8-K

PHOENIX MOTOR INC. (PEVM)

8-K 2023-05-18 For: 2023-05-15
View Original
Added on April 06, 2026

United States

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 8-K

Current Report

Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the

Securities Exchange Act of 1934

May 15, 2023

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported)

Phoenix Motor Inc.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

Delaware 001-41414 85-4319789
(State or other jurisdiction of<br><br> incorporation) (Commission File Number) (I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
1500 Lakeview Loop<br><br> <br>Anaheim, CA 92807
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(Address of Principal Executive Offices) (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:

(909) 987-0815


N/A

(Former name or former address, if changed since last report)

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:

¨ Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act
¨ Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act
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¨ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act
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¨ Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act
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Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, par value $0.0004 per share PEV NASDAQ Capital Market
x Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (§240.12b-2 of this chapter).
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¨ If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.
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Item 2.02 Resultsof Operations and Financial Condition.

On May 15, 2023, Phoenix Motor Inc., a Delaware corporation (the “Company”), issued a press release announcing the Company’s financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2023. A copy of this press release is furnished as Exhibit 99.1 and is incorporated herein by reference.

A copy of the earnings release conference call transcript, dated May 15, 2023, reporting the Company's financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, is furnished as Exhibit 99.2 and is incorporated herein by reference.

The information in this Current Report on Form 8-K (including Exhibits 99.1 and 99.2 attached hereto) is being furnished and shall not be deemed “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or otherwise subject to the liabilities of that section, nor shall it be deemed incorporated by reference into any filing by the Company, under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, except as expressly set forth by specific reference in such filing.

Forward-Looking Statement

The earnings release conference call script contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. When the Company uses words such as “may,” “will,” “intend,” “should,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate” or similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters, it is making forward-looking statements.  No assurance can be given that the net proceeds of the Offering will be used as indicated. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the following:  the Company’s ability to convert concept trucks and vans into production and sales; the Company’s product development timeline and expected start of production; development of competitive trucks and vans manufactured and sold by the Company’s competitors and major industry vehicle companies; the Company’s ability to scale in a cost-effective manner; the Company’s future capital requirements and sources and uses of cash; the Company’s ability to obtain funding for its future operations; the Company’s financial and business performance; changes in the Company’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; the implementation, market acceptance and success of its business model; expectations regarding the Company’s ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection and not infringe on the rights of others; and other risks contained in the Company’s definitive Rule 424(b)(4) initial public offering prospectus on Form S-1 dated June 9, 2022, the Company’s definitive Rule 424(b)(3 definitive prospectus on Form S-1 dated December 20, 2022 and other reports filed by the Company with the SEC.  For these reasons, among others, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements in the earnings release conference call transcript. Additional factors are discussed in the Company’s filings with the SEC, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company's registration statements and other reports, which are available for review at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof.

Item9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.

(d) Exhibits

Exhibit No. Description
99.1 Press Release dated May 15, 2023 issued by Phoenix Motor Inc.
99.2 Earnings Conference Call<br>Transcript
104 Cover Page Interactive Data File (embedded within the Inline XBRL document)

SIGNATURE

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

PHOENIX MOTOR INC.
Dated: May 17, 2023
By: /s/ Chris Wang
Name: Chris Wang
Title: Chief Financial Officer

Exhibit 99.1

Phoenix Motor Inc. Announces First Quarter2023 Financial Results


Anaheim, California (May 15, 2023) – Phoenix Motor Inc. (Nasdaq: PEV) (“Company” or “Phoenix”), a leader in manufacturing of all-electric, medium-duty vehicles, today reported financial and operational results for the first quarter of 2023.

First Quarter 2023 Financial Highlights

· Net<br> revenues increased 165.4% to $1.8 million, compared to $0.7 million in Q1 2022, driven by<br> a significant increase in the number of delivered EV units.
· Gross<br> profits increased 44.1% to $0.2 million, compared to $0.1 million in Q1 2022.
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· Net<br> loss was $2.8 million, compared to net loss of $2.3 million in Q1 2022.
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Recent Company Highlights

· In<br> May, Phoenix debuted its ‘Phoenix Exchange’ swappable battery system, which offers<br> the ability to ‘swap’ a 90-kWh battery for another fully charged battery in under<br> one minute. This technology provides “unlimited mile range” for active fleets<br> and last mile delivery.
· Phoenix<br> and Matthews Specialty Vehicles signed a Memorandum of Understanding in March, to<br> jointly build and deploy Class 4 electric specialty vehicles for commercial applications.
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· Phoenix<br> announced in March, that it is now a qualified manufacturer for the commercial clean vehicle<br> credit under the Inflation Reduction Act.
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· In<br> January, Phoenix and Fermata Energy announced the signing of an Equipment Testing Agreement,<br> to pair Fermata’s V2X bidirectional chargers and AI-driven software platforms with<br> Phoenix’s zero emission drive systems.
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“The commencement of production and deliveries of our fourth-generation vehicles during the summer of 2023, is expected to be an exciting milestone for Phoenix,” the Company’s CEO, Dr. Lance Zhou commented. “We are executing on time and on budget and have built a strong order book for our Gen 4 vehicles. Our latest vehicle development provides a number of advantages compared with prior generations, such as lower costs and the ability to achieve mass production and is the bridge to our Gen 5 ground-up chassis vehicles, which will enable the Company to achieve chassis independence, and is expected to begin production and sales during 2024.”


Start of Production of Gen 4 Vehicles thisSummer

Phoenix remains on target to achieve SOP (start of production) of its fourth-generation vehicles for the medium-duty EV market, during this summer. The Gen 4 development will provide several advantages versus our current Gen 3 models, specifically:

· Asset Light Business Model: Gen 4 will mark the deployment of the Company’s “asset<br> light” business model both upstream and downstream. Upstream, Phoenix will leverage<br> its strategic partnerships with R&D partners and engineering suppliers to more efficiently<br> and quickly develop its product line. Downstream, Phoenix is partnering with both customers<br> and third party manufacturers to develop manufacturing and assembly facilities at strategic<br> locations around the country.
· Scale: The Company anticipates efficient scaling of its production, utilizing customer and third-party<br> assembly facilities. Phoenix is reconfiguring its current Anaheim manufacturing facility<br> to increase production capacity and to utilize it as a showcase facility and training center<br> to ensure its processes and procedures are standardized across its entire partner-operated<br> production network.
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· Reduced Costs: Gen 4 is expected to achieve lower production and materials costs compared to<br> Gen 3 vehicles, benefiting from standardization of processes and procedures, as well as components<br> and sub-assemblies—a benefit which will carry over to Gen 5 production as well.
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· Battery Supply: The Company expects it will benefit from its recent partnership with CATL for<br> the long-term strategic supply of K-Packs and related products for its Gen 4 electric vehicles.
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Gen 5 Will Offer Chassis Independence in 2024

Design, development and production planning for Phoenix’s Gen 5 vehicles will leverage on Phoenix’s experience and benefit from the development of its Gen 4 line of vehicles. Unique highlights of Gen 5 are expected to include:

· Ground-up Chassis Design: The Company will be producing its own ground up, purpose-built chassis<br> in 2024.
· Chassis Independence: The development of Gen 5 will provide Phoenix with chassis independence,<br> overcoming one of the major impediments facing the industry.
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· Lower Costs: Phoenix should be able to produce its chassis for far less than the cost it is<br> paying to acquire chassis today.
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· Increased Design Flexibility and Customer Satisfaction: Phoenix’s ground up chassis will<br> enable it to customize vehicle designs to meet specialized needs, while maintaining standardized<br> processes and procedures, increasing the Company’s capacity to accommodate customer<br> requirements and meet the evolving needs of the transforming electric vehicle market.
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Conference Call Information

Phoenix Motor will host a conference call today at 5:00 PM ET to discuss these results. Interested investors and other parties may access a live webcast of the conference call which will be available on the Events and Presentations page on the Investor Relations section of Phoenix’s website at https://phoenixmotorcars.com/investor-relations/events-and-presentations/default.aspx. The call can also be accessed live via telephone by dialing (888) 660-6373 or for international callers (929) 203-1975 and referencing Phoenix Motorcars.

An archive of the webcast will be available after the call on the Events and Presentations page on the Investor Relations section of Phoenix’s website, along with Company’s earnings press release.



About Phoenix Motor Inc.

Phoenix Motor Inc., a pioneer in the electric vehicle (“EV”) industry, designs, builds, and integrates electric drive systems and light and medium duty EVs and sells electric forklifts and electric vehicle chargers for the commercial and residential markets. Phoenix operates two primary brands, “Phoenix Motorcars”, which is focused on commercial products including medium duty EVs (shuttle buses, school buses, municipal transit vehicles and delivery trucks, among others), electric vehicle chargers and electric forklifts, and “EdisonFuture”, which intends to offer light-duty EVs. Phoenix endeavors to be a leading designer, developer and manufacturer of electric vehicles and electric vehicle technologies. For more information, please visit: www.phoenixmotorcars.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. When the Company uses words such as “may,” “will,” “intend,” “should,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “project,” “estimate” or similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters, it is making forward-looking statements. No assurance can be given that the net proceeds of the Offering will be used as indicated. Forward-looking statements are no guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially from the Company’s expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the following: the Company’s ability to convert concept trucks and vans into production and sales; the Company’s product development timeline and expected start of production; development of competitive trucks and vans manufactured and sold by the Company’s competitors and major industry vehicle companies; the Company’s ability to scale in a cost-effective manner; the Company’s future capital requirements and sources and uses of cash; the Company’s ability to obtain funding for its future operations; the Company’s financial and business performance; changes in the Company’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans; the implementation, market acceptance and success of its business model; expectations regarding the Company’s ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection and not infringe on the rights of others; and other risks contained in the Offering prospectus and reports filed by the Company with the SEC. For these reasons, among others, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional factors are discussed in the Company’s filings with the SEC, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company's registration statement and Offering prospectus, which are available for review at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof.


Investor Relations Contacts:

Mark Hastings, Senior Vice President & Head of Investor Relations

PhoenixIR@icrinc.com

PHOENIX MOTOR INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

(In thousands, except for share and per sharedata)


December 31, <br> 2022
(Unaudited)
ASSETS
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents 133 $ 139
Accounts receivable, net 1,525 1,510
Inventories 3,522 4,560
Prepaid expenses and other current assets 1,224 1,344
Amount due from a related party 168 168
Total current assets 6,572 7,721
Restricted cash, noncurrent 250 250
Property and equipment, net 2,306 2,492
Security deposit 208 208
Right-of-use assets 3,611 3,797
Net investment in leases 217
Intangible assets, net 1,549 1,704
Goodwill 4,271 4,271
Total assets 18,984 $ 20,443
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable 1,475 $ 1,359
Accrued liabilities 557 650
Advance from customers 1,452 1,230
Deferred income 493 503
Warranty reserve 322 325
Lease liabilities - current portion 740 719
Long-term borrowing, current portion 3 3
Total current liabilities 5,042 4,789
Lease liabilities - non-current portion 3,031 3,225
Long-term borrowings 144 147
Total liabilities 8,217 8,161
Commitments and contingencies (Note 10)
Equity:
Common stocks, par 0.0004, 450,000,000 shares authorized, 21,181,924 and 20,277,046 shares issued and outstanding as of March 31, 2023, and December 31, 2022, respectively* 8 8
Additional paid-in capital 42,099 40,836
Accumulated deficit (31,340 ) (28,562 )
Total stockholders’ equity 10,767 12,282
Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity 18,984 $ 20,443

All values are in US Dollars.

* The shares are presented on a retrospective basis to reflect the Company’s<br> stock split (Note 7)

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these condensedconsolidated financial statements.

PHOENIX MOTOR INC.

UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTSOF OPERATIONS

(In thousands, except for share and per sharedata)


Three months ended Three months ended
March 31, 2023 March 31, 2022
Net revenues $ 1,781 $ 671
Cost of revenues 1,608 551
Gross profit: 173 120
Operating expenses:
Selling, general and administrative 3,846 3,023
Operating loss (3,673 ) (2,903 )
Other income (expense):
Interest income (expense), net 1 (2 )
Gain on sales-type leases 99
Others 795 585
Total other income, net 895 583
Loss before income taxes (2,778 ) (2,320 )
Income tax provision (2 )
Net loss $ (2,778 ) $ (2,322 )
Net loss per share of common stock:
Basic and Diluted $ (0.13 ) (0.13 )
Weighted average shares outstanding* 20,823,622 17,500,000
* The shares are presented on a retrospective basis to reflect the Company’s<br> stock split (Note 7)
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The accompanying notes are an integral partof these unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

PHOENIX MOTOR INC.

UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTSOF CASH FLOWS

(In thousands)


Three Month ended March 31,
2023 2022
Cash flows from operating activities:
Net loss (2,778 ) (2,322 )
Adjustments to reconcile net loss to cash used in operating activities:
Depreciation and amortization 355 427
Gain on sales-type leases (99 )
Reversal of doubtful accounts (25 )
Provision for inventories 80
Forgiveness of PPP loan (586 )
Stock-based compensation expenses 109 63
Warranty reserve (3 ) (6 )
Amortization of right-of-use assets 280
Changes in operating assets and liabilities:
Accounts receivable 10 345
Inventories 795 (442 )
Prepaid expenses and other assets 222 (253 )
Accounts payable 116 442
Accrued liabilities (93 ) (169 )
Deferred revenue (10 ) (157 )
Advance from customers 222 50
Lease liabilities (267 )
Amount due from a related party (84 )
Net cash used in operating activities (1,086 ) (2,692 )
Cash flows from investing activities:
Purchase of property and equipment (71 )
Net cash used in investing activities (71 )
Cash flows from financing activities:
Repayment of borrowings (3 ) (3 )
Proceeds from related party 78
Proceeds received from standby equity purchase agreement 1,154
Net cash generated from financing activities 1,151 75
Decrease in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash (6 ) (2,617 )
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at beginning of the period 389 2,683
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of the period 383 66
Reconciliation of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash to the consolidated balance sheets
Cash and cash equivalents 133 66
Restricted cash 250
Total cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash 383 66
Supplemental cash flow information:
Income tax paid 6
Non-cash investing activities:
Inventories transferred to property and equipment 163 35

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these unauditedcondensed consolidated financial statements.

Exhibit 99.2

Transcript: 1Q 2023 Earnings Call

May 15, 2023


Operator

Welcome to the first quarter 2023 Phoenix Motors Inc. earnings conference call. My name is [XXX] and I'll be your operator for today's call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded and all participants are in a listen-only mode. All questions can be directed after the call to PhoenixIR@icrinc.com.

It is now my pleasure to introduce Mark Hastings, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy and Head of Investor Relations.

Mark Hastings, SVP & Head of IR, PhoenixMotorcars

Thank you, and welcome everyone to our first quarter 2023 earnings call.

For those who are new to our story, Phoenix Motorcars is headquartered in Anaheim, California. Our goal is to be a leader in sustainable and zero-emission medium-duty transportation, with a range of products available to our customers, including shuttle and transit buses, school buses, delivery vans and work trucks.

We market our medium duty vehicles through our brand, Phoenix Motorcars. In addition, we also offer a full range of EV chargers and electric forklifts, as well as telematics solutions for fleets, EV infrastructure solutions and electric vehicle maintenance and service programs.

We also are currently developing a light-duty consumer and commercial vehicle line which will offer pickup trucks, SUVs and delivery vans, that will be marketed under our EdisonFuture brand.

We are not a pre-revenue company, like many others in our sector. We were founded in 2003, delivering our first trucks nearly a decade ago and logging four million zero-emission miles on the road. As a result, we have a stable and loyal customer base, and we offer our customers vehicles, charging and telematics solutions and complete vehicle maintenance and service support.

Our Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Lance Zhou has a long history of success in the full vehicle development arena. He has taken 3 different vehicles all the way from concept, through design, production and into sales. In addition, he has a particular expertise in mass production, which is one of the most important of the many attributes he brings to our company.

The Phoenix team has been hard at work executing on our implementation plan to bring Gen 4 to market efficiently, cost effectively and quickly, with start of production for and first delivery expect to be achieved over the summer. Furthermore, we expect Gen 4 production to ramp quickly to 20-25 units a month, which we expect to achieve before year end.

We expect Gen 4 to be transformative for Phoenix, as these vehicles will benefit from our “asset light” business model, which allows for lower costs and shorter production times than we have had before. We have developed a standardized design and production process, which will enable us to ramp production quickly and reduce required production hours. In addition, Gen 4 will serve as a bridge to Gen 5, which will include Phoenix’s own purpose-built chassis. Through this, we will achieve chassis independence, at a lower cost, with design flexibility, and increased customer satisfaction.

Now, I will now turn my attention to the financials and just spend a couple of minutes on the first quarter financial results.

For the three months ended March 31, 2023, our net revenues were $1.8 million, compared to $0.7 million for the same period in 2022. This represented an increase of approximately 1.7 times. Results in the quarter benefited from the resolution of battery supply and software related issues, which resulted in an increase in EV deliveries.

Our cost of revenues in the first quarter was $1.6 million, compared to $0.6 million in first quarter of 2022. Cost of revenues increased primarily due to the increase in vehicle production, and was consistent with the increase in Revenue.

Gross profit in the first quarter of the year was $0.2 million, which improved 44% compared to $0.1 million during the year-ago quarter. The increase was driven by a significant improvement in the gross margins from electric vehicles.

Selling, general & administrative expenses in the first quarter were $3.8 million compared with $3.0 million in the year ago quarter. The increase was mainly due to increases in payroll and research and development expenses.

As a result of the all the factors just described, the net loss for the first quarter of 2023 was $(2.8) million, compared to a net loss of $(2.3) million in the prior-year period.

Our legacy, all-electric, medium duty, commercial vehicle line is marketed under the Phoenix Motorcars brand and includes shuttle and transit buses, school buses, delivery vans and work trucks and box trucks. These are sold as complete vehicles, as well as in electrified kit form for our customers to add their truck body on.

Phoenix Motorcars’ customers are sourced from a wide range of industries, with applications such as airport parking, hotels, campuses, cities, municipalities, ports and school districts. We serve over 50 commercial fleet customers, to whom we have deployed over 125 shuttle buses and trucks, with a combined distance traveled of more than 4 million miles.

Today we are wrapping up the manufacture and sale of our Gen 3 vehicles, and are happy to share that we will be starting production, as well as achieving first delivery of our Gen 4 vehicles over the summer, literally right around the corner.

We are excited to be executing on our asset light business model as we expand in the coming years. We feel that our asset light strategy is a differentiating characteristic for our company and the development of Gen 4 has seen the deployment of this strategy for the first time.

Our asset light model extends both upstream and downstream in our Gen 4 development. Upstream, we have worked hard to cultivate partnerships and networks of suppliers across the industry and have leveraged their expertise, experience and staffing. These relationships have enabled us to bring this generation, and will also allow us to develop future generations of our vehicles, to market faster, cheaper and with higher quality than we could ever hope to do so by building the entire team on our own. As an example, we have been working hard with IAT, arguably the premier EV engineering firm in the world, to bring Gen 4 to market in a matter of months, not years. We are also working with Aulton to introduce our leading-edge swappable battery systems to our Gen 4 lineup. We actually debuted our new swappable system, which we call Phoenix Exchange, at an event at our headquarters 2 weeks ago surrounding the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo here at the Anaheim Convention Center. The Expo and the Swappable Debut were a wonderful opportunity for us to showcase our progress and latest product offerings.

Likewise, we are extending our asset light strategy downstream to the production side of the business as well. We are partnering with certain customers as well as with third-party manufacturing and assembly facilities in order to scale our production cheaper, faster and more capital-efficiently than we could ever hope to accomplish on our own. We will highlight specific partners in the months ahead.

As part of this strategy, we are reconfiguring and streamlining our existing Anaheim manufacturing facility. We will use this plant as a showcase facility and training center, where our third-party manufacturing partners will send their technicians to learn our standardized processes and procedures, in order to ensure maximum efficiency and quality across our entire production network.

In addition to achieving faster time-to-market and lower development costs as a result of our asset light model, we are also achieving lower production and bill of materials costs compared to our Gen 3 vehicles, by utilizing standardized processes and procedures, better designs for our components and sub-assemblies and a streamlined supply chain process. As an example of our streamlined design architecture, our Gen 3 system had over 450 individual parts and components…with our new Gen 4 vehicles, we have reduced that number to 70. To reiterate, we have gone from 450 to 70, as a result of better front end development and design and a streamlined supply chain for our components and subcomponent assemblies.

As most of you know two of the major hurdles that we and other similarly positioned EV manufacturers face are first, security of battery supply, and second, access to an adequate number of Ford E450 chassis to meet our production and sales pipeline.

On the battery side, we have cleared the first hurdle with our Gen 4 development by securing a supply agreement with CATL, the world’s largest EV battery maker, for the long-term procurement of K-Packs and related products for our Gen 4 vehicles. We are also working on additional battery partnerships as well.

On the chassis side, we recognize that the medium duty EV market is heavily dependent on the supply of Ford chassis, and, as the industry continues to grow, we foresee a supply shortage and are moving quickly to plan for our Gen 5 ground-up design, which we expect to introduce during 2024. This will help us clear the second hurdle as we achieve chassis independence.

The development of our Gen 5 vehicle line, which will follow closely on the heels of SOP (or start of production) for Gen 4 will benefit immensely from all the hard work we are putting into the development of Gen 4. All the benefits of our asset light business model, our partnerships and supply and production agreements, will transfer directly to Gen 5. In addition, most of the components and sub-assemblies that we have developed for Gen 4 will be used in Gen 5 as well. For these reasons, we view Gen 4 as a BRIDGE to Gen 5. Our Gen 4 development will be profitable and carry high gross margins in its own right, but its true value will be unlocked as we apply the learnings and principles to our Gen 5 ground-up chassis design that will ensure not only security of battery supply, but also chassis independence.

Two other positive features of our Gen 5 vehicles, in addition to battery and chassis supply security, will be even lower costs than Gen 4 and greater design flexibility to meet the needs of our customers. We expect to produce our new chassis for far less than the cost we are currently paying to acquire chassis and we will have the ability to customize our vehicle designs to meet specialized needs, while maintaining standardized processes and procedures, increasing our capacity to accommodate customer requirements and meet the evolving needs of the transforming electric vehicle market.

We look forward to sharing more about our Gen 4 and Gen 5 vehicles in the coming quarters, and to telling you more about our exciting plans for our EdisonFuture vehicles. EdisonFuture will be a light-duty offering with a solar-powered component, marketed for personal and commercial use in the form of pickup trucks, SUVs and delivery vans. The EdisonFuture pickup truck and van debuted at the 2021 LA Auto Show to much fanfare and broad acclaim. We expect to bring EdisonFuture to market sometime during 2025.

Our goal is to create a vehicle lineup that will have tremendous reliability and be cost competitive, without subsidies. Our ability to be cost competitive is a key focus as we seek to meet future market demands, as the markets and EV technologies move from an emerging market phase to a steadier state market phase.

At its core, Phoenix is an engineering-focused company with patented technologies that address the market’s need for the next generation of zero-emission vehicles. We have constructed our company to be flexible and asset light. We have talked a lot about our asset light model, which is logical since it is central to everything we do and something which sets us apart from other EV manufacturers.

We have an exciting road ahead, with the launches of Gen 4 this year, Gen 5 next year and EdisonFuture in 2025. But we are not developing these product lines as an academic exercise--we are building a scalable business, that endeavors to maximize returns on shareholders capital, while also deploying industry-leading technology. We've put together a management team that's seasoned and established in the EV sector and incentivized to overachieve, putting us in an excellent position to execute in the high-growth, zero-emission commercial and consumer vehicle sector.

If you have any questions, please direct them to PhoenixIR@icrinc.com. Thank you to everyone who joined the call today, we really appreciate your interest in our company and look forward to sharing more of the Phoenix story and our progress in the coming quarters.

Operator

This concludes our call. You may now disconnect.