The Lion Electric Company (NYSE:LEV) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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And so we feel very good. And you — if you walk the floor, you probably saw the number of partners that we have there and also the interest of the operators for our trucks. So that’s true for the Class 6, but that’s also true for the Class 8, but also for the other models, I mean, that we are launching this year. Because after all those years of working so hard on those trucks like, for example, the Lion5 and the Lion8 tractor, well finally, I mean, we’re launching them this year. And this is exciting. I mean all the operators you’ve seen on the floor, I mean, they want to see the Lion5. While many of them, I mean, they’ve seen them already. They are driving them. And the good thing about those operators, they are looking — a lot of them, they’re looking at electrifying the whole thing — so the whole fleet.

So basically, they are looking at their operations. They have a very good understanding of the total cost of ownership. And what that means — and they spend so much money in diesel right now and in maintenance as well that they are excited by the trucks that we have right now and the ones that are coming along. So thanks for your question. I see — I think everybody is starting to see the difference between what we’re doing and some of the other incumbent OEMs have been doing, which has basically got a retrofit of their current products.

Michael Shlisky : Okay. Just answer the tail-part of the question, the Astor Work Truck week itself, how do you feel it went, what feedback do your folks on the booth give you as far as you have customer visits, I think on order of speeds, etcetera?

Marc Bedard: I’m sorry, Mike, yes. So the Work Truck Show, no it went well. I mean in those shows, it’s always like the — well, we do it. I mean, obviously, to meet some customers but we don’t need those shows to meet with the customers. We do that already. So it’s really about — also about brand recognition and also to expose some of the equipment that the operators can put on the truck. So went very well. I mean, that’s part of what we’re doing basically on a daily basis. We keep building the brand, we keep building the relationship with all of those customers. So I think as I said earlier, I think we’re just at the beginning of what we will see in the future. But this is the reason, we feel this market is going to be so big at some point. This is the reason why we’ve reserved three quarter of our capacity in Joliet, I mean, for trucks at some point in a few years from now.

Michael Shlisky : Okay, I appreciate it. I will leave it there. Thank you.

Marc Bedard: Thank you Michael.

Operator: Our next question comes from Benoit Poirier with Desjardin Capital Markets. Please go ahead, Benoit.

Benoit Poirier: Yes, thank you and good morning everyone. If you look — if we look at the order book, it was pretty stagnant in Q3. Are you seeing bookings slowdown given the macro environment and higher financing costs, I mean if we look specifically for the truck venture, it has declined over the last two quarters so, what could explain this?

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