The Lion Electric Company (NYSE:LEV) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Richard Coulombe : I’ll take that one. Thank you for the question, George. So we achieved record 6.7% gross margin in Q3, so representing substantial increase compared to 0.7% in Q2 2023 and negative 9.23% in Q3 2022. So sustaining positive gross margin and achieving positive free cash flow clearly is number one priority at Lion. It would obviously require continued focus on revenue growth and tight management, cost management. We are definitely in the right direction, but we could see some volatility as we continue to ramp up. New platform deliveries on the LionD and Lion5 starting this quarter and the gradual integration of our Lion Battery into the current commercial model could temporarily affect our growth margin. We continue to be very focused on driving productivity within the organization and working at reducing our product cost.

George Gianarikas: Thank you for that. And then maybe this is my second question. Again, it’s a housekeeping. You mentioned that going forward, your growth CapEx is more or less complete. Can you just remind us what the level of maintenance CapEx we should assume for the firm for the next couple of years? Thank you.

Richard Coulombe : Should be pretty minimal. Right now, we’re really aiming at single-digit CapEx for next year. It’s going to be largely maintenance CapEx.

George Gianarikas: Single-digit millions is the number you mentioned.

Richard Coulombe : Correct.

Operator: We now have Michael Shlisky with D.A. Davidson.

Michael Shlisky: Yes, hello. Good morning. And thanks for taking my question. So right now, you’re up and running with a really nice-looking plant in Illinois. Obviously, we’re all established in Quebec. Do you have any views as to when your visibility is going to be good enough at this point to start giving us some guidance about what your deliveries might be, at least one quarter out? How consistent is your production rate right now?

Nicolas Brunet : Hi, Mike. Nick here, I’ll take this one. Look, I mean, we’re still in ramp-up mode. The guidance decision is one that we’re always assessing internally. We don’t have an update to provide this morning. And when things change, we will, but there’s no set timing for us to provide any guidance going forward.

Michael Shlisky: Okay. Maybe I can ask, just talk a little bit about the Lion8 tractor. I guess I’m curious, you can tell us a little bit behind the scenes as to how you developed the battery, guided it to the truck, and getting that whole project finalized. Was there a high cost there over the last couple quarters that we should be thinking about? And do you expect to recover most of that from Nikola once that case is resolved?

Nicolas Brunet : Well, with respect to Nikola Motors, well you know that we terminated basically what was going through with that right now, so the proceeding against Romeo, but not when civil proceedings against Nikola. But going back to your question on [inaudible], I mean, we had no choice in using our own batteries. And the HD batteries will be certified early next year. And we will be able to use those batteries on the Lion8 Tractor. This Lion8 Tractor, I need to tell you, Mike, is amazing. And obviously the whole market is expecting it. We will be able to put a lot of kilowatt-hours on those trucks. So we will have a lot of range as well. So we’re expecting a very good demand, I mean, for that product. But obviously going back to the root of your question on Nikola Motors, respectfully, I mean, we will not be able to comment further because of the proceedings going on right now.

Operator: We now have Benoît Poirier from Desjardins Capital Bank.

Benoît Poirier: Yes, good morning, everyone. Just looking at your truck backlog, if you remove the 140 purchase order, sorry for the just looking on the bus side, there was 140 purchase orders removed from the Lion8. But it looks like there’s some booking was over on the bus side. Could you comment about your bidding pipeline and your ability to secure more momentum on the bus side in 2024?