Muutama poiminta earnings callista.
Can you just give us an update on the order book for Tre or when we’ll move out of the validation and testing phase, both in the Northern States and Germany and when people can do ride and drives and hopefully get a book of business growing?
"We anticipate, just as you mentioned, Jeff, that – and we’ll have – we’ll be able to conclude agreements with a launch customer at least and possibly multiple launch customers after we’re able to show them production prototypes that have been fully validated and tested, which we think will happen in the April, May time frame.
We’re already setting up times where we can bring customers to the track and get them in the trucks and get them actual ride and drive experience, which we think will be at the time that we’ll be able to finalize and conclude negotiations for specific customer orders and contracts.
We don’t have any shortage of interest. Everybody wants – everybody’s question is when can I get a truck. So what we’re trying to do is come up with agreements with a launch customer who’s going to be committed to us and help us with the development and even share a little bit of risk with us as we go forward in launching these vehicles.
Like Anheuser-busch did and has done and continues to do on the fuel cell side, we’re looking for that kind of a launch customer on the battery side, the Tre battery vehicle side. And we anticipate we’ll be able to get that done in the next upcoming quarter in all likelihood. So good question."
So my question is on the partnership side. Have you now seen just, what I’ll call surge or spike in interest from partnerships, whether it’s on the hydrogen fuel cell side or on others, if I compare where we are today versus, let’s say, 3 to 4 months ago?
"Daniel, we definitely have more, I would say, intensity in those discussions. Obviously, what happened last fall gave everybody a pause. And at this point, I think the people have seen that we’ve gotten refocused. We’re back to execution mode. And that has increased the intensity of (inaudible) with potential partners.
You’ve also seen a number of people get into our slipstream in terms of especially fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen. A lot of people now trying to trail us and catch up to us, copy us, et cetera, on that front. We used to be kind of all alone there, not that long ago. And now there’s a lot of big names who are also jumping into this space and doing the same things we’re doing.
That also lends credibility and also, as I said, increases the intensity of those discussions. We’re also refining our approach. We have made a lot of progress. Our need for partnerships has evolved. We’ve actually done some things that partners could have helped us with if we had done some of the deals we were talking about last year. We’ve actually already accomplished those things. So our need for partner help is reduced on some fronts in some areas. But we’re still interested in being partnered up with people who bring a lot to the table and who are interested in what we bring to the table.
These things are like marriages. Both parties need to bring something to the table and – for it to work well. And that’s certainly the case at this point. There are still a number of really attractive, potential partners for us that can help reduce our risk or help us speed things up and bring essential things to the table. And we think we bring a lot to the table as well.
So those conversations are ongoing, and we’re back to serious negotiations once now that the uncertainty of last fall is pretty much behind us.
And then last year during fourth quarter that some of the conversations will likely spill into Q1. And of course, that’s the case. But as Mark alluded, we are having a number of discussions, and we feel confident that we’ll be able to share the progress on many of those discussions in the upcoming months."
So just sort of paraphase and then just tell me if you agree or disagree. Like here it is, you have a ton of partnerships that you guys are in discussions, the fall comes, things obviously get put on ice. Well – and now it feels like that’s really starting to come back pretty quick. And we likely could expect, over the coming months or whatever, 2 to 5 months, more partnership than maybe a lot of these (inaudible) even started pre fall, they just basically pause until everything calmed down. Is that a correct characterization?
"That is correct. We did see some pause in some discussions that we had ongoing last year. We also have some new ones. There’s a lot of activity in this space, as you know. So we’ve restarted most of the discussions that we were having last year, rather, we’ve reengaged on a serious level with most of the discussions we had last year. And then we’ve added a couple of new ones.
I think what you’ll find is that as we make some additional announcements, you will find that we have been very thoughtful on how we think about hydrogen value chain. And our view of hydrogen potential partners have expanded, and it will give you greater confidence in terms of how we’re thinking about the rollout of the hydrogen pathway."
Sitten pääoman hakemisesta markkinoilta…
"In terms of capital raise, I think we have always been clear that at some point, we thought that it would be prudent pursuing a capital raise sometime in 2021. We’d like to make sure that we have adequate capital, at least a year in advance or potentially 1.5 years, 2 years of worth of capital for our operating expenses and capital expenditures.
And so we will, time to time, tap the market, and we do think that so far the market has been strong. So do not be surprised if we do end up tapping the market this year. But we do that because we want to make sure that we have ample liquidity at least 12 months to 18 months in advance."
All in all, paljon mukavaa puhetta johdolta. Nyt vaan pitäisi tänä vuonna oikeasti nähdä sopimuksien muodossa, että siellä tehdään oikeita asioita.
. Nim. VectoiQ:sta mukana ollut ja myynyt pois. nim. Ei ostosuositus ENKÄ omista NKLA:n osakkeita (enää) .