Sono Group N.V. (SSM) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Electric Vehicle webinar brought to you by Webull's Corporate Connect Service. Today, we will be hearing from three companies in the sector. First, we will hear from the CEO of Sono Group, George O'Leary, then we will hear from Breaux Walker, Chief Strategy Officer at SunCar Technology Group, followed by the Vice President of Investor Relations from VinFast, Amandae Baey. All three will present for approximately 15 minutes and then time permitting, there will be a brief Q&A session. Please submit your questions on Zoom through the Q&A portal. But first, please note that Webull was not involved in the preparation of any of the presentation materials, and this is not a research recommendation, solicitation or endorsement of any kind. No investors should rely solely on the information provided in making a decision to invest. Okay, on to the presentations. First, we will hear from Sono Group. Sono Group is on a pioneering mission to accelerate the revolution of solar mobility by making every commercial vehicle solar. Their solar technology has been developed to enable seamless integration into all types of commercial vehicles. Their solar solution is installed on buses, trucks, vans, recreational vehicles and refrigeration trailers. And now I'll turn it over to the CEO, George O'Leary. George, you can share your screens now.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for having me. Okay. So obviously, as a public company, our forward-looking statements disclaimer. Let me tell you a little bit about myself and my background. I started my career as a CPA with Peat Marwick and Mitchell. So I'm dating myself, formerly KPMG. Then I became Vice President of Operations for Cablevision Industries. I ran $125 million worth of business for Cablevision when we sold to Time Warner. Then I started my own cable installation business, Communication Resources Inc. and grew business from $5 million to $40 million in four years and sold it to a public company. And then after that, I founded my own consulting practice called SKS Consulting. And what's interesting about SKS is my last name, O'Leary and Gaelic stands for strong out of the kings of the sea, and that's where SKS comes from and my family crest is actually my corporate logo as well. Little bit about the company. So Sono Group, we are -- we provide solar mobility technology. We're headquartered in Germany, Munich, Germany. Our Management and Supervisory Board are all based in the United States. We're quoted on the OTCQB under the symbol SEVCF. We're focused on integrating proprietary solar technology onto commercial vehicles, and we have a patent portfolio of 9 granted patents and over 30 pending patents. So let me tell you about our end-to-end solution. So we start with solar panels. We have a proprietary solar charge controller, our vehicle integration that we have years of experience and then our software and data analytics providing very useful information for our fleet operators. So we provide solar for buses, for trucks and vans, for recreational vehicles and for refrigeration trailers. So how our solar solution works. We put the solar panels on the top -- in this case, bus. We put the solar panel 16 solar panels on the top of the bus. We connect it with our solar charge controller, which ties into the low-voltage battery. And then we also provide telematics, which provides useful insight on the performance of the sun and the solar solution. So our solar solution for buses, as I mentioned, we have 16 solar panels on the top of a bus. Then we have our proprietary solar charge controller. What's very unique about our solar charge controller is it actually operates under zones. So we -- for 16 solar panels, we have 8 zones, allowing for maximum efficiency. And that's a very important competitive advantage we have. So our solar solution for trucks and vans, basically the same, just less solar panels. Our solar solution for refrigeration trailers, as you can see, we put solar panels on the top of the trailer. And as an option, we also put them on the side of the trailer as well. So in November of last year, we were honored with a prestigious award for Green Innovation for excellence in sustainable solar. And in January of 2025, we were the first company ever to win -- to be awarded a national type certification for our solar bus kit installations so that our fleet operators, we could install an entire fleet without getting individual approvals of each bus. So that creates a significant competitive advantage and also a very big efficiency for our fleet operators. So in March of this year, we partnered with Merlin Solar Technologies to expand global solar solutions. Basically, Merlin is in the U.S. And so now we have access to North and South America without additional operating costs. The way I'd like to explain it is best-in-class co-marketing partnership with Merlin solar panels and our solar charge controller and integration know-how. So we have two pillars for driving growth, our OEM integration and fleet operators. We're looking to get on the production lines of large OEMs. That's really our growth model. And then our second is partnerships with Merlin Solar, as I mentioned, reaching North and South America. We're also looking at other opportunities of global joint ventures, new product offering partnerships with batteries and things like that and also geographic partnerships to expand our global reach. So we combine U.S. growth and entrepreneurialship with German technology innovation and know-how. As I mentioned myself, I'm in West Palm Beach, Florida, and our whole Supervisory Board are all based in the U.S. and our two Managing Directors of our subsidiary are based in Munich, Germany. So I'd be remiss not to mention our most important and valuable resource, our dedicated team. What's great about our team in Munich, Germany is they're big believers in reducing the carbon footprint. One, they're all vegan; two, they drive their bicycles to work and they don't drive their vehicles. And so what's nice about that every time I show up in Germany, the whole parking lot is filled with bicycles, and I don't see a car around. So a few -- from a 1,000-foot view about our financials. So we reported EUR 65 million of profit for the end of the year last year, mostly due to the reconsolidation of our GmbH. We have a plan to reduce our debt into equity upon a national uplisting to a national exchange. We reduced significantly our cost. And we also transitioned from a foreign private issuer to a domestic filer and from IFRS to U.S. GAAP with a planned uplisting to the OTC -- from OTCQB to a national exchange. Things that I think are important is one, we're now filing 10-K and 10-Q. So we got a lot more information on a much more timely basis. And then from a planned uplisting, I've been working with NASDAQ since our reverse split in January of 2025. We're focused on meeting all the criteria for uplisting using the net income standard and the NASDAQ Capital Market and the New York Stock Exchange, American market are similar exchanges. Our first quarter profit, we also reported EUR 8.8 million of profit and again, continued our lean operations. From a funding perspective, we had $2 million funded in the first quarter. We had $1.25 million funded in the second quarter as we reduced our expenses, and we have an additional [ $1.75 million ] pending our uplisting to a national exchange. So '25 and '26 outlook. So we're building on our 2024 momentum. We're focused on advancing our OEM strategy of getting on the production lines with the large OEMs. We're expanding our global partnerships and continuing to innovate solar mobility solutions for commercial transport. We're pursuing an uplisting to a national exchange to improve visibility and enhance liquidity, drive long-term value for our shareholders and create much larger business opportunities through M&A. People ask about the discontinuance of the U.S. tax credits for solar and how that impacts our business. First of all, Sono Group is not impacted because most of our business comes from the EU. And with the tax credit reductions, the residential tax credit, 30% is proposed to be eliminated by the end of this year, but the commercial business investment tax credits proposed to be phased out over a three-year period, so reduced to 60% of the credit for '26 to 20% of the credit in '27 and reduced to zero by the end of '28. So first and foremost, as I mentioned, doesn't really impact our business today. And as we expand into North America, it definitely reduces over time. So the key takeaways in closing, solar is the largest and most affordable renewable energy source. I'd like to say solar bridges the gap between conventional vehicles of today and the electric vehicles of tomorrow as charging stations catch up to the EV demand. Awareness of solar benefits is growing, increasing customer demand across commercial vehicle applications. Our patent portfolio, our data-driven dashboard and our solar mobility know-how sets us apart from all of our competition, and Sono Group N.V. is on track for a planned uplisting to a national exchange. And with that, I'll turn it over to questions.

Thanks, George. I think there's a couple of questions in there for you, if you want to answer.

So let me take a look at a few of the questions. Can you [indiscernible] path to profitability and how recent cost-cutting and restructuring efforts have impacted your go-to-market time line? So first of all, we've done a great job reducing our cost structure. Obviously, with the tariffs that were announced towards the end of last year, we reduced our cost even more. But our focus is with our OEM partners, and we're growing as just as strong as we were prior to that. What's the status of your proprietary solar technology? Are there current licensing or partnership opportunities being explored beyond your own vehicle platforms? So as I mentioned, we did a partnership already with Merlin Solar Technologies. They have a best-in-class solar panel. We have a best-in-class charge controller and installation know-how, and we're combining that both in North America and also in the European Union. So yes, and we're also looking at expanding other partnerships, including batteries and other opportunities in other global markets. Our Sono Solar solutions designed for diesel vehicles, electric vehicles or both? Great question. They're basically designed for both. As I mentioned, as the charging stations catch up to the demand of the EV market, the diesel vehicles are obviously the largest percentage of vehicles for commercial vehicles. So we currently have a very good solution for diesel, which we call our low-voltage solution. And then for electric vehicles, we have our high-voltage solution. And so basically, we have a solution for both. One of the things about solar, it doesn't -- you can't just operate just with solar. It's an incremental opportunity for reducing the carbon footprint, reducing CO2 emissions, but it doesn't immediately. So it does -- you don't have to wait until every vehicle is electric. We're actually putting an impact on that from day 1. And that's why our OEM partners really love our solution for them. Our Sono solar solutions designed for diesel, electric and the answer is both, yes. Let me. Can solar solutions be installed on vehicles that are already in service or only on new? So as I mentioned, our core strategy is working with our OEMs to get on their production lines, but we actually do retrofitting of entire fleets. So for existing fleets, our OEMs have existing customers that with existing fleet operators, we can retrofit their entire fleet. And as I mentioned, with our certification in Germany, we could actually do the entire fleet without having to get each individual bus inspected. Any plans to enter the public sector, providing vehicles and services for public transportation systems? Yes. So we do work with governments. We work with the private sector, the public sector. And we also do -- through grant program, we do a lot of R&D for both the German government and also the European Union government as well. Is there any plan to create solar EV charge stations? Not at this time, at least not in our focus at this time. Could you outline why your market cap is so low? What is the catalyst for growing that market cap? So that's a great question. I really believe our market cap is very low considering what we have and what we're building and what the great -- what the opportunity is because solar is definitely up-and-coming huge market opportunity for reducing the carbon footprint. I think our -- one, our market cap is low because -- we're not on a national exchange yet. And now is the opportunity, I think, to buy our company stock because once we get to a national exchange, I believe that the market cap will be realized. And we've been working on that with NASDAQ for almost 6 months now, and we're looking at both NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange as well. All right. Let's see. So what are the top three revenue generators? Again, it's working with the OEMs for their production lines and also working with their customer base, their fleet operator customer base doing retrofitting for their customer base. And we do buses, refrigeration trailers and buses will probably be our two largest revenue streams, and then trucks and vans will follow suit there. Do customers need to install extra battery to use solar solutions? Or do the panels work with the vehicle's existing battery system? So it's a great question. They actually work with the existing battery systems and our proprietary solar controller works with any battery system. So we have low voltage and also high voltage. We are also working on a partnership where we can offer a battery solution because some of our OEMs want that battery solution and some of them have their own. Great question. Allow me one second. Sorry, guys, one second.

George, I think that's about all the time we have for questions anyway.

Great. Yes. Thank you very much, guys, and I appreciate it.

Yes. Thank you very much for your time and for your presentation.

Yes, my pleasure. And thank you, everyone, for listening today and look forward to you participating with Sono Group N.V. Again, OTCQB, the symbol SEVCF. Thank you so much. Take care.

Thanks, George.

Next, we will hear from Breaux Walker, Chief Strategy Officer at SunCar Technology Group. SunCar is a China-based company, mainly providing automobile aftersales service, insurance intermediation and technology service. Before I pass it off to Breaux, again, please note that Webull was not involved in the preparation of any of the presentation materials, and this is not a research recommendation, solicitation or endorsement of any kind. No investors should rely solely on the information provided in making a decision to invest. And now I'd like to introduce Breaux Walker. Breaux, go ahead and share your screen.

Great. Thank you so much, Michael. Really appreciate the opportunity. I just share my screen. Can you see it all right?

Yes, we can see that [indiscernible] presentation [indiscernible]

Great. Yes. Yes. Excellent. Thank you so much. I'm CSO of SunCar. My name is Breaux Walker. I have over 30 years' investment experience in China. So I would like to spend a couple of minutes just talking about the U.S.-China environment because I think I rarely talk about it, but I think these days in the news, whether it be the journal or whatnot, it's top of mind. And so I just wanted to put a little bit of perspective on the U.S.-China relationship before we launch into the presentation. As I said, I have over 30 years, 35 years now experience investing in China, doing cross-border deals, investment, living in China. And I think the countries really need each other, can benefit from each other. We have differences. But to think it's a good idea for us to not be engaged and not be friends, ultimately, at least have an understanding of each other's differences, I think, is a real mistake. we have strengths and weaknesses, and there's a lot of friendship and connection between the U.S. and China and a lot of mutual benefit. So I'm very optimistic in spite of you see headlines and whatnot, but I'm very optimistic that we're going to move in that direction. We are moving in that direction in the last few months, and we'll continue to do so. And I say that as objectively as I can, not because I've been involved with China a long time. I'm not someone who is very subjectively fond of just doing China for China's sake. I think for both countries, it makes sense for us to be engaged and to see how we can work together and come together as opposed to come apart. So I'll just say that part on the politics, and I'll answer individual questions separately. So we're the largest digital auto insurance and services company in China. We're a very established company, $460 million in LTM revenue. We listed on the NASDAQ under symbol SDA, Sam, David, Alpha. The reason we're the leader in China and have the revenue base that we do is because we've been innovating in digital auto insurance and services for almost 20 years. So well-established company. The management team has been in place all that time. And that's why, one, we have the revenue base that we have, we have the plus percent year-over-year growth that we've had in the last three years. Blue-chip customers, blue-chip partners. We have the largest banks in China, our customers, the top 20 EV manufacturers are partners. So this business has a very deep and strong moat -- a wide moat rather around it through its partnerships, through its revenue base, it's our technology. I'll talk a little bit about that in a second. But all of those -- the investment in the technology and the relationships has led to the growth that we've had in the last few years. And then we believe the valuation of the company, back to my earlier comments about China and the U.S. coming together and really having a lot to benefit and gain from and really not being able to decouple as it were to use that very common word. We think our valuation is low largely because we are a China-based company, and we're working very hard on the Investor Relations side to really change that and let people know that we're in the largest auto market in the world. It's also the most innovative. So besides being the largest in the world, everyone is by now familiar with the innovation going on. We're a big part of that with our 20 EV partners. So as I said, 20 -- almost 20 years in business. We've continued to leverage technology. The next wave is AI. China is a leader in open source AI. We're partnered with DeepSeek. We're going to continue to use new technology, in this case, AI to, one, improve our products for our customers who include Tesla, NIO, Zeekr and many others to help them improve their products, but also improve our operations, make us more cost effective, make our own internal operations more efficient than they have been, and AI can help us do that tremendously. We continue to grow not just our top line, but our adjusted EBITDA has grown significantly. We're very committed to continue to expand that adjusted EBITDA as we have the last two years. And we're excited about what AI and what the efficiencies that technology can bring on the -- for our profitability. So our business is built on scale. We're, in effect, sort of a private marketplace, if you will. We have -- on our auto services -- in our Auto Services segment, rather, we have 1,480 customers, most of them blue-chip companies in China. I'll explain our two market segments that use our auto services. On the auto insurance side, we have 20 EV partners. I mentioned Tesla, NIO, Zeekr and many others, Li Auto. All of these partnerships in this ecosystem have led to the revenue base that we have. The investment in the technology has led to the growth in both our top line and our adjusted EBITDA. And then the fact that we have such a large network of sellers selling our insurance or agents, if you will, and the transactions that run over really speak to how effective rather that solution is. So I'll explain our two segments and then the market in general. On the left here, you see the auto market in China. When we started, I believe there were about 10 million units on the road. You can see the scale now, 352 million units [indiscernible] last year. And I think that's really important. But again, we're an innovation company. So you really have to look at how these companies are innovating, whether it be our customer, Huawei or Xiaomi or Zeekr, or NIO, they're all pushing each other to innovate and turn a vehicle into really more of a software and more of a computer-like experience. And we're doing that with them. We're co-developing on the insurance side, service side, we're co-developing new solutions alongside them. So the innovation is really key. We're in two sectors, I'll explain very simply. Our auto insurance sector, we act as an agency, a very high-tech and very unique agency for 85 insurers on the back end, so allowing different sales channels and partners like Tesla, like an auto services shop in China to be able to sell digital auto insurance. We -- in many cases, we are the only tool that they have that allows them to sell insurance. If not for SunCar, they would not be able to sell insurance or would not be able to sell it cost effectively. So the technology stack we've built, which is a cloud on the back end and mobile app, largely mobile app solutions on the front end enables our partners to sell insurance. We take a commission from the insurance company, and then we split that with rev share that with our different partners. We have a lot of different rev share agreements, whether it be Tesla China or a small [indiscernible] for example. So that business is fairly straightforward. It's growing rapidly, again, because of the investment -- significant investment we've made since COVID in that platform. It's a very elegant way to sell and to buy auto insurance very unique -- sorry, technology asset that creates a moat around the business. On the right-hand side is our auto services business, also very important, a little more mature than the insurance, but this is a network, a private network of auto services, about 300 or so services. In a country that does not have AAA, it doesn't have Yelp, there's very little resources for drivers in terms of finding services. We provide a very high-value private network. We sell it as a B2B service because that's what's effective in China to large corporates. You think about what Capital One does here for auto services or if Bank of America were to give you an auto service network for drivers here as a customer loyalty or a benefit. That's what we do in China for the Bank of China, most of the large banks, insurance companies. Again, here in the U.S., GEICO and Allstate have their towing and roadside assistance. We provide that and many other services to Ping An, PICC, who are the two largest insurers in China. We know our costs. We've been in the business, like I said, almost 20 years. We know what our costs are on the supply side. We have those set in advance, and then we upsell those services to the large enterprise customers, those 1,480 that we -- I mentioned earlier. So our EV partnerships is really key in terms of our growth. The insurance, the ability for us to help them effectively do a few things. One is obviously sell auto insurance. My -- most of them, to our knowledge, have never had a successful auto insurance solution. We're increasingly embedded into their app, their driver app. That's really good in terms of our take rate and percentage of their drivers using -- buying the insurance through our partner, the EV company. But it also keeps them more connected to their driver and that journey. A lot of what our future is and the benefit is this not just the EV companies, but the insurance companies, really every sector in China is focused on LTV now, whereas a few years ago, the economy and all these sectors, the new sales growth was so strong, their focus on LTV was very low. It's now extremely high. And SunCar, if you think about anything else from this talk, we're an LTV play. We allow all of our partners in our ecosystem, whether it be the EV manufacturers, the insurance companies, the banks to capture more revenue from existing customers from auto insurance, auto services, but holistically connect to that customer through their whole journey post sale. And that's really a new trend in China, as I said, across industries, part of it because the economy has flattened a bit and the competition just continues to increase dramatically. But in the EVs, I think the story is obviously the competition is very strong and not just to sell cars, but to really innovate and provide experience. So with all of our partners, we're co-developing now before we had sort of a [indiscernible] I won't talk about all these different features, but you can imagine that in terms of prediction, prediction engines, all of the benefits that a transportation company has by being able to predict maintenance or driver patterns or vehicle behavior, all of that we're embedding into our platform, into our cloud, depending on what our customers -- their requirements are. So this shows on the left sort of our cloud, which really operates the same on the back end for our different customers and different services. Obviously, there's slight differences between services and insurance, but more and more, they're integrating, and I'll talk a little bit about those synergies in a moment. But on the back end, we've invested over $100 million in this cloud that is very intelligent, a lot of database integrations, a lot of licenses to be able to use those databases. And the whole reason for that investment is to be able to provide the best insurance quote and the best experience, both for our agencies who are selling those quotes and then obviously, for the end user. If we can't deliver a great quote in a very short period of time or the other insurance services that we're now offering, then it doesn't work at all. So that investment, a lot of [indiscernible] companies. But on the front end, the user experience is really important as well. For the auto manufacturers, I mentioned that they have -- their competition is very high for them, not just for a new sale, but continuing to stay with the customer throughout their journey. That's exactly what SunCar does. We keep -- make sure that, that customer's journey is very cost effective. It's the mission that we started the company with, make auto insurance and auto services much more time effective, much more efficient for the customer. And we continue down that path now, again with integrating AI into our platform. For insurance companies, we have multifaceted relationship with them. Of course, we're selling more insurance for them. So they're taking note of SunCar, not just for our revenue growth, but also our innovation. The fact that we're the lowest cost of sale for most of them, our channel that we're all digital, 100% digital. Our partnerships with the automotive manufacturers is very of note to them. And then on the auto services side, we're also -- we're a service provider to them as well. So more and more, we're seeing the -- our two segments bundled, both on the insurance side where we go to talk about auto services and bid on an auto services contract, they take note of the fact that we're also selling insurance for them. That's helping us win business on the auto services side. On the EV side, for example, Tesla started with insurance. That works so well from an experience and also a revenue perspective that they're now embedding our auto services module into their driver app as well. So the synergies are significant as we go more digital and more it's more app-based -- 100% app-based, I should say, there's much more synergies for our two segments, and we're seeing that happen very quickly. Down below, the third is the banks. Again, we've been 10-plus year providers to a lot of our banking customers and a lot of services. They value our network for customer loyalty and for marketing purposes and to increase the LTV of their customers. So I said the market was much smaller when we started. It's a huge market now. But again, I'll keep you focused on innovation versus size. What's exciting, the innovation over there, whether -- you saw what happened at the Shanghai Auto Show a few weeks ago or Beijing Auto Show in the fall, the global analysts came back and said, the level of innovation is just off the charts and what they're doing for -- not just in terms of the hardware, but on the software side is just remarkable. So we're excited to be a part of that. We think that's a huge part of our story that we started seven years ago now with our first EV partnership, and we continue to develop those. So this is an exciting market, global market. And whatever happens in the U.S. in terms of Chinese vehicles coming in, the European and other markets are already really adopting them, again, because they're -- not just their cost, but what they're offering in terms of innovation and experience for the consumer. So I mentioned briefly before, on the back end, we're connected into any insurer you'd want to ensure your vehicle in China, we are connected to. This isn't all the insurance companies in China, but it's most of them Pan-China. So the fact that we are throughout China and just like the U.S., there are insurers that do and don't operate in different provinces. So we have to do a deal with Tesla or with NIO, these days, table stakes are you have to be China-wide. You have to obviously have quality, security, privacy and all that. So years ago, we may have had regional or semi-digital competitors. Those days are gone. You need to have a fully digital network. It needs to be China-wide and you need to have all the other boxes checked, security, privacy and all the things and the licenses that you need to connect into all these databases. So the fact that we're able to deliver a quote within two minutes or less now is really key for a lot of our partners, especially the 64,000 sales partners are, in many cases, large auto services or even dealerships that are now asking people who used to sell cars or sold other services like car wash, things like that are now selling insurance. And to be able to do that, it has to be very easy to use for the salesperson there. It also has to be very quick for the consumer to purchase. So this shows two case studies. These are some of our partners on the left. But on the right, you see a large -- we're working with the largest EV providers. You can see that EV company one, we went from zero revenue at the beginning of last year to $41 million in GMV in the month of December. This was after having tested with them for two years. Most of them, we've been in development with for multiple years. So the cycles are long. But again, we started seven years ago with these partnerships. So they -- you can imagine that they've tried to do this themselves. They've looked for other suppliers. The question will be what makes you special? Can a start-up come in and do this? Well, if these companies knew of a start-up that could do it or if there was one out there, we would know of them, and we wouldn't be working with 20, not 2, but 20 EV partners. And it's because we've invested over many years in the platform, and it's very effective. This shows our auto services. Again, 300 different services, a country that does not have access to high-quality information or networks of high-quality service providers. This is a very high value add for Bank of China, Ping An and PICC in terms of helping their customers increasing their own brand equity rather in terms of helping their customers with auto services. And now we see retail, other segments of the market coming in and really appreciating that auto services is a sector where consumers really have a lot of needs and where the quality -- when you have a high-quality provider like SunCar and they know about us, it makes a lot of sense for them to offer this as they offer other services out there. So these are three buckets. I mentioned these earlier. Again insurance companies, we're starting to see a real flywheel effect between services and insurance. We've been working with the insurers on services for a long time. But as I said now, when we look at service providers and auto services, they say, who is also selling insurance for us. And they're being more thoughtful about this. And they're also valuing both and the importance of auto services, they're valuing higher than they did previously because competition has increased. The banks have been very solid. And the new segment we're seeing is retail. We announced a big deal with Walmart about six months ago. [ Ant Financial ] continues to be a large and growing customer of ours. So retail is also picking up on this LTV trend. I'll go back to that. All of these major industries in China now have awoken to the importance of lifetime value of a customer, and that's -- SunCar fits perfectly into that in terms of the auto sector. So financials, we've been growing coming out of COVID. We grew during COVID. We survived during COVID, which for a transportation-related company is remarkable by itself. We used that time to invest heavily in our insurance platform. We continue to grow very nicely on the back of that insurance. We don't see any reason to think, in fact, our guidance this year was for 20% growth this year. We don't see any reason to think that, that's going to slow down because we have such a unique and a very effective product in a market that is still 75% manual offline, 25% [indiscernible] semi-digital. But in any case, 98% of the experience, whether it be semi-digital or offline is not a positive experience for consumers. We think our being embedded in Tesla's app being embedded in app of our auto services providers is providing this sub 2-minute very excellent auto insurance purchasing experience, which is why we have 64,000 agents selling our insurance on the platform. Our adjusted EBITDA continues to grow. Last year, we had share-based comp that hit was related to our being a private company for so many years. We listed in May of 2023, NASDAQ. We've continued to deliver quarter after quarter, and we have gone to quarterly filing as of Q1 this year to really make sure investors have the latest updates on us. But we continue to deliver both top line 20-plus percent growth and adjusted EBITDA continues to expand much more rapidly than that. And we continue to be very committed toward those trends. So that's -- I'll leave you with sort of our road map. Again, heavily AI focused. Our development center, our AI development center is down the road from DeepSeek, not that they're all in one place, but that part of China around Hangzhou, you may have heard of, is exploding with AI innovation, and we are committed to investing in that because our business has a lot of benefits to gain by understanding different predictive models and whatnot. And so we committed -- we're very tight with them. We worked with DeepSeek way before the announcement in February. A year before that, we started partnering with them, and we will continue to do that to benefit our partners and customers. And that's it for my presentation.

Great. Thanks, George. I think we used up about most of our time. So I think we're going to move on to the next presenter. So, Breaux, thank you very much for your time and your presentation.

You're welcome. Thank you, everyone, for attending.

Now we will hear from the Vice President of Investor Relations at VinFast, Amandae Baey. VinFast is a pure-play EV manufacturer with the mission of making EVs accessible to everyone. Their product line includes electric SUVs, e-scooters and e-buses. They are currently embarking on the next growth phase of expansion in North America, Europe and Asia. Before I pass it off, again, please note that Webull was not involved in the preparation of any of the presentation materials, and this is not a research recommendation, solicitation or endorsement of any kind. No investors should rely solely on the information provided in making a decision to invest. And now I'd like to introduce the Vice President of Investor Relations, Amandae Baey. Amandae, you can share your screen now.

Thank you. Can you see my screen?

Yes. It looks good.

Great. Thank you for having me here today, and welcome, everyone. Thank you for taking the time. I'd like to start by introducing you to VinFast, and I will take you through our corporate presentation. VinFast is the first vertically integrated EV manufacturer from Southeast Asia. We have played a key role in driving EV adoption in Vietnam with our unique green mobility ecosystem. In just three years, VinFast has delivered more than 100,000 EVs, launched seven models and established a global network of over 300 showrooms across Asia, Europe and North America. We recently launched a new commercial vehicle lineup called the Green Series that will open up a new addressable market for us. Our electric SUVs range from USD 13,000 to USD 70,000, and we have changed the perception that EVs are a luxury item by having affordable and mass premium models. On our recent Q1 earnings call, we reiterated our target to at least double our deliveries in 2025 and also maintained our target to reach gross profit and EBITDA breakeven in 2026. With the strategic and financial backing of our parent company, Vingroup, the largest conglomerate in Vietnam, VinFast is at the forefront of the green transportation megatrend in Southeast Asia. In 2024, we tripled our deliveries and delivered over 97,000 cars. We ended 2024 as the #1 OEM in Vietnam with 20% market share across the entire passenger vehicle segment. For a young company, we've already overtaken legacy OEMs like Toyota and Hyundai. The VF3 and the VF5 are our most affordable models, and these accounted for 60% of our deliveries last year. The Asia region accounted for 90% of our revenues last year. Coming into 2025, we expect the Asian markets to be the main contributor to our delivery target, specifically Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines, with India expecting to contribute more in 2026. In Q1, our revenue grew 150% year-over-year as deliveries for the first quarter exceeded what we've already delivered in the first half of 2024. We ended Q1 with approximately 40% market share in the home market, and we intend to maintain that market share as we introduce more new models. Indonesia, the Philippines and India are our key target markets, and we are building the green mobility ecosystem here to help drive long-term sustainable EV adoption. In the next part of my presentation, I will walk you through our go-to-market strategy, our manufacturing and R&D capabilities and our distribution model. Now let me dive deeper into our go-to-market strategy and why our green mobility ecosystem is a competitive advantage for VinFast. When VinFast first launched in Vietnam, consumer awareness about EVs was very low. This is a country where for every 1,000 citizens, there's only 48 cars on the road. So it's a country that is still very largely dominated by 2-wheelers. The lack of EV charging infrastructure also presented another hurdle for consumers. VinFast founder established this ecosystem that consists of three companies to tackle these challenges head on. First is Xanh SM or GSM for short. This is the world's first pure EV taxi fleet company. It operates like a ride-hailing service like an Uber. You can poll for an EV car using an app for your daily commute. V-Green is the exclusive charging network for VinFast cars. We have over 90,000 charging points in Vietnam, which can be found at prime locations on commercial and residential properties that are developed by Vingroup. Green Future is the most recent addition and is focused on offering used EVs for rental and secondary sales. Now this trifecta provides the public with a chance to try an EV before buying one and also provides an opportunity to address consumer anxiety around charging, range anxiety and just overall EV skepticism. This ecosystem is the reason why we have seen a rapid surge in EV adoption in Vietnam from 2% back in 2023 to 20% at the end of 2024. Now let's turn to our state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities. Our flagship facility is based in North Vietnam and has a design capacity of over 300,000 cars. We utilize local sourcing, vertical integration and automation to scale our manufacturing footprint. The proximity to our key suppliers has enabled us to establish a fully integrated facility. Our facility was designed to incorporate key suppliers and logistics partners on site in the factory, ensuring that we have everything from battery production to the assembly of interior and exterior components. This level of integration has allowed us to achieve up to 75% localization rate in Vietnam for certain models. In addition to our on-site supplier park, some of our suppliers are also located directly on our general assembly line, and this ensures full alignment across the manufacturing process. We also have a joint venture with our battery supplier where we make our own battery modules in a battery facility in Central Vietnam. Today, the VinFast flagship facility has over 90% automation and 2025 marks another milestone for our manufacturing footprint. This year, we will be opening three CKD facilities, complete knockdown facilities that are coming online in India, Indonesia and Vietnam. This will bring our total capacity to 600,000 units in 2025. From day 1, VinFast has always been a technology-focused company, and our goal is to make tech-forward cars and make them affordable for consumers. We have a symbiotic working relationship with various Vingroup technology affiliates, and we also work with a number of international partners to integrate various technologies into our cars. These include an intelligent voice control system, AI-powered mirrors, 360-degree wraparound view and all of these are actually developed by our sister companies such as Vin Big Data and Vin AI. In recent years, we've also enhanced our cars with ADAS Level 2 and Level 2+. Now the next generation of VinFast EVs are being built and guided by the three Cs: commonality, competitiveness and cost efficiencies. Our new EV platform is designed to enhance technology integration while simplifying the engineering, procurement and production process. Each platform can underpin various models and increase the vehicle commonality. We are also introducing a new electrical electronic architecture using zonal architecture, which will be controlled by a central supercomputer. This is similar to what our peers like Tesla and Rivian are already doing. And this will help reduce ECU complexities and also minimize the use of traditional wire harnesses. What this means very simply is we are finding ways to bring more technology and making it more cost efficient to make those cars so that we can continue to sell at affordable prices to consumers in Southeast Asia and India. The Limo Green, which will be launched later this year, will be the first model that will have this new zonal architecture. During our first growth phase, VinFast owned and operated its own showrooms to establish brand awareness and to maintain service standards. In our second and current growth phase, we are optimizing our operational footprint to ensure that we are reaching more consumers while lowering our overall operating cost. We started a transition to a dealership model since late 2023, and all new showrooms that have been opened since are owned by third-party dealers. Our sales and marketing spend as a percentage of revenue has dropped to 23% in Q1 of this year, down from 47% from the same period last year, thanks to this pivot from direct-to-consumer to a dealer model. Currently, over 90% of our showrooms are dealer-owned. I will end my presentation here by highlighting three aspects of the VinFast story that are underappreciated and why you should pay attention to our monthly and quarterly delivery numbers. First, VinFast is at an inflection point in our business outlook. We are at a stage where volume growth, combined with operational discipline are the key levers to our path to profitability. We have maintained our expectation to breakeven in 2026. Second, we are a young company, but we have a pioneering approach with unmatched execution. I think it's often overlooked by an audience in this part of the world that we have achieved a lot in three years. We delivered over 100,000 cars, launched seven models with four more along the way, and we've established a very comprehensive global network of showrooms, all in just three years. Unlike legacy OEMs, VinFast has the start-up agility mindset, combined with the strategic skill and resources of a much larger parent conglomerate. And this brings me to the last point. VinFast enjoys the full backing of Vietnam's largest private conglomerate, which has an illustrious track record of being the market leader across various industries that operates in. So this support, combined with the operational expertise and ecosystem advantages that we have built has allowed VinFast to scale very rapidly. I'll end my presentation here and open up for questions.

Thanks so much, Amandae. It looks like there's a couple of questions in the Q&A box, if you want to address them. Just make sure you read them out loud.

Sure. Are there any strategic partnerships being explored like charging infrastructure, ride-hailing to boost adoption of your sales or support your sales model? The answer is yes, there are. And let me take you back to the ecosystem page. So I mentioned that we have this ecosystem playbook that was responsible for driving a lot of our success in Vietnam. We are bringing this ecosystem with partnerships to markets like Indonesia, the Philippines and India. Let me use Indonesia as an example because this is the first market where GSM, the ride-hailing company entered followed by V-Green. For GSM, we actually have a partnership with Gojek, which is a ride-hailing app, one of the largest in Indonesia. We have a partnership with them where you can actually call for a VinFast car on your Gojek app. For V-Green, right, we've been successful in building out a network of charging -- exclusive charging network in Vietnam because our parent company owns a lot of real estate. In Indonesia, we have made several announcements that we're working with other local property conglomerates to build out this charging network in Indonesia and with a goal to have 63,000 charging points in Indonesia by the end of this year. So long story short, yes, in the newer markets we've entered into, we're partnering with local players to build up this green mobility ecosystem. The next question. Can you provide an update on U.S. and global delivery volumes relative to internal targets? And what are the barriers to scaling efficiently outside of Vietnam? So our target for this year globally is to at least double what we did in 2024. We do not provide delivery targets by specific markets. But what I can share with you is last year, Asia accounted for 90% of our revenues and the U.S. accounted for less than 5% of revenues in 2024. In 2025, we expect North America and Europe to be marginal contributors to our revenue and deliveries given that our focus is on penetrating markets in Southeast Asia and India. I would say that the barriers to scaling efficiently outside of Vietnam would be we need to continue to grow our distribution network and build our brand awareness. It's a competitive market in Southeast Asia and India. So establishing that brand presence with the green mobility ecosystem is key for our longer-term success in those markets. What are your core company values? And how do you envision your company positively impacting the planet? That's a great question. The VinFast vision is to provide a sustainable future for everyone. And we're doing this by helping consumers to slowly change their habits and attitudes towards EVs. And that begins by helping to address those barriers to EV adoption like affordability and also the lack of charging infrastructure. So through this green mobility ecosystem, we're really hoping to change long-term consumer habits.

Great. Thank you so much, Amandae.

And I've got one more question here. How does VinFast seek to improve its distribution network outside of Vietnam and to other markets? As I mentioned in my presentation, we pivoted to a dealership model at the end of late 2023. And all new showrooms that have been opened since are all dealer-owned. We work with dealers who are either previously represented legacy brands who want to bring on EVs to their portfolios or also work with new dealerships who want to embrace the green mobility ecosystem.

Great. All right. Thanks so much, Amandae. Thank you very much for your time and your presentation.

Thank you for having me.

Please make sure to visit VinFast Corporate Connect service page on the app for further updates. This will conclude the electric vehicles webinar. Thank you for everyone's time and be on the lookout for upcoming Corporate Connect investment webinars highlighting different sectors in the near future. Thanks a lot.