Enphase Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENPH) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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So that basically was somewhat good because the customer demand at least whatever we saw was €“ I mean, did not get that much affected. But having said that, I think the installers are quite cautious. Therefore, they basically are only buying what they need from their distributors, which is a stark difference from 2022, where they were focused on supply. They were focused on maximizing what they had in their warehouse. Now is that they are worried about their spending, they are worried about their OpEx, they are worried about their cash flow. Therefore, they are going to make sure they do exactly what is required. So that’s why I think €“ and I don’t have a crystal ball. I cannot be sure. That’s why I think we are seeing some customers who used to book 6, 9 months ahead, now will not book so much ahead.

They will be a little more conservative. And regarding your question on more €“ that the originations, whether they are improving or not, this is the data. We work with thousands of installers. We have a very strong sample set. We talked to a lot of distributors. Some of our distributors service hundreds of long tail installers. So we don’t see originations ourselves. We only €“ what I reported to you is anecdotal information. But we hear that originations and especially originations in California are back to being strong in January. That’s what we hear. And I think that is €“ that’s why I said that €“ plus the fact that we are not seeing that much of a link in activation points me to cautiously optimistic Q2 versus Q1.

Philip Shen: Okay. Great. Thanks, Badri. Shifting gears to the IRA historical, I think on the last call, you were talking about the ability to get the majority of that credit. I was wondering if you could comment on the latest you see in terms of the microinverter credits? Do you expect to get the vast majority of that? And then in terms of the timing of the Section 45X or manufacturing PTC guidelines, some of our checks suggest this could be released much later than originally expected maybe a year later. Just curious if that impacts your plans at all? And if you can talk about CapEx required for the facilities and factories, that would be great. Thanks.

Badri Kothandaraman: Yes. So I’ll answer the question in reverse. CapEx required, basically, an auto line is roughly 750,000 units and auto line cost is including tax, etcetera, anywhere from $8 million to $10 million per line. So if we have to do six lines, that’s anywhere close to $60 million €“ $50 million to $60 million. So that’s the CapEx spending. Now to answer your question, do we expect to get the vast majority. Yes, we do. And then does the announcement of the treasury indication change our plans, no, it does not. We are going to start manufacturing in the second quarter. And we are going to ramp up a couple of lines with a new contract manufacturer in the second quarter. And then we are going to start the remaining lines. So totally, we will have six manufacturing lines by the end of 2023 with three contract manufacturing partners.

Philip Shen: Great. Thanks very much for color, Badri. I will pass it on.

Badri Kothandaraman: Thank you.

Operator: The next question comes from Brian Lee of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

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