Lion Electric Co (LEV) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to the Lion Electrics third quarter, 2024 results.

午安.女士們、先生們，歡迎來到 Lion Electrics 2024 年第三季業績。

(Operator Instructions) This conference call is being recorded.

（操作員說明）本次電話會議正在錄音。

I would now like to turn the call over to Dominique Perron, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary. Please go ahead, Miss Perron.

我現在想將電話轉給首席法律官兼公司秘書多米尼克·佩倫 (Dominique Perron)。請繼續，佩倫小姐。

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Lions third quarter, 2024 results conference call, [the telephonic. So, he is the Wass Zaat Dli]

大家下午好。歡迎參加 Lions 2024 年第三季業績電話會議，[電話。所以，他就是 Wass Zaat Dli]

Today, I am here with Marc Bedard, our CEO-Founder, Nicolas Brunet, our President, and Richard Coulombe, our Chief Financial Officer.

今天，我與我們的執行長兼創辦人 Marc Bedard、我們的總裁 Nicolas Brunet 和我們的財務長 Richard Coulombe 一起出席。

Please note that our discussion may include estimates and other forward-looking information and that our actual results could differ materially from those implied in any such statement.

請注意，我們的討論可能包括估計和其他前瞻性訊息，我們的實際結果可能與任何此類聲明中暗示的結果有重大差異。

We invite you to review the cautionary language in this afternoon's press release and an [R&D NE] which contain important information regarding various factors, assumptions and risks that could impact our actual results with that. Let me turn it over to Marc to begin.

我們邀請您查看今天下午的新聞稿和 [R&D NE] 中的警告性語言，其中包含有關可能影響我們實際結果的各種因素、假設和風險的重要資訊。讓我把它交給馬克來開始。

Thank you, Dominique. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today since the last quarter. The team at Lion continued to deploy significant efforts in our relentless march towards improving our liquidity position and build sustainable foundations for both the short term and long-term success of Lion.

謝謝你，多米尼克。大家下午好。感謝您自上個季度以來今天加入我們。Lion 團隊繼續付出巨大努力，不懈地改善我們的流動性狀況，並為 Lion 的短期和長期成功奠定可持續的基礎。

As previously announced, we have implemented multiple initiatives to streamline our operations, and we have seen the impact of these on our cash out flows. We have implemented account reductions and initiated other cost reduction initiatives expected to result in annualized cost savings of approximately $65 million.

正如先前所宣布的，我們已經實施了多項舉措來簡化我們的運營，並且我們已經看到了這些舉措對我們現金流出的影響。我們已經實施了帳戶削減並啟動了其他成本削減舉措，預計每年可節省約 6,500 萬美元的成本。

We have implemented a batch size manufacturing approach to our truck business paying production directly to purchase orders in order to minimize expenditures and cash burn while maintaining our leadership in the electric truck market.

我們對卡車業務實施了批量生產方法，直接根據採購訂單支付生產費用，以最大限度地減少支出和現金消耗，同時保持我們在電動卡車市場的領先地位。

Finally, we have launched a formal process to sublease a substantial portion of our joint production facility aiming to reduce expenditures while maintaining current production capacity at the plant. In parallel, we are exploring various alternatives to reduce our facilities related expenditures across our entire footprint, and we continue to execute on our plan to start selling our battery packs to third parties starting in 2025.

最後，我們啟動了一項正式程序，轉租我們聯合生產設施的很大一部分，旨在減少支出，同時保持工廠現有的生產能力。同時，我們正在探索各種替代方案，以減少整個業務範圍內與設施相關的支出，並且我們將繼續執行從 2025 年開始向第三方銷售電池組的計劃。

Despite these initiatives, the challenges that we had signaled in the first half of the year continued in the third quarter to put significant pressure on the company from a cash flow and liquidity standpoint. The continued delays associated with the Canadian Federal, the ETF program. The timing of the rounds in the US EPA program and our liquidity position impacting our production cadence have negatively impacted our revenues.

儘管採取了這些舉措，但我們在上半年表示的挑戰在第三季度繼續存在，從現金流和流動性的角度來看，給公司帶來了巨大壓力。加拿大聯邦 ETF 計劃的持續延誤。美國環保署計劃的輪次時間和影響我們生產節奏的流動性狀況對我們的收入產生了負面影響。

That being said we have recently seen positive movements in both the ZETF and EPA programs that we will be addressing in a few minutes. As you may have seen our interim financial statements and [MDNA] signal the existence of uncertainty about the company's ability to continue as a growing concern over the next 12 months if no additional funding is raised, the inclusion of a growing concern note is a reflection of the challenges we are currently facing, but it does not mean that we are out of options.

話雖如此，我們最近看到 ZETF 和 EPA 計劃的積極進展，我們將在幾分鐘內解決這些問題。正如您可能已經看到我們的中期財務報表和[MDNA] 表明，如果不籌集額外資金，公司在未來12 個月內繼續日益受到關注的能力存在不確定性，因此納入日益關注的說明是一種反映我們目前面臨的挑戰，但這並不意味著我們別無選擇。

We continue to actively review and consider different opportunities to secure additional financing and straighten our financial position while working with our debt holders to identify the best path to ensure the long-term sustainability of our business. In light of the upcoming experience of the COVID and relief period and the [financial] depth maturity.

我們繼續積極審查和考慮不同的機會來獲得額外融資並改善我們的財務狀況，同時與我們的債務持有人合作，確定確保我們業務長期可持續性的最佳途徑。鑑於即將到來的新冠疫情和救濟期以及[財務]深度成熟度。

Turning our attention to some of the third quarter highlights, we are seeing positive momentum with the EP program. Nicol will provide more details shortly, and we also obtain expense reimbursement payments totaling $30 million under the grant run and continue to actively work with customers to obtain formal purchase orders and fulfill other requirements to receive payments from the rebate ramp.

將我們的注意力轉向第三季的一些亮點，我們看到 EP 計劃的積極勢頭。Nicol 很快就會提供更多細節，我們還將在贈款活動中獲得總計3000 萬美元的費用報銷付款，並繼續積極與客戶合作以獲得正式採購訂單並滿足其他要求，以從回扣坡道接收付款。

We are continuing to work closely with the Canadian government and the operators to improve the timing of the processing of applications under the ZETF program. And we are happy to note that the recent dialogue has been constructive in this regard as we have been informed by several operators that their applications are being processed.

我們將繼續與加拿大政府和營運商密切合作，以改善 ZETF 計劃下的申請處理時間。我們很高興地註意到，最近的對話在這方面具有建設性，因為一些運營商告知我們他們的申請正在處理中。

We also continue to execute on our inventory reduction plan with a $15 million reduction in Q3 alone and the $35 million year-to-date inventory reduction as of September 30. The vast majority of which relates to raw materials. We are therefore very well aligned to utilize a $50 million inventory reduction in 2024.

我們也繼續執行庫存削減計劃，光是第三季就削減了 1,500 萬美元，截至 9 月 30 日，年初至今庫存削減了 3,500 萬美元。其中絕大多數與原料有關。因此，我們非常有信心在 2024 年減少 5,000 萬美元的庫存。

With respect to vehicle development, we continue to ramp up the production of our alliance is called LionC school buses with the Lion proprietary battery packs and have received positive feedback from our customers on this new platform. Separately, commercial production of the Lion8T has been pushed to 2025, as a result of that count reductions performed and our focus on preserving liquidity and dust allocate resources to producing and delivering existing platforms.

在車輛開發方面，我們繼續提高我們聯盟的 LionC 校車的產量，該校車配備了 Lion 專有電池組，並在這個新平台上收到了客戶的積極反饋。另外，Lion8T 的商業生產已推遲到 2025 年，因為數量減少了，而且我們專注於保持流動性和粉塵分配資源來生產和交付現有平台。

Looking forward, it is clear that 2024 is a very challenging year and we will continue to work towards positioning ourselves for the future. With CapEx spend behind us and the significant reduction in development cost as a result of our vehicle platforms being substantially completed, our focus remains on preserving liquidity and strengthening our financial position as mentioned earlier.

展望未來，2024 年顯然是非常具有挑戰性的一年，我們將繼續努力為未來做好準備。由於我們的車輛平台基本上已經完成，資本支出已經過去，開發成本也顯著降低，我們的重點仍然是保持流動性和加強我們的財務狀況，如前所述。

With all the efforts and initiatives taken to adjust our cost structure, we will continue to work tirelessly to position the company to support increasing electric school bus demand and allow us to maintain our leadership position in this segment.

透過採取一切努力和措施來調整我們的成本結構，我們將繼續不懈努力，使公司能夠支持不斷增長的電動校車需求，並保持我們在這一領域的領導地位。

I will now turn it to Nicolas.

現在我將把它交給尼可拉斯。

Thank you, Marc. Let me start by discussing deliveries then address the order book.

謝謝你，馬克。讓我先討論交付，然後討論訂單簿。

During the quarter, we delivered 89 vehicles comprising 71 buses and 18 trucks. 45 vehicles were delivered in Canada and 44 in the US. The decline in deliveries was mostly the result of delays with the ZETF program, coupled with the timing of EPA related deliveries. Deliveries were also impacted by a slowdown in our production cadence due to the continued ramp up related to the integration of our Lion batteries onto our vehicles.

本季度，我們交付了 89 輛車輛，其中包括 71 輛巴士和 18 輛卡車。加拿大交付了 45 輛，美國交付了 44 輛。交付量的下降主要是由於 ZETF 計劃的延遲以及 EPA 相關交付的時間表所致。由於將獅電池整合到車輛上而導致產量持續增加，因此我們的生產節奏放緩也影響了交付量。

Our objective to preserve liquidity also impacted our rate of production and deliveries during the third quarter. Q3 deliveries include an additional 11 buses to our customer who obtain funding approval under the ZETF program for 200 buses last quarter, bringing the total buses delivered to this client to 70.

我們保持流動性的目標也影響了第三季的生產和交付速度。第三季交付的車輛包括向我們的客戶額外交付的 11 輛巴士，該客戶上季度獲得了 ZETF 計劃下 200 輛巴士的資金批准，使向該客戶交付的巴士總數達到 70 輛。

We expect the remaining units from this order to be delivered over the remainder of 2024 and over 2025. In terms of purchase orders as of November 6th, 2024 electric vehicle order book stood at 1,590 vehicles consisting of 1455 buses and 135 trucks representing a combined total order value of approximately $420 million.

我們預計該訂單的剩餘設備將在 2024 年剩餘時間和 2025 年交付。截至 2024 年 11 月 6 日，電動車訂單量為 1,590 輛，其中包括 1,455 輛巴士和 135 輛卡車，訂單總價值約為 4.2 億美元。

The decrease in our order book is mainly due to our decision to withdraw 515 bus orders related to the ZETF program. Given the uncertainty related to delays in the process of the ZETF application and the March 31, 2026 current timeline for deliveries under the program. The delay in the launch of commercial production of the Lion8T truck have also resulted in the removal of 49 units from our order book.

我們的訂單減少主要是由於我們決定撤回與 ZETF 計劃相關的 515 輛公車訂單。考慮到 ZETF 申請流程延遲以及該計劃下 2026 年 3 月 31 日當前交付時間表的不確定性。Lion8T 卡車商業化生產的延遲也導致我們從訂單中刪除了 49 輛卡車。

Separately we are seeing momentum with the US EPA Clean School Bus Program with over 275 purchase orders related to the program in the order book as of today. We continue to work with a number of school districts and contractors that have been awarded and are considering purchasing line vehicles. In connection with the 2023 grant round, we obtain payment of $30 million and additional payment requests under the rebate rounds have been placed with the EPA.

另外，我們看到美國 EPA 清潔校車計畫的勢頭強勁，截至今天，訂單簿中有超過 275 份與該計畫相關的採購訂單。我們繼續與一些已獲獎並正在考慮購買線路車輛的學區和承包商合作。在 2023 年撥款輪中，我們獲得了 3000 萬美元的付款，並且已向 EPA 提出了回扣輪次下的額外付款請求。

We continue to actively work with customers to fulfill the necessary requirements to place payment requests under the latest rebate route. Additionally, a new round was announced in the EPA Clean School bus program in September 2024 providing for a funding of up to $965 million.

我們將繼續積極與客戶合作，以滿足在最新返利途徑下提出付款請求的必要要求。此外，EPA 於 2024 年 9 月宣布了新一輪清潔校車計劃，提供高達 9.65 億美元的資金。

An aggregate total of 325,000 in funding will be available for priority districts for all electric buses and charging infrastructure and stacking with certain other state programs and federal tax credits will be permitted.

總計 325,000 美元的資金將提供給優先地區的所有電動公車和充電基礎設施，並允許與某些其他州計劃和聯邦稅收抵免疊加。

Other eligible districts can receive an aggregate total of $170,000 per bus, applications are expected to be submitted by January 2025 with selectees notified in May 2025. All together the latest three rounds of the EPA Clean School Bus Program inclusive of the September 2024 rebate round. In addition to the clean heavy-duty program for which allocations are expected to be announced by February 2025 are expected to result in over 10,000 new electric school buses being deployed until the end of 2027.

其他符合資格的地區每輛公車可獲得總計 17 萬美元的資助，預計將於 2025 年 1 月之前提交申請，並於 2025 年 5 月通知入選者。最新三輪 EPA 清潔校車計畫包括 2024 年 9 月的回扣。除了預計於 2025 年 2 月宣布撥款的清潔重型計畫外，預計到 2027 年底將部署超過 10,000 輛新電動校車。

We are proud of the success achieved by Lion and its customers under the EPA program with line vehicles delivered under the program having now traveled over 1 million miles. During the third quarter, one of our customers, Herscher Community Unit School District led the way in school bus electrification by unveiling a state-of-the-art electric school bus barn for its all 25 electric LionC buses featuring a solar array to offset the facility's new energy consumption.

我們為 Lion 及其客戶在 EPA 計劃下取得的成功感到自豪，根據該計劃交付的線路車輛現已行駛超過 100 萬英里。第三季度，我們的客戶之一Herscher Community Unit School District 在校車電氣化方面處於領先地位，為其所有25 輛電動LionC 巴士推出了最先進的電動校車穀倉，該校車配備了太陽能電池陣列，以抵消校車電氣化帶來的影響。

This initiative is a clear example of the positive impact that dedicated federal investments into clean energy can have. Finally, our Lion energy order book currently stands at approximately $8 million.

這項措施清楚地表明了聯邦政府對清潔能源的專門投資可以產生積極影響。最後，我們的 Lion energy 訂單目前約為 800 萬美元。

I will now turn it over to Richard to discuss our financial performance.

我現在將把它交給理查德討論我們的財務表現。

Thank you, Nicolas. I will start by commenting on Q3 results and we'll then discuss our liquidity position.

謝謝你，尼古拉斯。我將首先評論第三季的業績，然後我們將討論我們的流動性狀況。

In Q3, we recorded quarterly revenue of $30.6 million driven by lower unit sales due to factors already discussed by Marc and Nicolas. These lower revenues coupled with increased manufacturing unit costs resulting both from the continued ramp up of our new LionD and Lion5 models and the continued integration of Lion batteries onto our vehicles also impacted profitability.

第三季度，由於 Marc 和 Nicolas 已經討論過的因素，單位銷售量下降，導致我們的季度營收為 3,060 萬美元。收入下降，加上我們新的 LionD 和 Lion5 車型的持續增長以及 Lion 電池持續整合到我們的車輛中導致的製造單位成本增加，也影響了盈利能力。

For, Q3 gross margins was negative $16 million and it did the negative $19.5 million. Nevertheless, we continue to see the positive impact and the materialization of previously announced cost cutting measures. Q3 SG&A of $13.1 million was down $3.7 million from prior year and was down $1.6 million over Q2. We also saw a significant reduction of CapEx and R&D which respectively amounted to CapEx of $400,000 down approximately $16 million from last year and R&D of $6 million down approximately $9 million from last year.

第三季毛利率為負 1,600 萬美元，而它的毛利率則為負 1,950 萬美元。儘管如此，我們仍然看到先前宣布的成本削減措施的正面影響和實現。第三季的 SG&A 為 1,310 萬美元，比上年同期減少 370 萬美元，比第二季減少 160 萬美元。我們也看到資本支出和研發費用大幅減少，資本支出分別為 40 萬美元，比去年減少約 1,600 萬美元，研發費用為 600 萬美元，比去年減少約 900 萬美元。

Now moving on to liquidity as of September 30, we had available liquidity of approximately $27 million. We continue to make good progress on our inventory reduction plan, decreasing inventory by $50 million in Q3 and $35 million for the first nine months of 2024, the vast majority of which related to raw material reduction.

現在轉向流動性，截至 9 月 30 日，我們的可用流動性約為 2700 萬美元。我們的庫存削減計劃繼續取得良好進展，第三季庫存減少 5,000 萬美元，2024 年前 9 個月減少庫存 3,500 萬美元，其中絕大多數與原材料減少有關。

Our full year 2024 objective is now to reduce inventory by approximately $50 million as opposed to the $50 to $75 million previously stated due to lower-than-expected sales volume. We announced on October 1, additional amendments to various loan facilities providing for continued relief from certain financial covenants from September 30 until November 15.

我們的 2024 年全年目標是減少約 5,000 萬美元的庫存，而不是先前因銷售低於預期而設定的 5,000 至 7,500 萬美元。我們於 10 月 1 日宣布對各種貸款便利性進行額外修訂，規定從 9 月 30 日至 11 月 15 日繼續免除某些財務契約。

We are in continued dialogue with lenders to address the upcoming end of release period and the upcoming maturity of the Finalta-CDPQ loan. As stated by Marc, we are also currently seeking potential source of financing and or other opportunities to strengthen our balance sheet.

我們正在與貸方繼續對話，以解決即將結束的釋放期和即將到期的 Finalta-CDPQ 貸款問題。正如馬克所說，我們目前仍在尋找潛在的融資來源和/或其他機會來加強我們的資產負債表。

I will now pass it over to Marc for concluding remarks.

現在我將把它交給馬克做總結發言。

Thank you, Richard.

謝謝你，理查。

Despite the headwinds Lion and the holy, the industry is facing. We continue to be very well equipped to support the operators in their transition to electric. As demonstrated by the more than 32 million miles driven on our 2,200 vehicles on the road.

儘管獅和聖面臨逆風，但該行業仍面臨挑戰。我們將繼續做好充分準備，支持營運商向電動化轉型。我們的 2,200 輛汽車在路上行駛了超過 3200 萬英里，這證明了這一點。

Our objective for the balance of 2024 is to continue to materialize all the initiatives we announced and straighten our liquidity position to be fully prepared to attack 2025 with a very efficient cost structure that will allow us to continue executing on our business strategy.

我們2024 年剩餘時間的目標是繼續落實我們宣布的所有舉措，並調整我們的流動性狀況，為迎接2025 年做好充分準備，並採用非常高效的成本結構，使我們能夠繼續執行我們的業務戰略。

Timely, I would like to thank our team at Lion for your determination and commitment to our mission and our clients for their trust in Lion for the electrification of their seat.

我要及時感謝 Lion 團隊對我們使命的決心和承諾，以及我們的客戶對 Lion 座椅電氣化的信任。

Let's now open the line for questions.

現在讓我們打開提問熱線。

Oh, well, again,

哦，好吧，再說一次，

Good question.

好問題。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Our first question comes from Kevin King with the company CIBC. Kevin, your line is now open.

我們的第一個問題來自 CIBC 公司的 Kevin King。凱文，您的線路現已開通。

Hi, good afternoon or good evening. Thanks for thanks for taking my questions here. Maybe just two for me. obviously, a new administration over in the US just wondering, I mean, I suspect these early days here just how you think that might impact some of the programs meant to subsidize the adoption of electric school bus and commercial vehicles.

嗨，下午好或晚上好。感謝您在這裡提出我的問題。也許對我來說只有兩個。顯然，美國新政府只是想知道，我的意思是，我懷疑您認為這可能會如何影響一些旨在補貼電動校車和商用車採用的計劃。

Some of the stuff we're hearing suggests that maybe they'll less than some of the regulatory efforts that the previous administration was pushing in terms of converting more vehicles to electric. Just wondering what you're thinking moving forward and maybe how that might change your sales strategy.

我們聽到的一些消息表明，它們可能會比上屆政府在將更多車輛轉換為電動車方面所推動的一些監管努力要少。只是想知道您下一步的想法是什麼，以及這可能會如何改變您的銷售策略。

Yeah. Well, thank you for your question, Kevin. This is Marc

是的。好吧，謝謝你的問題，凱文。這是馬克

I think at this point, I think it's too early to see what the exact impact is going to be, we will be finding out probably within the next few months. Obviously, we're ready to collaborate with the new administration as well and there are crucial issues that we're working on right now in terms of energy transition and electrification.

我認為目前來看具體的影響還為時過早，我們可能會在接下來的幾個月內找到答案。顯然，我們也準備與新政府合作，我們目前正在解決能源轉型和電氣化的關鍵問題。

Obviously, but one thing you know that we should know is that the EPA Clean School Bus Program is working very well and as you probably know that was coming from the bipartisan infrastructure loan in 2021. And it's well under way right now and there was a lot of funding already going to operators school districts and also to some [OEM's] and something we should note as well is the, there's a lot of subsidies at the state level and just to name a few, there's a lot of them in California, Texas, Michigan, Colorado, Illinois and New York as well in addition to the EPA.

顯然，但我們應該知道的一件事是，EPA 清潔校車計劃運作良好，而且您可能知道，該計劃來自 2021 年的兩黨基礎設施貸款。目前一切進展順利，已經有大量資金流向運營商學區以及一些[OEM]，我們還應該注意的是，州一級有很多補貼，僅舉幾個例子除了美國環保局之外，加利福尼亞州、德克薩斯州、密西根州、科羅拉多州、伊利諾州和紐約州也有很多這樣的機構。

That's helpful and I appreciate the answer given. It's still early days that leads to my second question. Nic, you talked about some of the moving parts that impacted the order book, and it sounds like a lot of it was stuff that you had actions you have taken. You called out, I think 515 units that were removed proactively from your end related to the ZETF program. I guess maybe a simple question.

這很有幫助，我很欣賞給的答案。現在提出我的第二個問題還為時過早。尼克，你談到了一些影響訂單簿的活動部分，聽起來很多都是你已經採取的行動的內容。您指出，我認為您主動刪除的 515 個單位與 ZETF 計劃有關。我想也許是一個簡單的問題。

What do you, what happens to these 515 units? Would you expect that to like, reenter your backlog at some point or are these lost orders Just because of delays in the subsidy program? Just, I guess how do you view those 500 units that kind of we move over the past 30 days?

你怎麼辦，這 515 個單位會怎麼樣？您是否希望在某個時候重新輸入您的積壓訂單，或者這些訂單丟失只是因為補貼計劃的延遲？只是，我想您如何看待我們在過去 30 天內搬遷的 500 個單位？

Yeah. Hi Kevin. Yeah, let's start by saying that this is not a cancellation by a customer. It really is our approach to disclosing the purchase order book. And when we look at the timeline of the ETF program, that's the current timeline which calls for delivery before March 2026.

是的。嗨凱文。是的，首先我們要說的是，這不是客戶取消訂單。這確實是我們揭露採購訂單簿的方法。當我們查看 ETF 計劃的時間表時，目前的時間表要求在 2026 年 3 月之前交付。

We have to make estimates as to what can be delivered over that period and hence, we removed that, 515 units from the order book. Now to your, the second part of your question is the intention to work with clients to bring that back. The answer is of course, but you know, we're disclosing the purchase order book as of today and hence the adjustment.

我們必須估計在此期間可以交付的產品，因此，我們從訂單簿中刪除了 515 個單位。現在，您問題的第二部分是與客戶合作以恢復這一點的意圖。答案是當然，但你知道，我們將揭露截至今天的採購訂單簿以及因此進行的調整。

It's also worth saying that we have seen some we have had some good dialogue and have seen some good momentum with some of the ZETS processing. So, all together despite removing that part of the order book we were encouraged by some of the movement that we're seeing in the [ze.]

另外值得一提的是，我們已經看到一些我們進行了一些良好的對話，並且在一些 ZETS 處理中看到了一些很好的動力。因此，儘管刪除了訂單簿的這一部分，我們還是對我們在訂單簿中看到的一些運動感到鼓舞[澤。

That's, that's helpful call. Thanks, and best of luck as you close out this year.

那是，這是有幫助的電話。謝謝，祝你今年結束時好運。

Thank you very much.

非常感謝。

(audio inaudible) Hello.

（音頻聽不清楚）你好。

A question.

一個問題。

The next question is from Mike.

下一個問題是麥克提出的。

Yes. Hey, hi.

是的。嘿，嗨。

It's Mike here from Davidson. Thanks for calling on me there, Nic appreciate it. Hey, just wanted to follow up with you on the price. Hello, can you guys hear me? Okay.

我是來自戴維森的麥克。感謝您拜訪我，尼克很感激。嘿，我只是想跟您了解一下價格。你好，你們聽得到我說話嗎？好的。

Yeah, we can hear you. Well, Mike. Thank you.

是的，我們能聽到你的聲音。好吧，麥克。謝謝。

Oh, okay, great. So, just wanted to get your comments on pricing. It sounds like the sort of plan auctions in the prices of the EV school buses for the EPA program are happening, the prices are coming down and looking around that's kind of part of the plan. But you also mentioned that there are some subsidies that can be stacked on top of the federal subsidy.

哦，好的，太好了。所以，只是想聽聽您對定價的評論。聽起來好像 EPA 計劃的電動校車價格計劃拍賣正在發生，價格正在下降，環顧四周，這也是計劃的一部分。但您也提到，有些補助可以疊加在聯邦補助之上。

I'm just curious whether you're whether you are lowering your list price to match the subsidy or you keep your price similar and finding your customers additional subsidies.

我只是好奇你是否會降低定價以匹配補貼，或者保持價格相似並為你的客戶尋找額外的補貼。

Yeah, Mike, the subsidies from the EPA program are in our views, certainly adequate and, and in some cases generous as you mentioned, the latest round is $325,000 for vehicle and the charging infrastructure and there's a federal tax credit of up to $40,000 that can be stacked on that.

是的，麥克，我們認為EPA 計劃的補貼確實足夠，而且在某些情況下還很慷慨，正如您提到的，最新一輪的汽車和充電基礎設施補貼為325,000 美元，聯邦稅收抵免高達40,000美元可以疊在上面。

Look, I think our goal with pricing is to be to be nimble. And what we're looking to do is to have pricing that is coherent with volume and with the competitive dynamics in in the industry. But all together when you compare it to other subsidies including in Canada, those are subsidies that are, that are very attractive, of course, as these come down.

看，我認為我們定價的目標是保持彈性。我們希望做的是使定價與銷售和行業競爭動態相一致。但總的來說，當你將其與包括加拿大在內的其他補貼進行比較時，這些補貼當然非常有吸引力，因為這些補貼會下降。

And as there's more of an out of pocket for the operators. It's a matter of selling on the total cost of ownership, which is really traditionally the basis for purchasing commercial vehicles. And there's room for, there's very attractive total cost of ownership for the operators at those subsidy levels.

而且營運商需要自掏腰包。這是一個根據總擁有成本進行銷售的問題，這實際上是傳統上購買商用車的基礎。在這些補貼水準上，對於業者來說，總擁有成本還有很大的空間。

So, it's all our goal is to be dynamic. Our medium to long term objective remains to over time, bring the pricing of the vehicle down. But of course, there's many dynamics at play and given that we sell directly, we're well positioned, we believe to adapt to that to those changes in the market.

所以，我們的目標就是保持活力。我們的中長期目標仍然是隨著時間的推移，降低車輛的價格。但當然，有很多動態在起作用，考慮到我們直接銷售，我們處於有利地位，我們相信能夠適應市場的這些變化。

Okay. Thanks for that. I wanted to ask secondly about your delivery cadence in the fourth quarter. I can look at your numbers and Richard, I appreciate your comments on inventory deduction, but I'm just trying to make sure I can see a path to you being able to the same delivery kit and, into the fourth quarter that you had in the third quarter at the very minimum.

好的。謝謝你。其次我想問你們第四季的交付節奏。我可以看看你的數字，理查德，我很欣賞你對庫存扣除的評論，但我只是想確保我能看到一條途徑，讓你能夠獲得與你在第四季度相同的交付套件。第三季。

I guess two questions do you have few 11 days in the quarter? So, do you plan to have less deliveries? So, I'm just trying to figure out whether you've got more, that money coming from the US government or other cash coming in that will allow you to build all these buses. It's having a hard time with the numbers being a cadence increase in the fourth quarter at all.

我想有兩個問題，這個季度有多少 11 天？那麼，您打算減少交付量嗎？所以，我只是想弄清楚你是否有更多來自美國政府的資金或其他現金，可以讓你建造所有這些巴士。第四季的節奏增加實在太困難了。

Mike this was.

麥克這是。

A little difficult to understand on our side, but if I got the gist of it, but what I'll say is, as it relates to the liquidity and info that we provided the updated liquidity is at the end of Q3, we as mentioned in the prepared remarks.

我們這邊有點難以理解，但如果我明白了它的要點，但我要說的是，因為它與流動性和我們在第三季度末提供的更新流動性的信息有關，我們如上所述在準備好的發言中。

Our objective right now is to work with our lenders in the context of the expire and flex period. And we're also looking at various alternatives to bolster the enhance the, the balance sheet, the financing. We can't speak at this stage of the timing of when subsidies come in and other various funding.

我們現在的目標是在到期和彈性期間與我們的貸方合作。我們也正在尋找各種替代方案來支持資產負債表和融資的改善。現階段我們還不能透露補貼和其他各種資金何時到位。

Okay. Yeah, having a hard time hearing you as well. I'll just I'll stop there and pass it along. Thank you.

好的。是的，我也很難聽到你的聲音。我就停在那裡並把它傳遞出去。謝謝。

Our next question comes from Rupert Merer, with the company National Bank Rupert. Your line is now open.

我們的下一個問題來自 Rupert Merer 和 National Bank Rupert 公司。您的線路現已開通。

Hello, everyone. Thanks for taking the question. Oh, I think I heard you say that there's potential for up to 10,000 vehicles by 2027 under some of those programs. The [doe] program, is that right? and can you talk about the competition you see in the space and what share of that business could you target?

大家好。感謝您提出問題。哦，我想我聽到你說，根據其中一些計劃，到 2027 年，有可能生產多達 10,000 輛汽車。[doe] 計劃，是嗎？您能談談您在該領域看到的競爭情況以及您的目標業務份額是多少嗎？

Yeah. So, they the 10,000 vehicles. Rupert, you heard that correctly is when you add up the what I'd say the three rounds of the EPA that are ongoing, right? The grant round where funding was allocated where they're starting to be some deployments there the 2023 rebate round where there's starting to be some certainly been allocated and there's, we're starting to see some deployments as well.

是的。所以，他們有 10,000 輛車。魯伯特，你沒聽錯吧，你把我所說的正在進行的三輪 EPA 的結果加起來，對嗎？在補助金回合中，資金被分配，他們開始進行一些部署，在 2023 年回扣回合中，肯定已經開始分配一些資金，我們也開始看到一些部署。

And then there's a current round for $965 million that was allocated or that's it's not allocated, but it was launched, and applications are due by January 9, 2025. On top of that, there's the clean heavy-duty recall that it's close to a billion with 70% targeted for school buses. So, all that together. Our map leads to over 10,000 vehicles, school buses to be specific that would be deployed in the next two years or so.

本輪融資金額為 9.65 億美元，已分配或未分配，但已啟動，申請截止日期為 2025 年 1 月 9 日。除此之外，還有近十億次清潔重型召回，其中 70% 針對校車。所以，所有這些都在一起。我們的地圖顯示超過 10,000 輛車輛，具體來說是校車，將在未來兩年左右部署。

In terms of the competitive environment. Well, it's I wouldn't, I don't think there's been many changes right. There's a number of competitors that are, incumbents in the space that sell both the, these are mostly really ice vehicles and some EV's and then there are players like Lion that are, that are fully focused on EV's in terms of what we're targeting at market share and yes, you appreciate we're trying to obviously get the highest share as possible.

從競爭環境來看。嗯，我不會，我認為沒有太多改變。有許多競爭對手，該領域的老牌公司同時銷售這兩種產品，這些大多是真正的冰上車輛和一些電動汽車，然後還有像Lion 這樣的參與者，就我們的目標而言，他們完全專注於電動車在市場份額方面，是的，您知道我們顯然正在努力獲得盡可能高的份額。

We're certainly among the leaders today in North America in the electric school buses looking at registrations in terms of market share. So, we our goal is to obviously continue to increase market share and capture as much volume as we can.

從市場份額來看，我們無疑是當今北美電動校車領域的領導者之一。因此，我們的目標顯然是繼續增加市場份額並獲得盡可能多的銷售。

Okay, great. And with the changes you've made to your production capacity, what sort of production cadence do you think you could hit if you were to receive orders? How, easy would it be to flex your production back up?

好的，太好了。隨著您對生產能力所做的改變，您認為如果您要收到訂單，您可以達到什麼樣的生產節奏？恢復生產是否容易？

Rupert, we do have the equipment as you know, so it's a matter of having the right number of people to be able to manufacture those buses. As we were saying earlier, I mean, we're very cautious about managing liquidity right now. And this is really top of mind, but obviously, we do have the manufacturing capacity to ramp up at some point.

魯珀特，正如您所知，我們確實擁有設備，因此問題是擁有適當數量的人員來製造這些公共汽車。正如我們之前所說，我的意思是，我們現在對管理流動性非常謹慎。這確實是最重要的，但顯然，我們確實有能力在某個時候提高製造能力。

All right, thank you. And then if I could just quickly follow up on liquidity, you are investigating options for improving liquidity. Can you give us any more color on the options you're looking at and maybe what the front runners would be at this point.

好的，謝謝。然後，如果我可以快速跟進流動性，那麼您正在研究改善流動性的選項。您能否給我們更多關於您正在考慮的選項的信息，以及目前領先者可能會是什麼。

Rupert, you know, I can only reiterate what we said. We're speaking with our lenders in the context of the expiring flex period. We're looking at various options as it relates to financing, but we can't get into more details at this stage and of course, once we have details to share, we will share.

魯伯特，你知道，我只能重申我們所說的話。我們正在與貸款機構就彈性期即將到期的情況進行對話。我們正在考慮與融資相關的各種選擇，但現階段我們無法透露更多細節，當然，一旦我們有細節可以分享，我們就會分享。

Okay. Very good. I'll leave it there. Thank you.

好的。非常好。我會把它留在那裡。謝謝。

Thank You.

謝謝。

There are no more questions registered at this time. I'd like to pass the conference back over to our hosting team for closing remarks.

目前沒有更多登記的問題。我想將會議轉交給我們的主辦團隊進行閉幕致詞。

Thank you everyone for joining the call today. We look forward to continuing the discussion and feel free to contact us for any follow up questions you may have. Have a nice evening.

感謝大家今天加入電話會議。我們期待繼續討論，如有任何後續問題，請隨時與我們聯繫。祝你今晚愉快。

That will conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation and enjoy the rest of your day.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與，祝您有個愉快的一天。