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Earnings call · FY2026 Q1
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Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by and welcome to the New Technologies First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. As a reminder, we are recording today's call. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Now, I will turn the call over to Ms. Crystal Lee, Investor Relations Manager of New Technologies. Ms. Lee, please go ahead.
Thank you, operator, and hello, everyone. Welcome to today's conference call to discuss new technologies results for the first quarter of 2026. The earnings press release, corporate presentation, and financial spreadsheets has been posted on our Investor Relations website. This call is being webcast from company's IR sites as well, and a replay of the call will be available soon. Please note, today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the Safe Harbor Prevolution of the U.S. Private Security Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors. The company's actual results may be materially different from those expressed today. Further information regarding the risk factors is included in company's public drawings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law. Our earnings press release in this call include a discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures. The press release contain the definition of non-GAAP financial measures and the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results. On the call with me today are CEO Dr. Yan Li and CFO Ms. Dian Zhou. Now let me turn the call over to CEO Yan.
Thank you, Crystal. Thank you for joining our first quarter 2026 results call. The first quarter of 2026 was a period of high-quality execution and strategic resilience within a complex regulatory environment. The total sales volume reached 261,000 units, representing a robust 28.7% year-over-year increase. Revenue for the quarter reached RMB 909.52 million, up 33.4% euro a year. In China, the sales volume increased 35.4% to nearly 248,000 units. This growth was powered by a major structural bridge during our electric motorcycle segment, which successfully offset a temporary contraction in the electric bicycle market as the new national standard took full effect. Overseas, the sales of 13,686 units reflected a 32.4% decline. This remains a planned result of our ongoing channel structure optimization and discipline inventory management. We're staying completely focused on our core objective, prioritizing healthy retail sales group and long-term profitability over a short-term shift and boil. Now, let me walk through our China overseas operation in more detail. In China, our first quarter sales volume reached a 247,938 units, a 35.4% increase year-over-year. While this growth is robust, internal data reveals a significant positive structural evolution of our brand. To end this quarter, we must look at a divergence between two product categories. First, in the electric motorcycle category, the segment surged by a stagnant 3x year-over-year increase. Using our momentum that began in Q4 last year with our windstorm product line, we further accelerate our growth in the electric motorcycle market, expanding our footprint directly into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. This is no longer just a temporary trend. It's a definitive market breakthrough proving new ability to rapid scale and capture the meaningful volume in the segment. In the electric bicycle segment, the sales has stopped. This was fully anticipated as the market would be a transitional winning period as the new standard rolling on last December. We're managing this period deliberately by rolling on our new product lines in a phase approach, ensuring we're a perfect position to capture the high quality volume as consumer demand returns. Now, this shift has fundamentally redefined our geographic footprint as well. Historically, new has been perceived as Tier 1 CD brand with the market represents 60% of sales. In Q1, we saw the Tier 1, the new Tier 1 CD softens, where the Tier 2 and Tier 3 CDs grow at a faster pace due by the rapid adoption of electric motorcycle. This represents a massive strategic milestone, improves new brand equity, successful scaling beyond the urban elites and penetrating the broader mass premium China market. Now, this ship has set a powerful foundation for 2026. By breaking through the lower tier motorcycle market, we have added a new growth engine. When the electric motorcycle market inevitably recovers, our total growth will rebound with double the force. To ensure we're the first to capture that recovery, we made deliberate strategic extension to front load our investment in branding, R&D, and the new product launching Q1. Now, in branding and marketing, recognizing 2026 is a pivotal year for our brand's revolution, we made a proactive decision to fund the law of marketing investment in this quarter. We chose to capture the consumer line share ahead of the curve by building a massive brand awareness in Q1. We had the insurance as the new national standard position stabilized new and small position to capture the unmet demand. In Q1, we executed three major saturation First, our two global ambassador strategy in late January, we officially announced Wu Lei and Sun Yi Qi as Miu's two global brand ambassadors, the first strategy of this kind in our industry. Wu Lei's image as a high-performance outdoor enthusiast resonates with our corporate users, while Sun Yi Qi significantly extended our reach among Gen Z female audiences. This campaign was activated across 40-plus cities and 80-plus global landmarks, generating an unprecedented 3.4 billion impression. Second, our student festival saturation campaign was capitalized on the highest-frequency travel period in China, a large-scale offline campaign across 37 cities, 42 transportation crops, and nearly 3,000 cinemas. This generated over 400 million impressions firmly embedded the message between smart equals new in the mind of travelers. Third, the 2026 technology launch event. On March 17th, we unveiled our next generation of AI mobility strategy. This event was not just a product review, but also repositioning you as a technology leader in the AI era. With over 130 media outlets and 460 million impressions, we had redefined what smart presenters can be. Now, those intensive branding activities led to a 4X plus year-to-year increase in the marketing expense for Q1. So this was the one-time front-loading of our ironing budget. Historically, the first quarter has seen a lower marketing expense due to a seasonal retail trend. However, we choose to strategically shift our marketing rates in Q1 this year to ignite the brand momentum for the entire fiscal year. Now, as we move into Q2 and BEM, you will see that our marketing to revenue ratio normalized. We have already established deep-brand equity as far to drive our 2026 close target. Now, we're transitioning directly from this investment phase to execution and harvest phase. Now, in some R&D technology, the technology and continuous innovation remain core to new long-term strategy as they are fundamental to our ability to compete far beyond simple pricing and basic hardware specifications. Our primary technology focus this year is to bring the power of AI to the electric two-wheeler industry during three major development areas. The AI operating system, intelligent and chester system, and intelligent writing technology. First on the newest AIOS, launch of March 17th events, the new AIOS is our cornerstone to redefining the next era of intelligent writing as the industry's first mass-produced AI dashboard system. It represents technological milestones integrating AI enabled voice assistant with high performance automotive grade operating system. The second is the intelligent chassis platform also introduced our next generation intelligent chassis platform. This platform is engineered to integrate advanced safety and performance system including ABS, TPS, continuous damping control, battery management system and lighting system into a single unified vehicle-level architecture. Based on this platform, we aim to introduce several industry first features for mass-produced two-wheelers such as adaptive driving beam AI headlights and adaptive PC suspension. And lastly, through a strategic partnership with the leading automotive-grade technology companies, we're bringing an advanced rider-assisted functionality to the two-wheeler segment. This includes integrating cutting-edge hardware like advanced visual recognition systems and the high-performance processing chips. Supported directly by those core technologies, we launched the industry's first AI-enabled electric bicycle, the NX-T2 Ultra as our flagship model. Talking about our product matrix, our product strategy in Q1 with CLEAR is driving an aggressive growth in the electric motorcycle segment while building a dominant portfolio for the the electric bicycle recovery. First, to lead the electric bicycle transition, we launched the NX-T2 series priced from R&D 5299 to R&D 12,999. The flagship NX-T2 Ultra is the industry's first AI-powered e-bicycles, featuring our AIOS with two-channel ABS and millimeter wave radar. This isn't just a bike, it's a statement that's used on the high-end market. Second, we expand our total addressable market with the Y-Series. We officially enter the email mobility segment with the Y-Series endorsed by our Ambassador Song Yuqi at a competitive RMB 3,000 to 4,000 price point. And third, the NX Marathon, our new volume engine. To capitalize our 3X growth in the electric motorcycle market, we launched the NX Marathon at a RMB 6,499. This model target a long-range family commuters offers a 146-kilometer drive range of flagship features such as magical at a mainstream price point. The market expense was immediate. Within just five hours of launch, the NX Marathon generated over RMD 91 million in sales, ranking the number one cross-major e-commerce platform. This performance proves our hero product strategy is working. In Q1, we continued to strengthen both the offline retail sales and online ecosystem operations. In terms of online channels, we delivered another stand-up order. The online sales increased by 53%, accounting for approximately 46% of domestic retail sales, demonstrating a continuous strength of our online to offline operation model. Also on Douyin, we conduct more than 32,000 live streams, generating over 370 million impressions. We also continue to expand on Quai Shua, Meituan, and Father Graden our digital retail coverage. Now, turning to our international operations, we are navigating a deliberate structural transition to prioritize the healthy fundamentals. Our high-margin electrical motorcycle business remains a strategic priority and is showing a strong momentum, shipment reached more than 2,000 units and 29% year-over-year increase. Our European dealer now expanded from 307 to 360 active locations this quarter. Now, in the micro-mobility segment, the international sales was down 37% year-over-year. First, this is regarding the channel distribution structure. During the first quarter, we complete a major structural shift to a linear distribution model in our key market like Germany and US. This critical action allows us to significantly minimize the ongoing channel operation expenses. Consequently, Q1 served as a transition phase where the major retail partners such as Best Buy in the United States and the Media Mart in Germany focus primarily on sell-out of their existing retail inventories. The fresh stock-up period under the new distribution model is only in the beginning now in Q2. Secondly, reflecting on our current inventory positions, we are holding an elevated volume of micro-mobility inventors in Europe and the United States stemming from lower-than-anticipated sales in 2025. Our primary mandate for the remainder of 2026 is clear is to accelerate unit sales volume and aggressively reduce the inventory back-up factoring lean and healthy baseline. To execute this inventory clearance swiftly and protect against long-term operation drag, we're implementing targeted price promotion throughout the rest of year, especially on older model products. So those efforts will depress our micro-mobility contribution margins throughout the year. While this discounting strategy presents a short-term headline to our possibility matrix, it is necessary to bring our global micro-mobility operation back to a clean, optimized, and highly stable foundation for the close of 2026. Looking ahead, we will continue executing our strategy with a focus on sustainable and quality-driven growth. In China, we expect the electric bicycle market will recover gradually throughout Q2. We are taking a cautious view to lead this market where we are executing a phase-out rollout of our full-comparned product mix anchored by the NX-T2 and the Y-Series. Those position us with a comprehensive premium line-up ahead of a critical tune in the Q3 selling season. Meanwhile, our electric motorcycle category will continue to be our primary growth engine. We have additional models targeting female riders and technology enthusiasts plan for Q2 in the second half of the year. And the upcoming 618 shopping festival will be the first major retail test of those expanded portfolios. Overseas our direct-to-retail strategy in the electric motorcycles is gaining speed, we expect our dealer comes to surpass 400 locations by the year-end, supporting both volume growth and improved probability. In the micro-mobility, as I detailed moments ago, our absolute operation priority for the remainder of 2026 is to aggressive inventory normalization and maximizing retail sales. We expect our linear operate channel transition to finalize throughout first half of this year with our broad and promotional experience and inventory normalization largely conclude by the second half of 2026. So in summary we have used the first quarter to do the heavy lifting required for a transformative year. By front-loading our marketing, investing deeply in our AI technology roadmap and diversifying our product portfolios and clean up our global channels, we have moved beyond the transition phase. We believe those strategic actions have laid a solid foundation to drive sustainable and high-quality growth in Q2, and will serve as a catalyst to accelerate growth in the latter half of the year. We're confident in our path and focused on execution. Now I'll turn it over to our CFO, Fian Zhou, to talk about the financials.
Thank you, Yan. Hello, everyone. Please note that our press release contains all the figures and comparisons you need, and we have also uploaded Excel format figures to our IR website for your easy reference. As I review our financial results, I'm referring the first quarter figures unless I say otherwise, and all monetary figures are in R&D if not specified. As Yan just mentioned, our total sales volume for the first quarter was 262,000 units, up 29% compared to the same period of last year. 248,000 units were sold in China, while the remaining 14,000 units sold overseas. Over 60% of our sales volume in China came from the top three best sellers. The total revenue for the first quarter amounted to $910 million, an increase of $228 million or 33% compared to the same period of last year. China revenue were $854 million, accounting for 94% of the total revenue of this the scooter revenue was 774 million a year over year increase of 42% and this growth was primarily driven by a sales volume and a improvement in the revenue per eScooters. China's scooter ESP were RMD 3,120 up nearly 5% year-over-year. While the overseas revenue were $56 million, representing a 6% of the total revenue. The scooter revenue including electronic motorcycles, mopeds, kick scooters, and e-bikes amounted to $51 million, down from $60 million in the same period of last year. And this decline was driven by the lower sales volume and reduced the revenue per kick scooters, partially offset by a higher revenue per electronic motorcycle and mopeds, which command a higher retail prices. The sales volume in the international market shifted in favor of the electronic motorcycle and moped category. The premium pricing of this product further contributed to a year-over-year increase in the ASP of overseas scooters which rose from RMB 2,962 to RMB 3,716. The revenue from accessories spare parts and services was 85 million a 13 percent increase compared to the century of last year many driven by the higher revenue from new services and the gross profit for this quarter is 159 million marking a significant improvement compared to 118 million during the same period of last year. The growth margin was 17.4%, 0.1 ppt higher compared to the same period of last year and 2.1 ppt higher than the previous quarter. The domestic growth margin improved due to a favorable high margin product mix, which boosted an overall growth margin by two PPTs. However, these gains were offset by a 1.9 PPTs dragged from the lower kickholders margin. The operating expenses for the first quarter was $264 million, increased $99 million or 60% compared to the same period of last year. The OPEX ratio was 29% compared from the 24.2% in the same period of last year, but down from 30.5% in the last quarter. Selling and marketing expenses rose by $65 million year-over-year to $180 million, primarily driven by the intensified marketing initiatives in domestic market during the holiday season, as well as a higher depreciation and optimization expenses and staff cost. Design and marketing expenses accounted for 19.8% of revenue, up from 16.8% in the same period of last year, but down from 21.3% in last quarter. R&D expenses increased by $12 million year-over-year to $41 million, primarily due to an increase in design and testing costs, as well as the staff costs. The R&D expense is representing 4.5% of revenue compared to 4.4% in the same period of last year, but down from 7.3% in last quarter. G&A expenses increased by $22 million year-over-year to $42 million, largely driven by an increase from foreign currency exchange losses. The G&A expenses constitute 4.7% of revenue, up from 3% in the same period of last year and 1.8% in last quarter. Excluding the impact of foreign currency exchanges, the G&A expenses were $23 million compared to $30 million in the same period of last year. In the first quarter, we had a net loss of 94 million with a net loss margin of 10.3% on the GAAP accounting compared to a net loss of 39 million with a net loss margin of 5.7% for the century of last year. And the non-GAAP net loss was 88 million with a non-GAAP net loss margin of 9.7%. Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow, we ended this quarter with R&B 1.4 billion, remained flat compared to the end of last year in cash, restricted cash, firm deposits, and short-term investments. Our operating cash inflow amounted to 131 million. CapEx for the first quarter amounted to $70 million, reflecting an increase of $46 million compared to the century of last year. And this can be primarily attributed to an increase in opening of new stores and marginal costs in China. And now let's turn to guidance. We expected the second quarter revenue in the range to be in the range of RMB 1.57 billion to 1.82 billion. an increase of 25% to 45% year-over-year. Please be aware that this outlook is based on the information available as of the date and reflects the company's current and preliminary expectations, which is subject to change due to uncertainties relating to various factors. And with that, let's now open the call for any questions that you may have for us. Operator, please go ahead.
Thank you. To ask a question, you will need to press star 1 and 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A queue. Once again, that's star 1 and 1 on your telephone to register a question and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 and 1 again. No questions in the queue. Let me turn the call back to Mr. Lee for closing remarks.
Thank you, operator, and thank you all for participating on today's call and for your support. We appreciate your interest and look forward to reporting to you again next quarter on our progress. Thank you.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Speakers, please stand by.