Blue Bird Corp (BLBD) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us and welcome to Bluebird's Fiscal 2026 Third Corner Earnings. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I will now hand the conference over to Mark Benfield, Bluebird's Head of Investor Relations. Mark, please go ahead.

Thank you, and welcome to Bluebird's fiscal 2026 third quarter earnings conference call. The audio for our call is webcast live on blue-bird.com under the Investor Relations tab. You can access supporting slides on our website by clicking on the presentations box on the IR landing page. Our comments today include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks that could cause actual results to be materially different. Those risks include, among others, matters we have noted on the following two slides in our filings with the SEC. Bluebird disclaims any obligation to update the information in this call. This afternoon, you will hear from Bluebird's President and CEO, John Wysko, and CFO Razvan Rajulescu, and we'll take some questions. Let's get started.

John? Thanks, Mark. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. it's an exciting day today as we're going to share our strong fiscal 2026 third quarter financial results and the continued significant progress we've made with our long-term strategy including a very special announcement we made late this afternoon results for q3 were once again very strong and the bluebird team delivered outstanding sales and adjusted ebitda feeding guidance for the 15th consecutive quarter. Rozvan will take you through the details of her financial results shortly, but let's turn to slide 6, where I will talk to some of the key takeaways for the quarter. First, Bluebird beat guidance on all metrics for the quarter. Again, we continue to manage the volatility associated with the administration's policy on tariffs well. Backlog for the quarter ended at 4,900 units, inclusive of MicroBird, and just under 3,600 units for type C and D. Operationally, metrics are pointing in the right direction and the team has been able to execute on a day-to-day basis while simultaneously working on our long-term strategy. In terms of pricing, we remain extremely disciplined. Bus prices remain higher than the previous year and the previous quarter. As I continue to communicate, this process is just how we manage the business in the all power segment our dominance continues our ev backlog is just under 800 units and we have a strong ev order book into 2027 all power is the segment we created over 15 years ago we were a pioneer in ev our propane power trains have the lowest total cost of operation and our gas variant continues to be a market leader with increased diesel prices at the pump we believe alt power is a great long-term play and we continue to maintain our lead position and finally we continue to manage the impact of the administration's executive orders and tariff volatility we are fortunate to be well positioned to navigate this situation to a margin neutral outcome as i've said on every earnings call it is our objective to position this business to be a strong long-term investment. Let's turn the page and take a closer look at the financial and key business highlights for the quarter on slide 7. We sold 3,525 buses in Q3 and recorded revenue of $517 million, $119 million above last year. On the EV side, we sold over 350 electric vehicles, 10% of unit volume, and our long-term outlook for EVs remains optimistic. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter came in at $71 million, $13 million stronger than last year, and adjusted free cash flow came in at $28 million. Roswan will talk more about this and our outlook later in this call. Turning to the right side of the page, I'll touch on a few points. As discussed earlier our backlog finished at a solid 4900 units combined as you know backlog is a function of orders and production orders for the industry were up seven percent on a trailing 12-month basis and bluebirds order intake was up nine percent for the same period we feel good about our position in the school bus market and i continue to reiterate the overall market fundamentals are still strong. The fleet is aging, we are coming into a heavy replacement cycle, and there has been industry supply issues the last few years, leaving pent-up demand. The mid-term horizon continues to look very good for school bus volumes. Year-over-year selling prices for buses was up almost $10,000, but of course this also includes increased tariff recovery as part of our margin neutral tariff strategy. With tariffs excluded, pricing was still up year over year, and part sales totaled $25.5 million for the quarter. Alt-powered Bluebird buses represented a strong 54% unit sales mix for the quarter. Our powertrain strategy is a differentiator in the market and allows us to maintain stronger margins. For the quarter, we had 355 EVs booked and and 776 EVs in our order backlog, pushing into 2027. Again, we remain optimistic on EVs in the school bus sector. EVs are a perfect fit for school buses when you look at the duty cycle, available charging intervals, range, and the proven health benefits for our children. Rounds two and three of the EPA Clean School Bus Program remain intact with funds flowing to our end customers. and the epa has invited comments for 2026 funding solidifying rounds four and five for the program consistent with what we've been communicating we should understand very soon how and when the epa will administer these funds overall when you look at state funding and fleet ev mandates we believe this market will remain relevant and in the quarter we closed on the microbird transaction This transaction brings us consolidated revenue with the Type A school bus and future growth in the commercial shuttle bus segment. It also brings us technology with the EcoTuned integrated EV platform. This transaction represents our strategic commitment for growth outside of the school bus segment and putting the balance sheet to work. But finally, I have another exciting item to report. We made a very big move in the chassis market. Let's turn to Slide 8 where I will talk about the exciting news we released earlier today. Our expanded collaboration into the Class 5 and 6 chassis market with Ford Motor Company and our asset purchase of Detroit Chassis LLC's Detroit Assembly Plant. Under the agreement, Bluebird will assume design, manufacturing, and sales responsibility for the next generation F53, F59 commercial strip chassis. Additionally, Ford will supply to us its medium duty next generation for powertrain as part of this agreement and finally ford and bluebird intend to collaborate on the seamless customer transfer of fleet rv and specialty body manufacturers this collaboration with ford will run through the end of 2033 with the extension opportunity into 2036. as part of this significant market entry bluebird will also acquire detroit assembly plant assets of Detroit Chassis LLC, the current contract assembler for the F53-F59 chassis. Detroit Chassis brings workforce, leadership, equipment, while Bluebird brings the overall design and business enterprise expertise to support this overall arrangement. The purchase is anticipated to close in calendar Q1-2027, shortly after the current chassis ends production and production of our new chassis is expected to start in calendar q1 2028 for bluebird this arrangement and transaction focuses on the strategic value proposition of growth technology and collaboration first it expands bluebird's total addressable market by 1.4 billion in a largely two-player market in both commercial delivery and rv segments also the ford powered gas chassis is a competitive and dominant offering in this space. The collaboration will propel our market position in the strict chassis segment. Second, this new chassis design will have considerable technical read across into our new bus design. We also see that this chassis design will be scalable and facilitate expansion into other product offerings. This technical approach will support even further growth down the road. And lastly, a collaborative approach with Ford will support an orderly transition with customers enabling ease of entry into the market and mitigating risk overall this is a very exciting announcement and is an important part of our strategy for the company and as i said earlier it brings tremendous opportunity for growth technology and collaboration it positions us to be a growing player in the specialty vehicle market it has certainly been another busy quarter with strong results and a very exciting announcement So, I'd now like to hand it over to Razvan to walk through our Fiscal 26 Third Quarter Financial Results, as well as our full year updated guidance in more detail.

Razvan? Thanks, John, and good afternoon. It's my pleasure to share with you the financial highlights from Bluebird's Fiscal 2026 Third Quarter and year-to-date record results. The quarter end is based on a close date of June 27, 2026, whereas the prior year was based on a close date of June 28, 2025. We will file the 10Q today, August 5, after market close. Our 10Q includes additional material and disclosures regarding our business and financial performance. We encourage you to read the 10Q and the important disclosures that it contains. The appendix attached to today's presentation includes reconciliations of differences between gap and non-gap measures mentioned on this call, as well as other important disclaimers. Slide 10 is a summary of the fiscal 26 third quarter and year-to-date record financial results. Please note that fiscal 26 Q3 is the first quarter in which we are consolidating the microboard results following our acquisition of the remaining 50% of the joint venture, which transaction closed on April 1st, 2026. It was a strong operating quarter for our company, a great continuation after the first half of the fiscal year, and we beat our consolidated guidance provided in the last earnings call on all metrics. In fact, we delivered the best Q3 profit ever for Bluebird with $71 million in adjusted EBITDA. The team pushed hard and continued doing a fantastic job and generated 3,525 unit sales volume, which includes 1,235 microboard units. The blueboard unit sales were 7% below prior year level, driven by a relatively large number of GSA and fleet units in finished goods. As a result, Q3 consolidated net revenue of 517 million was only 190 million higher than prior year, to which microboard consolidation contributed approximately 123 million. Adjusted EBITDA was a Q3 record $71 million, $13 million higher than prior year, and it includes the consolidation effect of microbirth of $8 million. The adjusted fee cash flow was a solid Q3 of $28 million and $24 million lower than the prior year, driven by a seasonal increase in working capital and finished goods, inventory for GSA and fleet. Our liquidity position at the end of this quarter was strong at $259 million, and this is after the microboard acquisition and paying down all their debt at close. The year-to-date results, including the consolidated Q3 for microboard, are equally impressive. While units sold of 7,808 buses were above prior years by 916 units, the revenue grew 12% to $1.2 billion, with record adjusted EBITDA of $172 million, or $19 million above prior year. Free cash flow was also very strong at $100 million, or $7 million above prior year's level. Moving on to slide 11, our backlog continues to be solid, with approximately 4,900 units, including approximately 1,300 microboard units and a total of approximately 800 EVs. Many of the EVs are already scheduled to be billed and delivered in fiscal year 27. Let's break now the Q3 revenue of $517 million into three components. First, the Bluebird BassNet revenue was $369 million, down 1% versus prior year due to higher finished goods inventory for gsa and fleet however our average bluebird bus revenue per unit increased by ten thousand dollars bluebird ev sales in q3 were 300 units or 29 units higher than last year second parts revenue for the quarter was almost flat at a strong 25 million third this quarter we are consolidating microbore revenue for the first time and they contributed 123 million two-hour results with 55 EV units sold. Gross margin for the quarter was a strong 20% or 160 basis points lower than last year due to microboard consolidation which drove 180 basis points reduction. Adjusted EBITDA of 71 million was higher compared with prior year by 13 million of which the microboard consolidation impact was 8 million. Adjusted EBITDA in percentage was mathematically compressed year over year due to the consolidation of 100% of the microboard revenue in Q3 while adding only 50% incremental adjusted EBITDA after the joint venture acquisition. Excluding the microboard consolidation effect, the percentage actually went up from 14.7% to a record Q3 of 16.1%. In fiscal 26 Q3, adjusted net income was a record Q3 of 45 million or $6 million higher than last year, with half of the delta coming from the microbore consolidation. Adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.28 was up $0.09 versus the prior year. Slide 12 shows the walk from Fiscal 25 Q3 adjusted EBITDA to the Fiscal 26 Q3 result before and after the microbore consolidation. Starting on the left at $58.5 million, the impact of the bus segment gross profit in total was 0.7 million, split between volume and pricing effects, net of material cost increases of 6.2 million, and year-over-year healthcare cost increases, lower overhead absorption, and higher freight in costs totaling negative 5.5 million. The bus segment gross profit was almost flat, as well as our fixed cost and other income, other expenses. However, the microboard results improved year-over-year, shown here in the previous 50% joint venture format. The above-mentioned developments drive our pre-consolidation record fiscal 2016 Q3 adjusted EBITDA results of 63.6 million, or 16.1%. The microboard 50% joint venture consolidation added an additional 7.8 million for a total reported adjusted EBITDA of $71.4 million, or 13.8%. Moving on to slide 13, we ended the quarter with $117 million in cash and reduced our debt by $5 million over the last year. This is after completing the microboard acquisition during this quarter and paying down all their debt at close. Despite this, our liquidity remains strong at $259 million at the end of fiscal 26 Q3. The operating cash flow was solid for Q3 at $31 million, driven by great operational execution and margins, partially offset by increases in working capital and finished goods inventory for GSA and fleets. On slide 14, we want to share with you our updated fiscal 26 forecast. Looking at our record Q3 results, we have beaten again our guidance this past quarter, so we had a very strong fiscal year to date. We continue to forecast a strong Q4 at approximately 14% adjusted EBITDA margins despite a small reduction in units sold versus the previous forecast. We are guiding total year revenue to the same midpoint and with a range of 1.74 to 1.76 billion and given our BTNQ3 we are raising our guidance for adjusted EBITDA to 247 million or approximately 14 percent with a range of 245 to 250 million. Moving to slide 15, in summary we are forecasting an improvement year over year to a new record with revenue up to approximately 1.75 billion adjusted EBDA in the range of 245 to 250 million or 14 percent and adjusted fee cash flow of 125 to 135 million in line with our typical target of approximately 50 percent of adjusted EBDA and after accounting for the extraordinary capex of up to 5 million as our 50% fiscal 26 portion of the new plant investment funded by a reconfirmed DOE MASC grant which is currently proceeding with the permitting phase. Moving on to slide 16 we wanted to remind you of our medium and long-term outlook after the microboard acquisition. Medium-term outlook was a 275 million adjusted EBITDA or 13.5%. Our long-term target was to generate EBITDA of 325 to 375 plus million or 14% to 15% plus. Moving on to slide 17, as John mentioned before, we announced earlier today that we have expanded our collaboration with Ford into the commercial strip chassis gas-powered segment. Starting in 2028, the next generation of the F53-F59 chassis will be designed, manufactured, and commercialized by Bluebird with Ford powertrain. This expands our addressable market into the core of the last-mile delivery segment, as well as class ARV segment. It represents an investment in 2027 of approximately $90 million for Bluebird, of which $50 million is capex. The manufacturing will begin in early 2028 in the current Detroit assembly plant of Detroit Chassis LLC, which Bluebird will acquire in 2027 in an asset deal after the end of production of the existing F53 and F59 products. This new segment is expected to grow for us to a level of approximately 10,000 units in 2030 and generate longer-term adjusted EBITDA of 100 million plus, or 14% to 15%. This collaboration replaces in the first step our previous planned entry into this segment with a 10 times higher potential. We are very excited about this opportunity as a further step on our profitable growth strategy. Moving on to slide 18, you can see our updated medium and long-term outlook post-work collaboration expansion. Starting with the short-term outlook, the pro forma results for 2026 and 27, including a full year of microboard consolidation, indicate approximately $2 billion in revenue and approximately $260 million of adjusted EBITDA, or 13%. This is before the non-capitalized portion of the Bluebird chassis investment from the expanded for collaboration, as well as exciting new product investments currently in the early stages of planning. we will provide full year and quarterly guidance for fiscal 27 in the next earnings course in terms of capital allocation we intend to refinance and expand our credit facility by the end of calendar year 2026 and maintain a leverage ratio under two times adjusted EBITDA and we continue to be opportunistic in share buybacks with approximately 90 million dollars remaining on the existing program. Moving to the right in time, what used to be our low and long-term target of $2.3 billion in revenue moved now closer into mid-term with $300 plus million in adjusted EBITDA. The long-term outlook is raised now to approximately $3 billion in revenue and $400 to $500 million plus in adjusted EBITDA or 14.5% to 15% plus. Now this is what we call profitable We continue to be incredibly excited about Bluebird's future, and now I will turn it back over to John. Thank you, Razvan.

Let's move on to slide 20. I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone of our long-term strategy, which consists of four elements and positions the company for the future. First, as an almost 100-year-old company, business continuity and long-term stability is a core element. This includes investing and updating our manufacturing facilities and products. A great example is our new assembly plan, which is planned to start production in late calendar year 2028 and our commitment to a highly competitive new bus design. Infrastructure and competitive products are an essential part of our plan. The next element is the theme that has been consistent in the last few years, profitable growth. Of course, the school bus market is projected to grow over the next few years and our new plant will allow us to capitalize on that. But for Bluebird, it also means expanding our total addressable market by entering new adjacencies. The Bluebird commercial strip chassis we announced today and the Microbird Buy America shuttle bus are great examples. Margin expansion is the next element. This area focuses on advancing competitiveness and cost reduction for bluebird this means continuing our industry 3.0 automation initiative but as well the new plant will allow for further factory the future opportunities including industry 4.0 initiatives and the last area is putting the balance sheet to work the microbird acquisition and the detroit chassis asset purchase are great examples of this and support our safe and accretive approach in this area. And even after these transactions, Bluebird continues to have a pristine balance sheet, strong liquidity, and solid cash flows. This will allow us to continue to be strategically opportunistic. Overall, we have a balanced strategy that positions the company for the future and delivers value to our shareholders. Let's turn to slide 21. The fundamentals for the school bus segment remain strong, as shown on the left side of the page. We are moving into the replacement cycle for the high volume period between 2017 and 2019. We know there is pent up demand remaining from the COVID period and there are still over 250,000 buses over 10 years old and funding remains stable for this market. All of this contributes to a strong ACT outlook of approximately 6% CAGR over the next several years but with the addition of micro bird earlier this year we now get the consolidation benefit of type a school bus and the growth associated with entering the buy america commercial shuttle bus market as shown on the right side of the page but adding today's big announcement for the commercial strip chassis market these combined moves increase your total addressable market by 150% on units and over 85% on dollars from just one year ago. These transactions represent our commitment to our strategy as we reshape Bluebird from a pioneer in the school bus industry to a growing player in the specialty vehicle market. I'll wrap it up on slide 22. This great company and iconic brand is almost 100 years old. It has stood the test of time and is positioned for the future we delivered outstanding results again in the third quarter of 2026 we continue to demonstrate credibility by delivering on our targets we are excited about the microbird acquisition made earlier this year and extremely excited about the ford collaboration in detroit chassis llc asset acquisition announced today these are significant components of our long-term strategy and will position us to be a growing player in the specialty vehicle market And looking ahead, our strategy, discipline, and demonstrated execution will set this company up for the future and deliver value to our shareholders. As always, I want to thank our employees, our dealer network, our supply partners, and of course our investors. All are critical for our success. I remain excited about Bluebird, and we continue to deliver great results and make significant progress in our longer-term strategy. This company is a great American story with such a rich history and an exciting future ahead. Thank you. So that concludes our formal presentation for today and I'd like to now hand it back to our moderator for the Q&A session.

We will now begin the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. we ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality if you are muted locally please remember to unmute your device please stand by while we compile the q a roster the first question comes from the line of eric stein with craig hallam your line is open hi everyone thanks for taking the questions eric hi eric hey um so we'd love to start with the uh the ford agreement um it certainly makes

a lot of sense what you're doing uh but just want to make sure i understand it so did you say that this kind of becomes your primary path forward um or should we view this in addition to the fact that you've got excess chassis capacity in Fort Valley and, you know, that you're kind of going on two paths?

Hi, Eric. It's John Weisgill. Yeah, for sure. It's our primary path. You know, there's a lot of engineering work here to get through. And this one, we really, you know, we look at this as a real solid agreement as we get to break into a market and catapult into it with cooperation with Ford. So we're excited.

Got it. And then in terms of the, you know, that excess chassis capacity that you have, is there something that, you know, you're, and maybe, you know, maybe it's just TBD, but that you're thinking about that that can be utilized for? Because I know that, you know, that has long been viewed as kind of an unrealized asset that could be put to work.

Yeah, we'll see down the road. i mean right now there's no immediate need with with what we've done with detroit uh chassis of course purchasing their assets down the road i mean there's some geography that could come into play but again it's not the immediate uh um not the immediate play we'll make okay um we're just on the follow-up uh is this you know so it starts in fiscal 28 um and i know that you talked about in fiscal 30 that you're thinking 10 000 units you know a little under half the addressable market.

Should we think about that as a bit of a ramp from the start to that $10,000? Or, and I guess you just talked about thinking you may hit the ground running.

So the, hi, Eric, this is Razvan. So the SOP is in the middle of the fiscal 28, thereabouts. So 2028 is a partial year as a ramp up. And then 2029, we also consider it as a ramp up year. but as you know us we are conservative so to the extent that we can accelerate the past to 10,000 we will but at this point we want to show a ramp to the 10,000 level and there is upside potential longer term above this 10,000 for sure.

Yeah and just another comment Eric I think you know this is largely a two-player market so we view that favorably obviously coming into this space and the cf-53 f-59 was hugely successful in this marketplace so us having the opportunity to take it over we think is a great opportunity yep got it okay thank you very much thank you the next question comes from the line of mike schlisky with da davidson your line is now open uh yes hi thank you and uh congratulations uh to follow up on those last the last question or two

there about Ford's strip chassis production. Over the last 10 years, they've actually averaged over 15,000 a year, and you're only saying 12,000. That's maybe what would be a full production in your slide here. I guess, is this just being conservative, or have you heard of any fleets that switched over, for example, Amazon going to the EV that they work on with Rivian or other folks just not using as many as they did, or is this just, you know, we'll see how it goes, but 12,000 is at least a large step of the way to full production.

Hi, Mark. This is Razvan. Yes, we are conservative, so there is room for higher numbers, but at this point, we want to have a conservative business case also for entering into the market, and we have to execute on it, grow it, and as you know, also, there is some cyclicality into this market. When you look at the RV business, that can have its ups and downs. And then also based on the large fleet acquisitions on the last mile delivery, you can also have some cyclicality. So look at this as our base case with upside potential from here.

Okay, great, great. You also mentioned that there'll be rapid net production in the first part very early 2027 it sounds like um over the last bunch of quarters they've been making a ton of these vehicles they rent up like 5x to what they were making at the trough of the cycle um but once the deal is completed i'm guessing that between now and then they're going to build a ton more of these and they can sell off them during the time when they stopped making them and you've started to ramp up and i'm not if i'm wrong correct me there but i guess once they stop producing them, who will be in charge of selling that inventory down through the 2028, 2029 wrap-up of the new model? And are you, as part of the purchase price, are part of the purchase buying all that inventory? Or is that going to be all still held by Ford until they're down to, you know, zero?

Yeah. No, hey, Mike, I'll clarify a couple points. So the current F53, F59 will be managed by ford motor company so they'll handle all of that they're going to work with detroit on the build out they'll have the inventory they'll manage everything we won't be involved with any of that part of the transaction where we step in is with the new design with the new engine that'll come out uh new engine comes out of course next year um and the chassis will come out with the new engine in 2028. So we're stepping in post Ford exiting and Ford will have all the responsibility with the current design.

Just so I'm clear, the next gen product will be roughly the same Dementin, it's just a different engine and roughly the same layout. So we have to do a lot of collaboration with the upfitters.

And then also, will you be able to do propane in this facility that comes from the Ford Roush you know system as well yeah great question so um first first part of the uh question yeah similar um dimensions obviously the same space uh class five and six so don't anticipate any changes there uh for sure there won't be any changes there there will be of course some integration changes with this because you have to accommodate the new engine it's got a wider bank for water cool jackets etc so there'll be things that we'll do um obviously to accommodate the power train and there'll be um there'll be a level of carryover as well of the current chassis um and then as far as propane initially we're going to get into gas i mean that's that's the whole announcement really is working with ford and with and of course the acquisition of detroit putting in the gas chassis in uh or redesigning and and launching the new gas chassis uh down the road we'll see what we do with propane but for sure there's a an opportunity there we have a great history with uh with roush and then as well um uh roush and ford and bluebird have worked together on the current propane so for sure it's a great opportunity down the road okay uh i'll hop back in the queue thank you thanks mike the next question comes from the

line of chris pierce with needham chris your line is open please go ahead hey guys how you doing tonight can we just shift back to the school bus market for a second i guess i just want to understand or i guess what are you hearing from distributors or distributors hearing from customers as you enter the fourth quarter giving you know get where gas prices where they are with you know I think you'd quoted Bluebird units down 7% in the third quarter, but I want to make sure that was the school bus also.

Yeah. This is Razvan. So, the year-over-year volumes were down, and this is because we had a relatively high number of finished goods inventory, so in Q3, we built a large number of GSA and fleet units, and this take a longer time until they are revenue recognized. So, we build the units, but they will be rev-req during Q4. And also, we will build some more of this in Q4, which will lead into fiscal 27. So, that's the 7% year-over-year explanation. In terms of the general backlog, our backlog is fairly stable. We are solid into Q4 right now, and obviously, we are taking order for next year at this point.

Okay, perfect. And then I think you, in the press release, I don't see a price paid for the transaction. I feel like you referenced an asset swap on the call. I just, I don't want to think about dilution.

No, there is a, it's in the 8K, the asset acquisition is $7 million with cash. There is no dilution.

Okay. So you're acquiring the manufacturer facility for $7 million?

Yes. The assets. Yes. In Detroit.

Okay.

And then can you just talk about- There's no other exchange with Ford directly in this, in terms of the entering the segment. It's not an M&A transaction.

But to your point, Chris, it is a pretty low cost entry into the space.

In terms of M&A perspective, but it's a $90 million investment. understood so under 100 million dollars at this point time it looks like versus for something that could generate 70 million in adjusted EBITDA in 2030 based on slide 1917 that's right you got okay and then can you just can you just last for me just kind of talk about it being a two-player market kind of like how should we think about you know is it similar to the school bus market where you've got sort of a very warm handoff to customer orders and like i'm just kind of thinking what could go wrong or what I'm not thinking about some sort of a known unknown where this doesn't just sort of become, I'm assuming the end customer doesn't technically care what chassis they have. They just want their vehicle. So, I just want to make sure I'm thinking about the market correctly.

Yeah. I mean, look, it's a two-player market. I think you know Ford's history in this space. They've been very successful with the gas chassis and on the RV side in particular. I think they practically own the market in this space. So the carryover we think is a great opportunity. Now, the other part of this agreement is we will work with Ford Pro on continuity of the customer base. So that's with the fleets, the bodybuilders, the RV manufacturers, all of that. Ford and Bluebird will work hand in hand. And we think that mitigates risk. We also think it gives us a great opportunity coming into the market and not having a lag. So we think from our perspective, it's a lot of risk mitigated and really, I think, should catapult us into this space pretty well.

And that was actually trying to kind of squeeze your way in with your own chassis. Is that fair to say? Like this is a pivot?

Oh, we got a fire alarm went off. We got a little bit of noise in the back. Even the fire alarms are excited about this transaction. Look, we were working on our chassis, but simultaneously we were working with Ford on this opportunity. And when things started to heat up and got a lot closer, of course, we took the Ford path to bring this to market.

Chris, as I said in my remarks, this is a 10 times bigger opportunity to enter the segment. So we had to pivot, take this one, and then we will come back to the propane and also EV later on as the market develops that way as well.

I get it. No, that makes sense. That all makes sense. Thank you for the detail, and good luck with all of this. Talk to you in a little bit. Thank you. Thanks, Chris.

The next question comes from the line of Ben Summers with U.S. Ben, your line is now open.

Hey, good afternoon. and thanks for taking my questions and congrats on all the progress so just curious kind of you guys mentioned you know some read across or read throughs to the bus market just kind of curious on on where you see that and potentially any more color on the synergy you potentially expect with the new forward collaboration yeah for sure i'll talk a little bit about that look i think um you know one of the one of the areas for sure that'll be an opportunity for read across will be the EE architecture.

And then you also get things like ADAS that will read across. And there's going to be likely legislation in the school bus market down the road in the near future for ADAS as well. So we see those things as read across. Additionally, we see in terms of the scalability, some real opportunities there. We're in the position Right now, we're redesigning the next generation bus. We're redesigning or designing this current chassis. And I think that brings almost like building blocks of opportunities down the road that we can scale this thing into other vehicle opportunities or other body opportunities. So lots of, I think lots of exciting things, you know, down the road. First step is launch, of course, to be able to get this gas chassis to market, but good things to come down the road for sure.

Super helpful. then back to the school bus market. So I think in the past, you guys have said something around like 3,000 to 4,000 units in the backlog is kind of that sweet spot. I know if we net out the MicroBird units in the backlog, that's kind of where we sit today. So I guess kind of curious about how we think about, you know, that target backlog range now with MicroBird integrated into the platform.

Yeah, so definitely we have to look at both of them combined. For MicroBird, the backlog between 1000 to 1500 units it's something that we like to see but their backlog is a lot more seasonal than our bus backlog has been for the the last couple of years so as we work together we will you know determine the desired levels of backlog based on seasonality right now for the type c and d our backlog is fairly stable it's around 3 500 units or so and we like to keep it that way. For us, the lower end is about 3,000, which is the point where it could get a bit more challenging to work with the supply chain on lead times. But you have to remember we worked pre-COVID with 1,500 units backlog or under 2,000. So it can be done. It's just a matter of setting the appropriate supply chain expectations right as well. So overall, we feel good about our backlog and we are executing now on Q4 and working to bring this fiscal year to a strong end.

Super helpful. Thank you for taking my questions.

Of course.

The next question comes from the line of Mike Schlisky with DA Davidson. Mike, your line is open.

Mike, we like this. You can't get enough of this announcement, which we really appreciate.

Well, there's two topics here. There's the Ford and there's also the Core Bluebird. And I wanted to ask a couple of questions here about the core Bluebird business. I guess, first, a little bit more about the $10,000 average ASP increase in the core in the Bluebird C&D business. How much of that, without being on the cockpit, how much of that was a mix of EV? How much of it was just inflation? How much of it was features and other things? Just Just a little more, you know, detail there.

Yeah, the majority is year-over-year price increases. There are some increased tariff recovery elements in that, and there is also a bit of EV mix. So, those are the three main elements. We're not going to split them up in more details right now.

Okay. Okay, fair enough. And then I know it's only August here and orders don't even really heat up for well over a quarter, if not more than that. Any thoughts what you're hearing from your major dealers or large school districts about their plans to buy buses in the coming school year?

Yeah, I mean, we're coming into our business planning process now, so we're looking at the order book for next year. But look, a couple things remain the same. The fundamentals are all there. You have an aging fleet. Over 250,000 of these buses are greater than 10 years old. We're coming into our placement cycle. The average volume between 2017 and 2019 was 36,000 units a year. Those buses are coming up for replacement. And then during the COVID period, there was pent-up demand. So I think from our perspective, when we look at that, we have great fundamentals there. and the funding is still there as well from property taxes. So overall, I think coming into the business plan and as we start to prepare for next year, we believe things should be fairly solid coming into the next season.

Okay, I will leave it there. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Mike.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to John Weiskel for closing remarks.

Thanks, Piercy, and thanks to each of you for joining us on the call today. just a quick announcement before i wrap up earlier today we were notified by the georgia chamber of commerce that bluebird's vision electric school bus won the coolest thing made in georgia contest the coolest thing made in georgia contest is a program designed to celebrate and showcase the great state of georgia's outstanding innovation and craftsmanship bluebird is a pioneer and a leader in the ev space and i think this award is a recognition of amazing work and success of the team. So congratulations, rather, to the entire Bluebird team. So back to the wrap-up. Bluebird has delivered great results for Q3 2026, beating expectations and raising our guidance. We also continue to deliver exciting announcements on new opportunities like the Microbird acquisition and the Ford Commercial Strip Chassis collaboration announced today. With the fundamentals of the industry and the key elements of our strategy, I remain enthusiastic for Bluebird and its future, and we look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter. Should you have any follow-up questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Head of Investor Relations, Mark Benfield. Bluebird continues to be stronger than ever and has an amazing future ahead as we approach our 100-year anniversary next year. Thanks again from all of us at Bluebird, and have a great evening.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.