EHang Holdings Ltd (EH) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the EHang First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, we are recording today's call.

Now I will turn the call over to Anne Ji, EHang's Senior Director of Investor Relations. Ms. Anne, please proceed.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss the Company's financial results for the first quarter of 2023. The earnings release is available on the Company's IR website. Please note the conference call is being recorded and an audio replay will be posted on the Company's IR website.

On the call today, we have Mr. Huazhi Hu, our Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Xin Fang, Chief Operating Officer; and Mr. Richard Liu, Chief Financial Officer. The management team will successively give prepared remarks. Remarks delivered in Chinese will be followed by English translations. All translation is for convenience purpose only. In the case of any discrepancy, management's statement in the original language will prevail. A Q&A session will follow afterwards.

Before we continue, please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the Company's actual results may be materially different from the expectations expressed today. Further information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties is included in the Company's public filings with the SEC.

The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law. Also, please note that all numbers presented are in RMB and are for the first quarter of 2023, unless stated otherwise.

With that, let me now turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. Huazhi Hu. Please go ahead, Mr. Hu.

[Interpreted] This is the English translation of Mr. Hu's remarks. Hello, everyone. Thank you all for joining our conference call today. Since the beginning of this year, as the pandemic has eased, we are seeing encouraging signs of recovery in the tourism industry. As a result, the demand for our AAVs from clients in this sector has been growing. However, our EH216-S is currently undergoing the process of obtaining airworthiness certification, and we are fulfilling customer orders with discernment. In Q1 2023, we delivered a total of 11 EH216 series AAVs, resulting in a revenue of RMB22.2 million. This represents an increase of 42% compared with the previous quarter, and an increase of 283% year-over-year. Along with this considerable surge in revenue, our gross margin remained strong, maintaining a high level of 64% in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, our operational performance has shown significant improvement. Both adjusted operating loss and adjusted net loss have significantly narrowed, representing an improvement of 44% compared with Q4 last year. Additionally, EHang's cash position remains healthy, and the strategic investment of US$10 million by Qingdao West Coast New Area was closed in the first quarter.

So far, EH216-S airworthiness certification has been at the last phase of demonstration and verification for compliance, we have completed over 90% of the compliance tests. We entered into the final sprint in late April. Even so, our dedicated EHang team remains tirelessly committed to providing a flawless performance report as soon as possible. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to the CAAC for their unwavering support to EHang, their commitment throughout this process day and night, and their prompt approvals for the completion of each subject.

EHang is not only an industry pioneer, but also an advocate for low-altitude air mobility. Against the macro policy background of a comprehensive national transport network, we have seen that China has established a range of favourable policies regarding the "Low-altitude Economy" since the beginning of this year. Per the report of the National Low-altitude Economy Integration and Innovation Research Center, 16 provincial governments have included specific provisions related to the Low-altitude Economy in their 2023 Government Work Reports. These government initiatives focus on the unmanned aviation industry within the 20 designated experimental zones across China, demonstrating vigorous policy support and creating an environment conducive to further exploration of the AAV market across China.

During this period, we are also relentlessly broadening our international collaborations and delivering products. We are glad to explore Urban Air Mobility alongside our customers and partners from more countries.

Next, I will hand over the call to our Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Xin Fang. Thank you

[Interpreted] This is the English translation of Mr. Xing Fang's remarks. Thank you, Mr. Hu, and hello, everyone. During the first quarter, we continued to advance towards the final stage of airworthiness certification for the EH216-S. On the other hand, we further expanded new opportunities both domestically and abroad with our cutting-edge AAV products, including signing up new customers and conducting flight demonstrations and tests. These endeavors are instrumental in paving the way for future commercial deliveries and operations once the certification process is successfully completed.

Following the lifting of epidemic restricted policies, we were delighted to see a strong recovery in domestic tourism market. A noteworthy example is, according to data from China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a year-on-year increase of 71% in domestic tourism trips during the Labor Day holiday period in May, reaching a total of 274 million trips, representing 119% of the pre-epidemic level in the same period of 2019. This trend is very beneficial to the commercial low-altitude tourism market that we are targeting, as it allows potential customers to have more capital and motivation to consider utilizing AAVs at various attractions for higher growth.

Considering its huge market growth potential, low-altitude tourism has become our primary target market we plan to tap into after obtaining certification. Our business plan is also supported by the guidelines and policies introduced by multiple governments to foster the development of low-altitude tourism and economy. For example, Shenzhen included the "Low-altitude Economy" in its Government Work Report for the first time this year, and made the "Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Low-altitude Industry Promotion Regulations" a key legislative project committed to building the world's first Urban Air Mobility demonstration city and boosting the high-quality development of the low-altitude economy. We have been actively seeking cooperation opportunities with local domestic government departments or upstream and downstream partners for exploring prospects in the development of urban air mobility and low-altitude tourism.

In the first quarter, we delivered EH216-S AAVs to Guangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Guangdong in China, and Japan overseas. Among these deliveries, Fengshan Sanmenhai 4-A Scenic Area, renowned karst landscape tourist attraction, located in Guangxi purchased a total of 6 EH216-S units from us, all of which were delivered within the first quarter. The customer plans to launch low-altitude tours locally, creating the first low-altitude flight camp in Guangxi. This initiative aims to offer a unique and an innovative way for tourists to enjoy the breath-taking beauty of Fengshan from the sky, providing an exceptional experience of leisure and sightseeing.

In addition, we have officially signed a cooperation framework agreement with Xiyu Tourism Development Co., a leading Xinjiang tourism company listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. This cooperation compromises of plans for us to establish a joint venture in developing low-altitude sightseeing businesses in Xinjiang's majors scenic spots like the Tianshan Heavenly Lake. The cooperation is expected to operate at least 120 units of EH216-S or a comparable passenger-carrying AAVs within the next 5 years. We see an increasing number of cultural tourism customers who intend to actively integrate high technology with traditional services to bring vitality into the industry's development.

Additionally, this March, we entered into a strategic partnership with Xi'an Aerospace Investment Science and Technology Development Holdings Group for urban air mobility and smart city development. Under this partnership, we have received an indicative order for 20 units of EH216-S that is anticipated to be finalized by 2025.

To summarize, the tourism revival is propelling a positive trend in domestic deliveries and potential orders. By seizing this momentum, we will continue to drive up commercial deliveries and operations after certification.

Meanwhile, our trial operations in China are still ongoing. To date, we have developed 19 EH216-S trial operation spots in collaboration with our customers across 17 cities nationwide. Primarily for low-altitude tourism scenarios, our EH216-S have successfully completed around 8,800 safe trial flights.

Internationally, Asia stands as our principal regional of focus. Following our expansion and the partnerships established across East and Southeast Asia last year, this February, our EH216-S AAV completed its first passenger-carrying autonomous flight demonstration within Japan, which also marks its first passenger-carrying flight in an open airspace outside China. The demonstration reflects the safety and the reliability of our AAVs and the recognition from international regulatory authorities. As of April, EHang became a member of the Public-Private Committee ("PPC") for Advanced Air Mobility ("AAM") established by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ("METI") and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism ("MLIT"). This committee aims to engage in a collaborative effort with global government and corporate entities to advance the usage of aircraft within Japan, including at the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan. EHang, as the only autonomous eVTOL company among the 56 committee members, is poised to leverage its pioneering AAV technology and trial flight experience in 6 Japanese cities to catalyze the growth and revolution of advanced air mobility in the country.

Simultaneously, we are actively seeking out and fostering partnerships in overseas markets like Europe, the Middle East, and South America. As of the end of May, the EH216 series AAV had conducted over 37,000 safe trial flights across 12 countries in Asia, Europe and the Americas, which is among the highest flight records in the global eVTOL industry. We are willing to work with customers and partners from more countries to explore safe, intelligent and innovative UAM industry, so as to bring unique, environmentally friendly and efficient flight experience to more passengers. I'd like to note that EHang will participate in the upcoming Paris Air Show this June. At this world-renowned aviation and aerospace exhibition, we will showcase our advanced EH216-S AAV and partake in a series of urban air mobility-themed events to share our value and experience. We warmly invite global investors to join us for discussion during this event.

Moving forward, we remain committed to the principle of "conducting trial operation while going through airworthiness certification process", thereby paving the way for a crucial pivot towards post-certification commercialization. As an industry first mover, we have harnessed our unique AAV leading technology and first-mover advantage to build a robust customer base and substantial trial operation experience. We remain optimistic about discovering as well as creating values in the growing UAM market.

Next, our Chief Financial Officer, Richard, will shed light on our financial status. Thank you.

Thank you, Xin. Hello, everyone. Before I go into details, please note that all numbers presented are in RMB and are for the first quarter of 2023, unless stated otherwise. All percentage changes are on a quarter-over-quarter basis, unless otherwise specified. Detailed analyses are contained in our earnings press release, which is available on our IR website. I will now highlight some of the key points here.

Following the lifting of China's Zero COVID policies, we have observed a robust resurgence in the tourism industry in China, attributable to the significant latent demands for travel. Together with favourable policies, these have been driving up demands and inquiries for our AAVs recently. These phenomena are in alignment with our current strategic business development focus on aerial tourism. As such, we are confident in our future growth prospects and capability in growing our post-certification AAV order pipeline going forward.

In Q1, total revenues were RMB22.2 million, up 41.6% from RMB15.7 million in Q4, primarily driven by the increase in the sales volume of EH216 series AAV products. The deliveries of EH216 series AAVs in Q1 were 11 units, an 83% increase from 6 units in Q4.

Gross margin was 63.9% in Q1, a slight decrease of 2.2 percentage points from 66.1% in Q4. Despite this minor fluctuation, our gross margin maintains at a high level, compared to those of other electrically-powered mobility products such as electric vehicles. This is a result that attests to our competitive strength and first-mover advantages in the global UAM and eVTOL industries.

In Q1, our adjusted operating expenses, which are operating expenses excluding share-based compensation expenses, were RMB50.1 million, compared with RMB73.2 million in Q4. The decrease was mainly attributed to the non-cash item of additional prudent provisions for receivables in response to COVID impact on customers in Q4 last year while there were increased expenditures for aircraft conformity and compliance tests in the final phase of EH216-S type certification this quarter. As a result, our adjusted operating loss in Q1 was RMB34.3 million, a significant improvement of 44.1% from RMB61.3 million in Q4. Adjusted net loss was RMB33.6 million, a 43.5% improvement from RMB59.4 million in Q4.

Moving on to our balance sheet, we maintained a prudent approach in managing our cash position and assessing our liquidity. As of the end of Q1, we had RMB217.6 million of cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, restricted short-term deposits and short-term investments. This includes a US$10 million strategic investment made by the Qingdao West Coast New Area in Q1, which provides additional liquidity support to bolster our operations and growth.

That concludes our prepared remarks. Let's now open the call for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

(Operator Instructions) We will now take our first question. Please standby. This is from the line of Verena Jeng from Goldman Sachs.

Two questions from me. First is about the TC progress. We have completed over 90% of the progress. Is there any timeline for the rest 10%? Are there any hurdles going forward? My second question is about the following quarter outlook. We delivered strong sales volume and also the revenues in first quarter. I'm wondering if we see the strong momentum to continue in the following quarters?

[Interpreted] This is the English translation on Mr. Fang's answer to your first question. First, I'd like to highlight that we are currently in the final phase for obtaining our TC, which over 90% of the compliance tests successfully completed. This has been a considerable undertaking. Throughout this process, we worked closely with multiple professional test sites and facilities in China that have extensive aviation experience and credentials.

We conducted hundreds of specific review meetings with the CAAC's TC team and diligently performed numerous laboratory tests, ground tests and flight tests step-by-step according to our plans. And these tests ranged from battery, environmental, materials and structural strength to software, communication and data link and ground control station. This enabled us to verify the safety and airworthiness of our EH216-S aircraft from both the hardware and software perspective.

For the remaining roughly 10% tests, we are in the final sprint and expect to finish them as soon as possible in the near term. At this stage, we do not see any major obstacles as we have already overcome most difficulties and our test work in this final phase is essentially a matter of time now. After we complete the tests, we have submitted and will continue to submit the test reports to the CAAC for their review and approval and issuing the certificate.

Here, I want to express my gratitude for everyone's attention, interest, and patience during this process. Please stay tune for our updates.

In regard of your second question, the notable increase in our Q1 sales and revenues is primarily attributed to the rapid recovery of the domestic tourism market post-pandemic. Additionally, driven by both the core need for attracting visitors to scenic spots as well as the favorable policies for encouraging the low-altitude aerial tourism all over China, our tourism customers have shown keen interest in utilizing our innovative AAVs in their tourism business and they are actively tapping into this market because they believe our AAVs can drive up their growth and revive the traditional tourism industry. The customers in the first quarter like Xinjiang Xiyu Tourism and Guangxi Fengshan are good examples.

As such, we could see that the domestic tourism will maintain the trend throughout the following quarters. Consequently, it is expected to have a growing order pipeline from the tourism customers.

In terms of the delivery pace, depending on obtaining the TC, we expect a gradual increase in deliveries after TC, and the few units delivered before TC are mainly for the customers' internal testing, training, and trial flights, etc. Post the TC, we will gradually fulfill the current domestic order pipeline of more than 100 units per the requirements of our customers and put them into operation.

We'll now move to the next question. Please standby. And this is from the line of Di Wu from TF Securities.

I have 2 questions as well. My first question is, as there are many eVTOL use cases with great potential in the emerging urban air mobility industry? Why do you choose the aerial tourism as the initial target market to tap into? Could you please elaborate on your thinking behind that? My second question is, what's your cooperation mode with your tourism customers?

This is Richard. I will take your question. Basically, we have found that the aerial tourism or aerial sightseeing is a use case which is very suitable as an initial target market for EH216-S AAV. First of all, it has immediate concrete needs that are sufficiently sizable but not well served by traditional solutions such as helicopters.

According to an estimate published, some of you have known, by the China Air Transport Association, the potential market size would amount to RMB58.5 billion, roughly US$8.5 billion. Secondly, aerial sightseeing is the type of experiential services, and novelty and experience are the attractions. Thus, the end customer or passengers are not very price sensitive. This will help with the economic viability of the services and provide more room for pricing.

Thirdly, compared to traditional helicopters, our EH216-S AAVs are inherently safer, have lower level of noise and no pilot costs and much lower acquisition and maintenance costs and are more eco-friendly and economical due to being electrically powered. Further, it is easier and more efficient to operate the frequent multiple flight routes given the autonomous modes of the EH216-S AAV and across the management by our command-and-control system.

With all these advantages, our EH216-S AAVs have been recognized by tourism operators as a new solution, not just to meet the existing needs, but to release more needs for aerial sightseeing uses. Policy-wise, the state council and the CAAC in China have been promoting the integrated development of general aviation and tourism aiming to establish aerial tourism networks in scenic spots, resorts, theme parks and other tourist destinations.

Recently, as everybody can see, the tourism industry in China has been quickly recovering from the COVID impact after the release of the restrictions. Further, given the similar point-to-point passenger transportation feature that the aerial tourism or aerial sightseeing use case also has, it is essentially a typical urban air mobility use case that is located in scenic areas. Thus, it can provide a very good foundation for us to accumulate operational experience for our strategic goal to offer urban air mobility service such as air commuting in cities in the near future.

These are some of our main thoughts behind this strategic approach, and we believe aerial tourism presents an excellent opportunity for our EH216-S AAVs as an initial market that has already been sizeable itself.

In respect of your second question, the cooperation mode or models with our tourism operator customers or partners, we have been exploring different models. So far, they can be summarized in 2 basic scenarios. First of all, we could sell our EH216-S AAVs to the tourism operators, and they can operate the AAVs themselves to offer aerial sightseeing services to their tourist passengers, and we will provide the necessary support to them, such as training, initial setup, technical support, etc. In this case, we are essentially an AAV product provider and the related revenues would be mainly generated from product sales.

Secondly, we can carry our EH216-S AAVs to cooperate with the tourism operators. They can open up their scenic areas to us, and we will operate our AAVs to offer aerial sightseeing services to the tourist passengers. In this case, we are essentially an AAV operational service provider, and the related revenues would be mainly generated from operational services.

In reality, there will be more different cooperation models based on the specific needs and conditions of different parties. This is my answer to your questions.

Seeing no more questions in the queue, let me turn the call back to Ms. Anne for closing remarks.

Thank you, operator. Thank you all for participating on today's call. If you have any further questions, please contact our IR team by email or participate in our following investor events through the calendar information provided on our IR website. We appreciate your interest and look forward to our next earnings call. Thank you.

Thank you all again. This concludes the call. You may now disconnect.