Solid Power (SLDP) Q3 2026 Earnings Call: MOBIUS-Hochlauf und niedrigerer Cash-Investitionsausblick

Wichtigste Erkenntnisse

• Solid Power erzielte im dritten Quartal 2026 einen Umsatz und Zuwendungen in Höhe von 1,2 Millionen US-Dollar, womit sich der Gesamtwert seit Jahresbeginn auf 4,0 Millionen US-Dollar beläuft.
• Das Unternehmen wies einen Betriebsverlust von 29,8 Millionen US-Dollar und einen Nettoverlust von 24,4 Millionen US-Dollar beziehungsweise 0,11 US-Dollar je Aktie aus. Die Betriebsausgaben im Quartal lagen bei 31,1 Millionen US-Dollar.
• Solid Power schloss das dritte Quartal mit einer Gesamtliquidität von 397,6 Millionen US-Dollar und ohne Schulden ab. Das Unternehmen senkte seinen Ausblick für die Barinvestitionen im Jahr 2026 von 85 bis 100 Millionen US-Dollar auf 75 bis 85 Millionen US-Dollar.
• Das Unternehmen begann im Oktober mit der Zuführung von Materialien in MOBIUS. Es wird erwartet, dass die kontinuierliche Fertigungslinie die jährliche Elektrolytkapazität um 45 Tonnen erweitert, was die Gesamtkapazität um 150 % auf 75 Tonnen erhöht.
• Das Management geht davon aus, dass die Inbetriebnahme von MOBIUS sowie die ISO 9001-Zertifizierung bis Ende 2026 abgeschlossen sein werden. Die Requalifizierung durch Kunden auf der neuen Linie soll voraussichtlich 2027 beginnen.
• Solid Power befindet sich weiterhin in fortgeschrittenen Gesprächen mit zwei potenziellen Partnern über ein südkoreanisches Joint Venture für eine mögliche Elektrolytanlage mit einer Jahreskapazität von 500 Tonnen, wobei das Management jedoch zu Bedenken gab, dass sich der Zeitplan bis ins Jahr 2027 verschieben könnte.

Wichtige Finanzdaten

Geschäfts- und operative Entwicklung

MOBIUS, zuvor als SP 2.5-Pilotlinie für die kontinuierliche Fertigung bezeichnet, bildete den Mittelpunkt des operativen Updates. Solid Power begann im Oktober mit der Materialzuführung in die Linie und nimmt deren vier Teilprozesse nacheinander in Betrieb, bevor das Material kontinuierlich durch das gesamte System geführt wird.

Wie das Management mitteilte, soll MOBIUS die Skalierbarkeit und Effizienz der proprietären Nassprozess-Elektrolyttechnologie von Solid Power demonstrieren. Das Unternehmen ist überzeugt, dass dieses Verfahren Vorteile bei den Investitions- und Betriebskosten gegenüber Trockenprozess-Alternativen bietet. Allerdings betonte das Management auch, dass es noch zu früh sei, um Stückkosten- oder Ausbeuteverbesserungen zu quantifizieren, bevor die Linie die nachgewiesene Nennkapazität erreicht hat.

MOBIUS soll voraussichtlich die primäre Produktionsplattform von Solid Power werden. Die bestehende Batch-Linie wird so lange weiterbetrieben, wie eine Nachfrage besteht, unter anderem zur Erfüllung des 2024 angekündigten Liefervertrags mit SK On. Von der zusätzlichen Jahreskapazität von MOBIUS in Höhe von 45 Tonnen ist derzeit noch kein Teil vertraglich durch ein Lieferabkommen abgesichert.

Solid Power belieferte auch im Laufe des Quartals weiterhin Samsung SDI und SK On mit Elektrolyten. Das Management erklärte, dass die Fortschritte der Kunden beim Zell-Design weiterhin das Haupthindernis für höhere Liefermengen und umfangreichere Verkäufe darstellen.

Zudem schloss das Unternehmen Stufe 2 seines ISO 9001-Zertifizierungsprozesses ab. Laut Management wird die Zertifizierung die Prozesskontrolle, Rückverfolgbarkeit, Dokumentation und operative Konsistenz im Zuge der Produktionsskalierung stärken.

Über Elektrofahrzeuge hinaus führt Solid Power erste Kooperationsgespräche in den Bereichen humanoide Robotik, Drohnen und Verteidigung. Das Management beschrieb diese Chancen als noch ganz am Anfang stehend und merkte an, dass deren Qualifizierungszyklen kürzer sein könnten als im typischen Automobilbereich. Elektrofahrzeuge bleiben der Hauptfokus des Unternehmens, während angrenzende Anwendungen zur Technologievalidierung und zu moderaten mittelfristigen Umsätzen beitragen könnten.

Prognose des Managements

Solid Power senkte seine erwartete Spanne für die Barinvestitionen im Jahr 2026 von 85 bis 100 Millionen US-Dollar auf 75 bis 85 Millionen US-Dollar. Das Management führte die Verbesserung auf Senkungen der Produktionskosten, Ausgabendisziplin, neu verhandelte Lieferantenverträge und Effizienzgewinne bei den Investitionsausgaben zurück.

Das Unternehmen gab an, dass die vierteljährlichen Barinvestitionen hauptsächlich aufgrund von zeitlichen Verschiebungen schwanken könnten, darunter Erstattungen des US-Energieministeriums und Zahlungen an Ausrüstungslieferanten für MOBIUS. Solid Power plant, seinen Ausblick für 2027 zusammen mit dem Ergebnisbericht für Q4 2026 vorzulegen.

Das Management strebt weiterhin die vollständige Inbetriebnahme von MOBIUS und die ISO 9001-Zertifizierung bis Ende 2026 an. Zudem beabsichtigt das Unternehmen, das geplante südkoreanische Joint Venture voranzutreiben, räumte jedoch ein, dass sich eine Transaktion bis ins Jahr 2027 verschieben könnte.

Risiken und wichtige Beobachtungspunkte

• MOBIUS befindet sich noch in der frühen Phase der Inbetriebnahme; die Nennkapazität, Produktionsausbeuten und Kostenvorteile wurden noch nicht nachgewiesen.
• Die Kundennachfrage hängt von den Fortschritten beim Zell-Design der Kunden ab, was vom Management als derzeitiger Engpass für das Lieferwachstum identifiziert wurde.
• Kein Teil der zusätzlichen Kapazität von MOBIUS ist derzeit durch einen Liefervertrag abgedeckt, und die Requalifizierung durch Kunden wird voraussichtlich nicht vor 2027 beginnen.
• Über das geplante südkoreanische Joint Venture wird weiterhin verhandelt. Laut Management können sich große Transaktionen trotz des Ziels, 2026 eine Vereinbarung zu erzielen, verzögern.
• Gespräche in den Bereichen Robotik und Verteidigung befinden sich noch in einem frühen Stadium und konzentrieren sich derzeit teilweise darauf, potenzielle OEM-Partner über die Anwendungsmöglichkeiten von Festkörperbatterien aufzuklären.

Wichtigste Punkte aus der Analysten-Fragerunde

Das Management erklärte, dass die Inbetriebnahme von MOBIUS Prozess für Prozess über vier Teiloperationen hinweg erfolgen wird, gefolgt von einer kontinuierlichen Gesamtlinienproduktion im weiteren Verlauf des Jahres 2026. Kosten- und Ausbeutevergleiche mit der Batch-Produktion werden erst verfügbar sein, nachdem die Nennleistung nachgewiesen wurde.

Zur Skalierung erklärte das Management, dass die MOBIUS-Erweiterung um 45 Tonnen die Grundlage für ein kontinuierliches Verfahren für ein potenzielles Werk mit einer Jahreskapazität von 500 Tonnen in Südkorea bildet. Solid Power geht davon aus, Betriebsdaten, Ausbeuten und Erkenntnisse zu den Kosten von MOBIUS zur Unterstützung dieses Großprojekts zu nutzen.

In Bezug auf angrenzende Märkte hob das Management Anwendungen mit ähnlichen Anforderungen wie bei Elektrofahrzeugen hervor, insbesondere Energiedichte, Sicherheit und Zykluslebensdauer. Humanoide Robotik und militärische Anwendungen könnten sich schneller entwickeln als Automobilprogramme, doch die potenziellen Umsätze wurden mittelfristig als moderat eingestuft.

Das Management stellte außerdem klar, dass der niedrigere Ausblick für die Barinvestitionen im Jahr 2026 sowohl Nachverhandlungen von Lieferantenverträgen als auch eine verbesserte Effizienz bei den Investitionsausgaben widerspiegelt. Schwankungen innerhalb der revidierten Spanne werden voraussichtlich eher durch den Zeitpunkt von Zahlungen und Erstattungen als durch Veränderungen der zugrunde liegenden Ausgaben getrieben.

Vollständiges Transkript der Videokonferenz zu den Quartalszahlen

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Ausführungen des Managements

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Solid Power Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Charlie Van Goetz, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Charlie Van Goetz

Thank you, operator. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'm joined on today's call by Solid Power's President and Chief Executive Officer, John Van Scoter; and Chief Financial Officer, Linda Heller. A copy of today's earnings release is available on the Investor Relations section of Solid Power's website, www.solidpowerbattery.com. I'd like to remind you that parts of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements as defined by U.S. securities laws. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions about future events and are based on currently available information as to the outcome and timing of future events. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, Solid Power disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

For a discussion of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in today's forward-looking statements, please see Solid Power's most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which can be found on the company's website at www.solidpowerbattery.com. With that, let me turn it over to John Van Scoter.

John Van Scoter

Thank you, Charlie, and thank you all for joining us today. The third quarter was marked by continued focus on advancing our electrolyte technology and expanding our strategic relationships. We also reached an important milestone in our manufacturing road map with MOBIUS, previously referred to as the SP 2.5 continuous manufacturing pilot line. I'm pleased to report that in October, we began introducing materials into MOBIUS. This new line is expected to increase our electrolyte production capacity by 150%, adding 45 metric tons of capacity and bringing total annual capacity to 75 metric tons. MOBIUS is designed to demonstrate the scalability and efficiency of our proprietary wet process technology and to serve current and future near-term customer programs as we transition from batch to continuous production. We are now progressing toward full commissioning, which remains on track for year-end. MOBIUS represents an important step in our journey to commercial scale by providing us with manufacturing capabilities, operating experience and foundation we believe are critical to scaling our electrolyte technology. Our vision is to build on what we established with MOBIUS as we pursue a potential 500 metric ton annual production facility in Korea. During the quarter, we continued to advance discussions with leading battery materials manufacturers regarding a potential joint venture in South Korea for commercial scale electrolyte production. With Korea at the center of all solid-state battery development, we believe combining our technology and manufacturing know-how with the scale and expertise and market access of an established industry leader could create a powerful platform to accelerate commercial adoption. Our customer engagement also continued. During the quarter, we once again provided electrolyte to Samsung SDI and SK On to support their continued development efforts, and we remain committed to helping our customers advance towards commercialization. Operational excellence remains a core priority as we prepare for commercial readiness. Building on the Stage 1 milestone we reported last quarter, we recently completed Stage 2 of our ISO 9001 certification process and certification remains on track for year-end. This is an important milestone for Solid Power as we continue the transition from development toward commercial supply. ISO 9001 provides an externally recognized framework for maintaining consistent, repeatable quality across our operations, strengthening areas such as process control, traceability, documentation and continuous improvement. Importantly, it also gives our customers greater confidence that we have the systems and operating discipline in place to consistently deliver high-quality materials as we scale production. EVs will continue to be our North Star as we scale, but the potential of our technology extends well beyond a single market. We see exciting opportunities for all solid-state batteries in applications such as humanoid robotics, drones and defense, where safety and performance are increasingly important. We have entered collaboration discussions with potential partners to evaluate our sulfide electrolyte for these uses. We also see an opportunity to leverage our cell testing and pilot production capabilities to support development in these emerging markets. Together, these opportunities demonstrate the broader potential of our technology platform and give us multiple avenues to create long-term value as we execute on our EV strategy and expand into new markets. Overall, we are pleased with our progress this quarter. We continue to execute against our commercialization road map across manufacturing scale-up, collaboration programs and strategic partnerships, and we are doing so with financial discipline as reflected in improved cash outlook Linda will discuss. With that, I'll turn it over to Linda to review our financial results and provide an update on our financial discipline goal. Linda?

Linda Heller

Thank you, John. I'll start with our third quarter results, beginning with revenue. During the third quarter of 2026, we generated revenue and grant income of $1.2 million, driven primarily by the assistance agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy funding a portion of the MOBIUS construction. This brings year-to-date revenue and grant income to $4 million. Operating expenses were $31.1 million in the third quarter compared to $30 million in the second quarter of 2026. The increase was driven by strategic consulting fees supporting our commercial readiness objectives. Operating loss for the quarter was $29.8 million and net loss was $24.4 million or $0.11 per share. Capital expenditures totaled $4.7 million during the quarter, primarily related to construction of the MOBIUS line. During the quarter, cash investment, representing cash used in operations and capital expenditures was $21.5 million, bringing year-to-date cash investment to $56.6 million. Turning to our balance sheet and liquidity. Solid Power's liquidity position remains strong. We ended the third quarter with total liquidity of $397.6 million. In addition, contract assets and accounts receivable totaled $6.2 million, and total current liabilities were $18.8 million. We continue to operate with no debt. Our financial discipline is also reflected in our outlook. We have reduced our expected 2026 cash investment to a range of $75 million to $85 million, an improvement from our prior range of $85 million to $100 million. The improved outlook reflects strong execution on production cost reduction and disciplined spending, enabling us to lower expected cash investment while continuing to advance our commercialization road map. We are accomplishing this in a cost-effective way while continuing to build the team, expertise and production capabilities needed to execute our strategy and support future commercialization. Overall, we remain committed to disciplined capital allocation while continuing to invest in the initiatives that drive long-term growth. We believe our balance sheet provides the financial flexibility to execute our commercialization strategy and support our collaborators' development programs. I will now turn the call back to John.

John Van Scoter

Thank you, Linda. As we close, I want to thank our employees for their continued dedication and our customers, collaborators and shareholders for their ongoing confidence in Solid Power. We appreciate your support as we continue executing our strategy and advancing our path towards commercialization. As we enter the final quarter of the year, our focus is on finishing 2026 strong. We are working to complete the commissioning of MOBIUS, advance our discussions regarding a potential joint venture in Korea, achieve ISO 9001 certification and continue working closely with our customers and collaborators to support their development goals. We have accomplished a great deal in 2026, and these priorities build on the meaningful progress we have made throughout the year. Our focus now is on achieving our near-term milestones and carrying that momentum directly into 2027. We believe the foundation we have built positions us to continue executing against our strategy and take the next steps towards commercialization. We are energized by the opportunities ahead for Solid Power. Thank you for your time today, and we look forward to updating you on our continued progress in the quarters ahead. We will now take your questions. Operator?

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. The first question comes from Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer.

Fragen und Antworten

Colin Rusch

Congratulations on all the progress with MOBIUS. Could you talk a little bit about the key steps that you guys -- we should be watching as we get through the final acceptance and the initial ramp here through the balance of this year? It seems like you guys have this pretty well under control, but I just want to get a sense of which steps are the key ones for us that we should be attending to?

John Van Scoter

Good to hear from you, Colin. Thanks for the question. Yes, it's all very recent that we started to put materials into the line. So it's very early days, but the team is very, very excited to complete the commissioning this year. It's going to be stepwise. We have 4 unit processes within the continuous flow operation. And so we're going about that, again, in a stepwise fashion, whether it be the first part of the process or the last part and then finally, material all the way through the line continuously. So I would expect in the coming months that we'll have the unit processes largely checked out and spend the balance of the year around running material through the full line.

Colin Rusch

Excellent. And then with the increase of available material and the capital efficiency that you guys have talked about with this process relative to other attempts out in the field. Can you just talk about what that means for your customers? Obviously, folks have been going through testing, but they're going to want to do more volume and the validation of the cost structure as you get this up and running. I just want to understand kind of how quickly things might start shifting for you guys in terms of higher volume sales with some of these customers.

John Van Scoter

Yes. We've mentioned a number of times, but we have a unique wet process. We take precursors and mix them with solvents at the beginning of our line. Our competitors have a dry process, and they cannot scale as well as we can with the wet process. So we believe we have a structured CapEx and OpEx advantage compared to the majority of our competitors. We can just increase the size of our unit processes to get to those larger and larger scale volumes. The demand and what we ship, obviously, will be driven by our end customers' progress with their cell designs. That is largely the gate right now for us, we believe. And the other beauty of MOBIUS is it's 45 metric tons and our next objective is the 500 metric ton plant in Korea. So a 10x scalable off of that continuous flow is very doable based on precedent there in terms of scaling. So that's what I see happening with the unit processes and the scaling up as we go forward.

Operator

The next question comes from Jake Sekelsky with Alliance Global Partners.

Jacob Sekelsky

Are you able to provide a bit more color on the other markets you're looking at outside of EVs? I guess what inning do you feel you're in with partners here? And do you see any potential for them to accelerate commercialization ahead of the EV market? And just trying to get a sense of how we should be thinking about the opportunity here.

John Van Scoter

Thanks for the question, Jake. Yes, it is very early days. I don't know if you said innings or not, if you were referring to a baseball analogy, we're probably in between the first and second innings in discussions with humanoids and with defense applications. But yes, we believe they will move faster. The qualification cycles will be shorter. The number of cycles per period will be greater. I kind of draw an analogy to say, a CES consumer electronics kind of cycle more so than a typical 4-plus year automotive cycle. So that's what it makes it so attractive. Again, I want to emphasize, automotive continues to be our North Star. We're looking for markets that have synergies from a system requirement standpoint, both in energy density and safety, in cycle life, that sort of thing. So we won't take our eye off that ball, but it could create some validation points for us and some modest revenue for us in the medium term.

Jacob Sekelsky

Okay. That's helpful. And then just building off that a bit, how much of the planned 45 tonne per annum capacity increase at MOBIUS is spoken for existing customers or partners? And do you expect to reserve any output there for these additional markets in '27?

John Van Scoter

Right now, we don't have any of it secured in terms of a supply agreement. We do have the existing SK On supply agreement that we announced back in 2024 for metric tons, but that is largely being supplied through our batch process continuously. We will -- we expect to be requalifying with MOBIUS with our various customers. So we need to get through commissioning and get to demonstrated nameplate capability, and then we'll start that process in 2027.

Operator

The next question comes from Sameer Joshi with H.C. Wainwright.

Sameer Joshi

So the guidance for -- first, congrats on the progress on MOBIUS. My first question is -- yes, the cash investment guidance is now $75 million to $85 million from $85 million to $100 million. So that's understandable, but that implies a wide range, by my calculation, it's around $18 million to $28 million for the fourth quarter. Should we expect it towards the lower end or high end? Or maybe asked another way, what would make it go up to $28 million or what could make it stay at $18 million?

Linda Heller

Well, we feel very comfortable with the guidance of $75 million to $85 million for the year. There's a number of things that can be lumpy -- in terms of that, for example, our DOE assistance agreement when we -- the timing of reimbursement could have a swing either way. So there's items like that, payments to vendors, equipment vendors when they complete their checklist so that we will continue to pay that on MOBIUS. Those can have swings in timing as well. So it's mainly timing issues, I would say, not so much expense issues.

Sameer Joshi

Understood. Got it. Thanks for the clarification. Similar -- part 2 of that question is, do we have a 2027 plan of similar investment guidance -- cash investment guidance for 2027?

Linda Heller

We have not. We -- our plan will always be to provide an outlook for '27 in our fourth quarter 2026 earnings call that is consistent with our pattern in previous years.

Sameer Joshi

Understood. And then on the Korea JV that we are looking at, you are talking to several partners. Is this -- should we expect any initial -- at least some kind of an announcement during 2026? Or will this be a 2027 event?

John Van Scoter

Well, we've been targeting with 2 partners through advanced negotiations and discussions to get something done this year. We'll see. We'll see if we can get that done. We're trying like heck to put something out, get it put together. But sometimes these big deals do move to the right. So we're pressing hard. We'll see how it lands. We've got 6 weeks left to make it happen.

Sameer Joshi

Understood. May I squeeze in one more on sort of MOBIUS, the continuous versus batch processing. Are you able to quantify sort of the costs per production unit or yield improvements that would happen because of the continuous process versus batch? Or is it too early to talk of such things?

John Van Scoter

We certainly will be able to do that ultimately, but it really is too early. We've got to get the nameplate demonstrated for MOBIUS. Then we'll be able to easily do those comparisons and show the cost down. You recall that we did show a representative cost down curve in our investor deck recently. That is, we believe, a good representation of what we will get as a next step with MOBIUS, but we will certainly be able to confirm that once we have it fully commissioned and nameplate demonstrated.

Operator

The next question comes from Adam Kelsey with Titan Partners Group.

Adam Kelsey

John, I really enjoyed your comment about EVs being your North Star, but that there's potential beyond that. Would love to better understand how you balance your attention between the auto side as well as these emerging markets?

John Van Scoter

Yes, great question. I would say we are still primarily focused on the EV segment. But again, we're looking to these other newer markets where there is synergy from a system requirement standpoint, notably energy density, safety and cycle life. So other markets that don't have those kind of requirements that EV markets have, we're not spending time on those, but we are spending time where there's synergy.

Adam Kelsey

Great. And obviously, some of those markets like robotics, there's an educational process upfront. But I'd be curious from a technical and technology perspective, is there anything you're seeing that either builds a moat or helps you guys compete in those markets against any potential competitors?

John Van Scoter

Yes. It's really a great point, Adam. The relative battery knowledge in the EV market is much higher than it is in these other markets largely. So we're spending a lot of our time just educating the end OEMs around the value proposition for all solid-state batteries and specifically sulfide-based ones. We've gotten really good reception, but it is a relatively new topic for them. So we're exploring different system applications with these OEMs as ways to give them things that they can't do today with traditional LIB batteries. Weight and balance is a big deal, say, in humanoids and then payload differences say, in the military applications. So yes, we're kind of in the education phase right now of the art of the possible with all solid-state batteries in these new markets.

Adam Kelsey

Awesome. And I know it's still early days, but when we think about initial MOBIUS production, are you -- how are you thinking through these other potential markets and utilizing your capacity effectively and efficiently?

John Van Scoter

I believe that MOBIUS will become the core going forward. We'll continue to operate the batch line as long as there's demand for those -- for that product. But our objective is to, as soon as we can switch over to the MOBIUS line and primarily support customers with that line moving forward to get the learnings, to get the yield, to get the cost -- so then we can scale up to that 500 metric ton plant based on that continuous process in Korea rapidly.

Adam Kelsey

Awesome. And one final one for me. With respect to the reduced spend, it sounds like there are a few operational improvements. I'm just curious if there's anything you guys would like to call out or highlight.

Linda Heller

On the operational performance, a couple of things. We renegotiated some supplier contracts in terms of that, which yields benefits for multiple years. Those were significant for us, very important as we work down the unit cost for our electrolyte as well as just getting some efficiencies out of our capital expenditures working that through on our cash. So we did a very good job on those. So those are 2 of the biggest impacts, I would say, on that.

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to John Van Scoter for any closing remarks.

John Van Scoter

Thank you for joining the call today and for your interest in Solid Power. We look forward to updating you again next quarter.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.