REE Automotive Ltd. (NASDAQ:REE) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

So Phase 2 is currently planned to commence in Q4 of ‘24, which is expected to be a total production plan of up to 300 vehicles during that calendar year, ramping up to a low-1,000s in 2025 and then mid-1,000s in 2026. For chassis manufacturing and final vehicle builds in Phase 2, we plan to use a contract manufacturer located in the states, and we’ll give you guys more information on that once we have selected that contract manufacturer.

Michael Shlisky: Just to be clear then, the 2024 vehicles that are coming out are going to be prototype or still low volume and there’ll be — and they’ll — all of them will be in the U.K. shipped over here, correct?

Josh Tech: The first-half to first three quarters, yes, those will be — what we said, those will be the pilot vehicles — and then by Q4, we will start to ramp up the remaining, as we said, up to 300 from the U.S.

Michael Shlisky: Okay, okay. I’ll give others chance. Thanks so much for the time. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We will now take the next question from the line of Jeff Osborne from TD Cowen. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Jeff Osborne: Great, thank you. Thanks for all the detail in the letter. Maybe just a few follow-up questions on some of the points raised. Daniel, I was wondering if you could walk us through the $50 million investment that was flagged. I think Josh just mentioned that you had a $15 million tooling purchase in July last month. Was that part of the $50 million? Or is the $50 million still to come more next year? I’m just trying to get a sense of the cadence and associated cash burn.

Daniel Barel: Yes. So these are two different things, I think, if I heard you right. So we initiated past end the $15 million tooling program ahead of schedule, because we are — we have higher confidence ahead of plan so I think good news there. And that would allow us to kick off the tooling programs. We are expected, as Joe said, to enter Phase 1, which is production tooling and scale in the second-half of next year as we prepare the ramp-up for that. And Yaron can — probably Yaron can add more.

Yaron Zaltsman: Hi, so most of the $50 million have not been spent yet, but it’s part of our business plan, and we share information about the amount of cash that we have right now and the amount of cash that we need in the next 2 years, so you can include in there. We secured $50 million loan from Israeli bank that which will fully cover to tooling spend that we…

Jeff Osborne: So the cumulative cash burn CapEx is less than $105 million over the next two years? Is that what you’re trying to say? And then if you add the ATM and the $15 million?

Yaron Zaltsman: What I’m trying to say is that $105 million that we have right now, plus additional ATM and the loan security is well enough for the next year. We feel we need to cover ‘25 due to working capital, therefore, we need to raise another $50 million for year 2025.

Jeff Osborne: Got it. And then the — I apologize for following up on Mike’s questions with Josh, but you mentioned pilot vehicles. So I’m just trying to get a sense of the math of the dealers is impressive. You have pilot vehicles being produced and then, at some point in time, late next year up to 300 vehicles. At what point in time will there be vehicles for revenue? Is that Q4 of next year? Or will there be revenue associated with any pilot vehicles before this?