Notable reads and other tidbits
Lots to read here. Let’s go.
Autonomous vehicles
Baidu launched Apolong II, a new generation of multi-purpose autonomous minibuses designed to be customizable for purposes like public transport, mobile policing, healthcare providers and other commercial industry scenarios. This is an upgrade from its Apolong predecessor, which means it got an upgrade in computing power and sensors.
The company said its Apolong series vehicles have already been deployed in 22 urban parks in Beijing, Guangzhou, Xiong’an, Chongqing and Foshan.
Earnings season
Since there are sooooo many new compamies going piublic, we’re beefing up our coverage in this area. We’ll be looking at the numbers and other news that come out of the earnings reports.
Fisker: The company is pre-revenue but still managed to generate $27,000 in the second quarter from merchandise sales. It had a net loss of $46.2 million, or $0.16 per share, compared to a net loss of $176.8 million in the previous quarter. That large net loss in Q1 came from changes in how the SEC treated non-cash items and resulted in warrants liability of $138 million. The public warrants are now retired.
Loss from operations were $53.1 million in the second quarter compared to a loss of $33 million in the first quarter. Cash and cash equivalents were $962 million, slightly lower than the $985.1 million in the first quarter.
I spoke to co-founder Henrik Fisker and the interesting bits from the interview and remarks made during the earnings call centered on expectations that operating expenses will reach between $490 million and $530 million this year, a slight increase in its business outlook for the year that is driven by R&D spending on prototypes for its Ocean SUV, testing and validation of advanced technology, hiring and its “accelerating” partnership with Foxconn. Read on to learn more about this relationship with Foxconn.
GM: The company’s earnings were dragged down by $800 million in warranty expenses from its twice-issued recall for 2017 to 2019 Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles. Costs associated with fixing defective Bolt batteries make up the lion’s share of GM’s $1.3 billion in warranty expenses last quarter.
GM reported revenues of $34.2 billion, up $1.7 billion from the first quarter 2021, and $17.4 billion up from its year-ago quarterly result. GM also reported net income of $2.84 billion in the second quarter, up from a year-ago loss of $758 million, largely driven by the pandemic and associated economic fallout. GM’s adjusted income of $4.1 billion is inclusive of recall costs.
Income was boosted by used car prices, truck and SUV sales, and strong profits at GM Financial. GM’s lending arm posted net sales of $3.4 billion and adjusted income of $1.58 billion for the quarter.
Lyft: managed to produce positive adjusted EBITDA in the quarter, a profit metric favored by technology upstarts that have yet to generate net income, a stricter method of calculating profitability. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was $23.8 million.
Revenue was $765 million in the second quarter, more than double the $339.3 million million it brought in during the same period last year. While that is remarkable, remember last year at this time the economy and ride-hailing were getting pummeled by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lyft’s Q2 revenue grew 25.6% over last quarter’s $609 million. That means that despite rising case counts in the United States thanks to the delta COVID-19 variant, Lyft still managed to grow. Read on for more on Lyft’s earnings.
Nikola: reported a net loss of $143 million in the second quarter, up from a $115.7 million loss in the same period last year. Its adjusted loss was 20 cents per share, which is actually better than analysts expected. The company’s cash balance at the end of the quarter was $632.6 million. Importantly, the pre-revenue company warned that supply chain constraints are causing numerous delays forcing it to slash its vehicle delivery projections in half.
Nikola said plans to produce 50 to 100 electric semi trucks in this year have been lowered to 25 to 50 units. The company also cut its revenue forecast for the year to $0 to $7.5 million. It was previously $15 million to $30 million.
TuSimple: The autonomous trucking company reported $1.5 million in revenue in Q2. The bigger news from the earnings report, which FreightWaves caught, is that the company is waiting for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to finish its review. Specifically, they’re looking at the the 2017 acquisition of the U.S. business of TuSimple LLC by Tusimple (Cayman) Ltd. It was assumed that the investigation was focused on China’s Sina investment in TuSimple.
Uber: While Lyft managed to generate positive adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter, Uber did not. However, Uber did generate positive net income of $1.14 billion in the quarter thanks to its investments in other companies like Didi and Aurora Innovation.
Its Q2 performance was enough to keep Uber on track toward its pre-tax profitability goal. Read on for our (me and Alex Wilhelm) closer look at Uber’s earnings.
Also, Uber’s massive $250 million stimulus package launched in April to incentivize drivers back onto the app after a pandemic-induced shortage contributed to its losses.
U.S. Postal Service: saw shipping and package volume fall by 14.1% year-on-year in its fiscal year 2021 third quarter as a surge in demand for package delivery services began to slow, FreightWaves reported.
Revenue for that sector of its business fell 7.8% in the quarter. Shipping and package volume is still higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Velodyne Lidar: Corporate DRAMA is expensive. The sensor company’s second quarter earnings show a company spending more to find new customers for its products while grappling with an increasingly expensive internal drama. Among its costs: $8 million in equity compensation for its recently resigned CEO Anand Gopalan and a 21% jump in general and administrative expenses due to increased public company and legal expenses. (The board is in a battle with its founder David Hall and wife, Marta Hall).
The company said it expects general and administrative expenses to increase by about 35% in 2021. The company is also investing heavily in growth, namely in sales and marketing. A large majority of operating expenses were spent on sales and marketing. Velodyne spent $47.2 million in the second quarter, which is up massively from $7.1 million in the first quarter.
Electric vehicles
Arrival announced it will be co-developing its digital fleet and vehicle capabilities for the automotive industry with Microsoft. This cloud-based approach using Microsoft Azure will enable advanced uses of telemetry, vehicle and fleet data management across vehicle fleets, according to the company.
GM is adding two new zero-emissions vehicles to its commercial portfolio as it looks to expand its first-to-last-mile business arm, BrightDrop. The first vehicle will be a battery electric cargo van under the Chevrolet brand that will likely be similar to the popular Chevy Express van. The second will be a medium-duty truck that CEO Mary Barra said “will put both the Ultium and Hydrotec hydrogen fuel cell technology to work.”
Pen Test Partners, U.K. cybersecurity company, identified several vulnerabilities in six home electric vehicle charging brands and a large public EV charging network. While the charger manufacturers resolved most of the issues, the findings are the latest example of the poorly regulated world of Internet of Things devices, which are poised to become all but ubiquitous in our homes and vehicles.
Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess had a difficult time recharging his electric vehicle during a road trip. His experience isn’t unusual. When I saw his comments on LinkedIn, which were then picked up by media outlets, I thought to myself: ‘this is why executives should be trying out products early!’ EV charging woes are old news and Diess is just experiencing these now?
EVTOLS and flight
Lilium is negotiating the terms for a 220-aircraft, $1 billion order with one of Brazil’s largest domestic airlines. Should the deal with Azul move forward, it would mark the largest order in Lilium’s history and its first foray into South American markets. The 220 aircraft would fly as part of a new, co-branded airline network that would operate in Brazil.
United Airlines announced that it will require its U.S. employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 this fall, the Hill reports. United is the first major airline to issue a vaccine mandate. Employees will be required to show proof of vaccination five weeks after the Food and Drug Administration grants the vaccines full approval, or Oct. 25, whichever comes first.
Ride-hailing
Lyft, Uber, Doordash and Instacart are part of a coalition of app-based ride-hailing and on-demand delivery companies that filed a petition for a ballot initiative in Massachusetts that would keep gig economy workers classified as independent contractors as the industry takes a fight it won in California on the road.
The ballot measure proposed by the Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work comes nearly a year after California voters approved a similar measure known as Proposition 22 that pitted labor rights advocates against gig economy companies in a costly multimillion battle. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi expressed his support also expressed his support for this measure during the company’s Q2 earnings call.
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