經過競爭過程就可以獲取產品，因為這已經完成了。

And remember that GSA contract is also made available to nongovernmental entities. So we think there's a great future with Army and with others. And by the way, to quiet anyone's concerns about this because I've heard this before, they pay. We get paid very well by them, we do not -- people often say, government won't pay you. I don't know what they're talking about. We get paid very well by them.

請記住，GSA 合同也可供非政府實體使用。所以我們認為陸軍和其他人都有美好的未來。順便說一句，為了平息任何人對此的擔憂，因為我以前聽說過，他們付錢了。我們從他們那裡得到了很好的報酬，我們沒有——人們經常說，政府不會付錢給你。我不知道他們在說什麼。我們從他們那裡得到了很好的報酬。

Chris Pierce, Needham & Company.

克里斯·皮爾斯，李約瑟公司。

Desmond, just two questions. Can you confirm the EV ARC delivery numbers you quoted? I got 150 in the first quarter. I believe you said 103 in the fourth quarter. That's a pretty big ramp from 3Q to 4Q, then again from 4Q to 1Q, if I have those rate, I just want to think -- how should investors think about the rate from here? Is it more iterative from here? Or could we still see large jumps like we just saw the last two quarters?

戴斯蒙德，只有兩個問題。您能否確認您所報的EV ARC交貨數量？我在第一季度得到了 150。我相信你在第四節說的是103。從 3 季度到 4 季度，然後從 4 季度到 1 季度，這是一個相當大的增長，如果我有這些利率，我只想想想——投資者應該如何從這裡考慮利率？從這裡開始是不是更迭代了？或者我們還能看到像上兩個季度那樣的大幅跳躍嗎？

Well, the first thing investors should think -- should take note of is that we do what we say we're going to do. And I think that's important. And you're right, these are big ramps, and I can tell you that people are pulling at the horse here to get this done. But I also want you to know that we still have a lot of excess capacity in our facility. That's the no-good-deed-goes-unpunished thing of having invested in this facility for as long as we have done and taken the negative margin impact as a result of the fixed overheads, but we still got a lot of capacity.

好吧，投資者應該想到的第一件事 - 應該注意的是我們按照我們所說的去做。我認為這很重要。你是對的，這些都是大斜坡，我可以告訴你，人們正在努力完成這項工作。但我也想讓你知道，我們的設施中仍有很多產能過剩。只要我們已經完成並由於固定管理費用而對利潤率產生負面影響，那麼投資這個設施就是一件沒有善舉的事情，但我們仍然有很多產能。

Look, no business is going to keep producing triple-digit growth after triple-digit growth after triple-digit growth quarter after quarter because as the absolute numbers get bigger, that just -- that becomes a much heavier lift. But what I believe you will see is a continuation in our increasing production cadence. And what we're going to do is manage that to make sure that we increase the production cadence in the most economically viable way possible.

看，沒有哪個企業會在一個又一個季度的三位數增長之後繼續保持三位數的增長，因為隨著絕對數字越來越大，這將成為一個更大的提升。但我相信你會看到我們不斷增加的生產節奏的延續。我們要做的是管理它，以確保我們以最經濟可行的方式提高生產節奏。

So in other words, we aren't just going to go crazy and start puking out product. We want to do that while keeping profitability very much within our sites. And so that requires a sober approach to growth, but I'm not planning on having any -- the next time I have this conversation with you, I'm not planning on having anything other than more growth to describe.

所以換句話說，我們不會發瘋並開始吐出產品。我們希望做到這一點，同時在我們的站點內保持盈利能力。因此，這需要一種清醒的增長方式，但我不打算有任何 - 下次我與你進行這次談話時，除了更多的增長之外，我不打算進行任何其他描述。

Okay. And then, just -- you talked about $1 million in cash as of March 31, $5 million in cash as of today. But how do you -- how do investors square that with the $3.8 million loss that you just reported because that's less than two quarters of cash on hand. But I know you've talked about the line of credit as well. I guess, can you kind of just weave all this together for me one more time, please?

好的。然後，你談到了截至 3 月 31 日的 100 萬美元現金，截至今天的 500 萬美元現金。但是你如何 - 投資者如何將其與你剛剛報告的 380 萬美元損失相抵消，因為這還不到手頭現金的四分之二。但我知道你也談到了信用額度。我想，你能不能再為我把所有這些編織在一起，好嗎？

Yes. So the key thing to understand is we have not, repeat and underscore, not tapped the line of credit. So what you got to look at, again, and I keep going on about this, and people are sick of hearing me talking about it. But what you can look at is, is the working capital that we've described in the past.

是的。所以要理解的關鍵是我們沒有，重複並強調，沒有利用信貸額度。所以你要再看一遍，我一直在談論這個，人們厭倦了聽到我談論它。但你可以看到的是，我們過去描述的營運資金。

If you looked at our inventory position, if you looked at our WIP, if you looked at our vendor prepayments, if you looked at our AR, for example, a perfect example at December 31 of '22, we announced $1.7 million cash on the balance sheet. But if you look directly below that, there's other $4 million-plus in AR. And as I say, we get paid, and we often get paid in less than 30 days.

如果您查看我們的庫存狀況，如果您查看我們的 WIP，如果您查看我們的供應商預付款，如果您查看我們的 AR，例如，22 年 12 月 31 日的一個完美示例，我們宣布了 170 萬美元的現金資產負債表。但如果你直接往下看，AR 領域還有 400 萬美元以上。正如我所說，我們得到報酬，而且我們經常在不到 30 天的時間內得到報酬。

So you shouldn't be surprised to see an increase in cash in this way because it's just -- if we have all our inventory, and if we have all that AR, and we have all those other things like that, we're going to convert inventory into product. We're going to convert WIP into product. We're going to sell it. We're going to get paid. We don't have any -- I'm looking at Kathy right now, we don't have any bad debt at all. So we're going to get paid.

所以你不應該對以這種方式看到現金增加感到驚訝，因為它只是 - 如果我們擁有所有庫存，如果我們擁有所有 AR，並且我們擁有所有其他類似的東西，我們就會去將庫存轉化為產品。我們要將 WIP 轉化為產品。我們要賣掉它。我們會得到報酬的。我們沒有——我現在正在看凱西，我們根本沒有任何壞賬。所以我們要得到報酬。

So that's what you're looking at there basically. It's just what we said last quarter that people should not get too hung up on the cash number. They should be looking at our inventory, work in progress, AR and all those other things, obviously, net of AP and other stuff as well to get a full understanding.

所以這就是你在那裡看到的基本上。這正是我們上個季度所說的，人們不應該過於關注現金數量。他們應該查看我們的庫存、進行中的工作、AR 和所有其他東西，顯然，還有 AP 和其他東西，以便獲得全面的了解。

And as I've just announced, we are approximately $13 million in working capital right now. And at the end of the day, that converts to cash for us and usually fairly quickly. So that's why we're able to do that. The net loss is another thing. And of course, it does contribute to it, but to a lesser and lesser extent, the more product we produce and certainly now that we're gross profit profitable.

正如我剛剛宣布的那樣，我們目前的營運資金約為 1300 萬美元。在一天結束時，它會為我們轉換成現金，而且通常很快。這就是我們能夠做到這一點的原因。淨虧損是另一回事。當然，它確實對它有所貢獻，但在越來越小的程度上，我們生產的產品越多，當然現在我們的毛利潤是有利可圖的。

(Operator Instructions) Daniel Marcelo, [Cardone and Company].

（操作員說明）Daniel Marcelo，[Cardone and Company]。

Hey, Desmond, how are you? Congratulations on the good quarter. Are you able to speak to -- I know there's a lot of conversation about increasing production and clearly you're doing that. The logistics of transporting ARCs to the other side of the country. You had big major orders from New York City. I know there's army bases all over the country? How are you increasing the ability to transport the ARCs?

嘿，戴斯蒙德，你好嗎？祝賀這個好季度。你能說——我知道有很多關於增加產量的討論，很明顯你正在這樣做。將 ARC 運輸到該國另一邊的物流。你有來自紐約市的大訂單。我知道全國各地都有軍事基地？您如何提高運輸 ARC 的能力？

Yes. That's an excellent question, Daniel, you can no doubt imagine this one gets a lot of attention here. So the truth is we have two or three different methods that we use to transport EV ARCs. Some of them are on our own equipment that we own here. And frankly, those are the most efficient ways of transporting them because they don't just transport, but they also deploy the product when it arrives on site.

是的。這是一個很好的問題，丹尼爾，你可以想像這個問題在這裡得到了很多關注。所以事實是我們有兩種或三種不同的方法來運輸 EV ARC。其中一些是在我們這裡擁有的自己的設備上。坦率地說，這些是最有效的運輸方式，因為它們不僅是運輸，而且還在產品到達現場時對其進行部署。

But beyond that, we also use third-party logistics companies. And the -- so an EV ARC, for example, you put an EV ARC in a 20-foot shipping container or two of them in a 40, you can put a couple on a back of a 40-foot flat bed. And this is frankly an area that's sort of good news for us, not good news if you're a truck driver, but the cost of doing that has very, very dramatically reduced.

但除此之外，我們還使用第三方物流公司。而且——所以一個 EV ARC，例如，你把一個 EV ARC 放在一個 20 英尺的集裝箱裡，或者在一個 40 英尺的集裝箱裡放兩個，你可以把一對放在 40 英尺的平板床的背面。坦率地說，這是一個對我們來說是個好消息的領域，如果你是卡車司機，這不是好消息，但這樣做的成本已經非常非常顯著地降低了。

And also just the availability of trucks. This time last year, for a lot of more money, we could already get them to show up, and it was very expensive. Now they're calling us and looking for loads, and that's having a predictable impact on the price that we're paying for that.

還有卡車的可用性。去年這個時候，多花很多錢，我們已經可以讓他們出現了，而且非常昂貴。現在他們打電話給我們並尋找負載，這對我們為此支付的價格產生了可預測的影響。

I will give you an example. I mean, we do still, as much as we try not to, we do import components from Asia that end up in our products. And it costs about five times less to get a shipping container across the Pacific today than it did this time last year. So we have a lot of choices in terms of how we move the product around.

我會給你一個例子。我的意思是，我們仍然這樣做，儘管我們盡量不這樣做，我們確實從亞洲進口組件，這些組件最終會出現在我們的產品中。與去年這個時候相比，今天跨太平洋運輸集裝箱的成本降低了大約五倍。因此，就如何移動產品而言，我們有很多選擇。

But I maybe (inaudible) of the fact that I think our future involves us having facilities like this dotted across the country. We certainly have to do that from a demand point of view as far as I believe, and when we do that, obviously we will select to deliver from the facility closest to the customer.

但我可能（聽不清）我認為我們的未來涉及我們在全國各地擁有這樣的設施。據我所知，我們當然必須從需求的角度來做到這一點，當我們這樣做時，顯然我們會選擇從離客戶最近的設施交付。

Got it. And recently, there was an announcement about a more compact ARC, a patent for a more compact ARC. Can you speak about that a little bit?

知道了。最近，有一個關於更緊湊的 ARC 的公告，一個更緊湊的 ARC 的專利。你能談談嗎？

Yes. Actually, that's a European patent issued to us for something that we already had, which is what we used to refer to as Transformer ARC, but in fact, all EV ARCs like that. Now, all EV ARCs pull down in and upon themselves well like a satellite for shipping and transportation. We view that as a very significant differentiator for us because that's how we're able to up on the customer side and deploying less than an hour with actually very little on-site activity, I should say. That's a significant differentiator and therefore a barrier to entry. We have that protection in the United States. We now have that protection across the European continent.

是的。實際上，這是針對我們已經擁有的東西向我們頒發的歐洲專利，這就是我們過去所說的 Transformer ARC，但實際上，所有 EV ARC 都是這樣。現在，所有 EV ARC 都像一顆用於航運和運輸的衛星一樣向內和向內牽引。我們認為這對我們來說是一個非常重要的差異化因素，因為我應該說，這就是我們能夠在客戶方面進行部署並在不到一個小時的時間內部署實際上很少的現場活動的方式。這是一個重要的差異化因素，因此也是一個進入壁壘。我們在美國有這種保護。我們現在在整個歐洲大陸都享有這種保護。

And this concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Desmond Wheatley for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議轉回給 Desmond Wheatley 聽取任何閉幕詞。

Well, I'm going to keep my closing remarks short because I'm going to get back to work here. We're busier than hell. The team is performing fantastically, and I can tell there's a lot of enthusiasm around here at the moment because everybody knows that as good as it is, we're going to be able to do a whole lot better.

好吧，我將保持簡短的結束語，因為我要回到這里工作。我們比地獄還忙。團隊的表現非常出色，我可以看出此刻這裡充滿了熱情，因為每個人都知道，儘管它很好，但我們將能夠做得更好。

And that's where our focus is right now, as I mentioned in my comments, profitability and production, major areas of focus, and we've delivered on that better than 8% improvement quarter-over-quarter from a profitability point of view and positive gross profits. And we're still going to be laser focused on cash management as well. All the jokes about Scotsman and money are true. Listen to them and believe them.

這就是我們現在關注的重點，正如我在評論中提到的，盈利能力和生產，主要關注領域，從盈利能力和積極的角度來看，我們已經實現了超過 8% 的季度環比增長毛利潤。而且我們仍將專注於現金管理。所有關於蘇格蘭人和金錢的笑話都是真的。聽他們說，相信他們。

I'm loving what I'm doing at the moment. I love this company. I love the team of people that we put together, and we've got nothing but climbing in growth ahead of us.

我很喜歡我現在正在做的事情。我愛這家公司。我喜歡我們組建的團隊，除了攀登增長之外，我們一無所有。

So I very much appreciate you being involved. Thank you for your interest and for your questions. And if you hold our stock, thank you for that too.

所以我非常感謝你的參與。感謝您的關注和提問。如果您持有我們的股票，也謝謝您。

With that, I'll hand it over to the operator to end the call.

有了這個，我會把它交給接線員來結束通話。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you very much for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines, and have a great day.

會議現已結束。非常感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開線路，祝您有美好的一天。