Xos (XOS) Q2 2026 Earnings Call: Power Hub Expansion and Revised Guidance

Xos (NASDAQ: XOS) reported lower second-quarter revenue and deliveries after customer readiness and acceptance delays shifted several orders into later periods. The company also expanded its energy-storage strategy with the launch of the Power Hub, targeting data centers, defense and temporary power applications.

Key Takeaways

• Q2 2026 revenue was $4.7 million on 30 unit deliveries, versus $18.4 million on 135 units in Q2 2025 and $11.2 million on 95 units in Q1 2026.
• GAAP gross margin reached 12.1%, up from 8.9% a year earlier but down from 38.9% in Q1. Xos recorded its 12th consecutive quarter of positive non-GAAP gross margin.
• First-half GAAP gross margin rose to a company-record 31%, compared with 11.8% in the first half of 2025, supported by a greater mix of higher-margin hub and powertrain deliveries.
• Xos launched its 3.1-megawatt-hour Power Hub, which provides 1.5 megawatts of continuous power. Management is positioning the product for power-constrained data centers, industrial sites and defense applications.
• The company ended Q2 with $13.2 million in cash and cash equivalents, up 35% from Q1 after raising $7.6 million net through its ATM program and a registered direct offering.
• Xos revised its full-year 2026 outlook to revenue of $35 million to $43 million, deliveries of 250 to 350 units and a non-GAAP operating loss of $11.4 million to $14.7 million.

Core Financial Results

For the first half of 2026, revenue totaled $16 million on 125 units, down from $24.3 million on 164 units a year earlier. GAAP gross profit increased to $4.9 million from $2.9 million, lifting gross margin by more than 19 percentage points to 31%.

First-half non-GAAP operating loss narrowed 41% to $8.8 million, while adjusted EBITDA loss improved 39% to $7.5 million. Operating expenses declined approximately 9% to $17.5 million.

Free cash flow was negative $4.3 million in the first half, compared with negative $0.1 million a year earlier. Management attributed the change mainly to a smaller working-capital release: inventory and receivables generated $3.6 million of cash in the current period versus $16.3 million a year earlier.

Business and Operating Performance

Xos produced 29 hubs during Q2, its highest quarterly output to date. Management clarified that not all 29 units qualified as deliveries; some paid units remained at the factory awaiting customer pickup.

The company launched the Power Hub series in June. Its flagship containerized system combines battery storage, power conversion and energy controls in one enclosure, producing AC power rather than operating solely as a DC block. Management said this architecture reduces site engineering requirements and allows faster integration with conventional diesel, natural gas or propane generators.

Xos is targeting data centers that require temporary power while awaiting grid interconnection. Management said grid connections can take three to seven years and argued that battery storage can smooth volatile AI computing loads, improve generator efficiency and reduce maintenance, fuel consumption and emissions.

The company has more than 250 megawatt-hours of energy storage deployed across North America. Existing hub users include Caltrans, Duke Energy, Xcel Energy and Waymo. Management expects to announce Power Hub rental, leasing and deployment partners in coming quarters.

Hub production is also expanding into AC export configurations for backup power, industrial uses and data-center infrastructure. Xos completed substantial UL testing during the quarter and is pursuing certifications designed to apply across DC charging, AC power output and multiple hub sizes.

In powertrains, Xos continued producing kits for Blue Bird and began delivering systems with vehicle-to-grid capability. The company has received more than 100 powertrain orders since launching the Blue Bird program in Q2 2025.

Inventory declined to $23.5 million from $25 million at year-end 2025 and $31 million at the end of Q2 2025. Management said a higher mix of hubs and powertrain kits should improve inventory turnover because those products do not require the secondary upfitting stage associated with some step vans.

Management Guidance

The revised outlook reflects updated product-mix and volume expectations for the second half. Management expects the majority of 2026 deliveries to occur in the second half, weighted toward products it views as having stronger demand and margins.

Xos also continues to expect full-year gross margins to be meaningfully better than in 2025, although management cautioned that quarterly margins will vary with product mix.

Risks and Watch Items

• Several powertrain and smaller truck orders were delayed by customer readiness and acceptance. Management expects them to be fulfilled over the next year, with some potentially closing within the next several quarters.
• Q2 volume was substantially below the company’s plan, reducing revenue, gross profit and operating leverage.
• Some UL standards are expected to receive approval within weeks, while additional certifications could extend into 2027. Management said current certification levels do not prevent initial deliveries.
• First-half free cash flow deteriorated because the working-capital benefit was smaller than in the prior-year period.
• Xos identified access to capital and its ability to continue as a going concern among its forward-looking risks. The company said it will continue proactively managing liquidity and pursuing strategic capital-raising opportunities.
• Supply-chain disruption, tariffs, trade policy, international conflict and shortages of energy or industrial inputs remain risks cited by management.

Analyst Q&A Highlights

Power Hub certification: Xos has component-level UL approval and is conducting system-level testing across several standards. One approval is expected within weeks, while another process may continue into next year. Management said certification work is not currently blocking deliveries.

Power Hub design and battery sourcing: The 3.1-megawatt-hour system integrates the battery, power conversion system and controller to provide deployable AC power. Gotion is the primary battery supplier, using domestically produced cells and packs from its Illinois facility to address U.S.-content and foreign-entity-of-concern compliance requirements for customers including defense organizations.

Delayed orders: Management said the Q2 shortfall included both powertrain delays and several smaller truck orders, rather than being limited to the chassis business. The orders remain expected over approximately the next year.

Blue Bird opportunity: Xos views Blue Bird’s acquired commercial chassis capacity as potentially complementary. Management said the facility could support more than 20,000 units annually and may create a longer-term opportunity for Xos as a potential electric powertrain supplier.

Operating expenses: The Q2 reduction reflected both revenue-related variability and lower purchases of R&D materials. Management expects the expense cadence in coming quarters to be similar to Q1 2026.

Full Earnings Call Transcript

Complete Earnings Call Transcript

Management Remarks

Operator

Welcome to the Xos Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to David Zlotchew, General Counsel. Please go ahead.

David Zlotchew

Thank you all for joining us today. Hosting the call with me are Xos' Chief Executive Officer, Dakota Semler; Xos' Chief Operating Officer, Giordano Sordoni; and Xos' Chief Financial Officer, Liana Pogosyan. Today, after the close of regular trading, Xos issued its second quarter 2026 earnings press release.

As you listen to today's conference call, we encourage you to have our press release in front of you, which includes our financial results as well as commentary on the quarter ended June 30, 2026. Management's statements today reflect management's views as of today, August 13, 2026, only, and will include forward-looking statements, including statements regarding our fiscal year 2026, management's expectations for future financial and operational performance and other statements regarding our plans, prospects and expectations.

These statements are not promises or guarantees and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause them to differ materially from actual results. Please refer to today's press release and our filings with the SEC, including our most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings for a more detailed discussion of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements.

Such factors include, but are not limited to, Xos' ability to access capital when needed and continue as a going concern, Xos' ability to implement business plans and identify and realize opportunities, potential supply chain disruptions and/or economic downturns resulting from trade policies, tariffs, international conflicts and tensions and/or shortages of access to oil, energy and other key industrial inputs.

We undertake no obligation to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law. You should not put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Further, today's presentation includes references to non-GAAP financial measures and performance metrics. Additional information about these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of historical non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measures is included in the press release we issued today.

Our press release and SEC filings are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at www.xostrucks.com/investor-overview. With that, I now turn it over to our CEO, Dakota.

Dakota Semler

Thanks, David, and thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call. Every company has a handful of quarters that redraw the boundaries of what it can become. Q2 2026 was one of those quarters for us. In June, we launched the Power Hub, the newest and largest member of the Xos Hub family. And with it, we stepped directly into one of the largest infrastructure build-outs in American history, the race to power data centers and the AI economy.

The through line of the quarter was clear. Xos is becoming a power infrastructure company with the products, the customer base and the manufacturing capability to grow in the markets far larger than the one we started in. On the headline numbers, we delivered 30 units in the quarter, generating $4.7 million in revenue and posted our 12th consecutive quarter of positive non-GAAP gross margins. Deliveries came in lighter than we planned. We anticipated delivering far more units in the quarter, but multiple orders shifted into subsequent quarters, pending customer delays and customer acceptance. That is frustrating, and I will not pretend otherwise, but these are deferrals, and we anticipate fulfilling those orders over the next year.

Even with the later deliveries, our margin trajectory through the first half remains strong. GAAP gross margin for the first half of 2026 was 31%, the strongest first half in Xos' history, and we are proud of that. Liana will take you through the full financial picture, including our updated full year outlook, which reflects the timing of those shifted orders. What has not changed is the demand underneath this business. We anticipate a strong second half with multiple opportunities across our growing segments.

In June, we announced the launch of the Power Hub series, mobile containerized battery energy storage with our flagship 3.1 megawatt hour unit delivering 1.5 megawatts of continuous power from a standard intermodal container form factor. Multiple units can be combined to power multi-megawatt sites without traditional engineering cycles. This is not just a bigger battery, it's a deployable power system.

Here's why it matters. We believe one of the biggest constraints in the U.S. industry right now is the inability to deliver power where it is needed, when it is needed. Data centers and industrial facilities are waiting 3 to 7 years for grid interconnection. The Power Hub lets them energize a site in days. And we're not arriving in this market without a foothold.

Xos has more than 250 megawatt hours of energy storage already deployed across North America. Customers in this market do not buy promises, they buy proof. And our proof is our EV charger hubs that are working in the field today. That demand is already converting. The charger hub has already supported a large data center construction project for a hyperscaler customer, exactly the application this product was built for, power-constrained sites, fast deployment, no permitting overhead and customers who need uptime more than they need theory.

We expect to announce rental, leasing and deployment partners for the Power Hub in the coming quarters. The same demand signal is coming from the public sector, and it grew louder throughout the quarter. In May, Xos was selected as one of only 17 finalists from a nationwide pool of applicants at the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command Commercial Capabilities Showcase, where our team ran a live demonstration of the charger hub, real-time DC fast charging of an electric vehicle, no grid connection, no setup crew.

And in June, we made an appearance with the Government Fleet Expo in Long Beach, putting our trucks, powertrains and hubs in front of municipal, state and federal fleet buyers. The electrification of the battlefield is one of the most significant operational shifts inside today's military. Unmanned aerial systems, counter UAS platforms, distributed computing at the forward operating base and expanded telecommunications are all creating load growth that only quiet deployable power can serve. The hub was built for exactly that environment, and the reception from defense customers this quarter confirmed it.

Our commercial business kept building as well. At ACT Expo in May, we showcased the complete Xos ecosystem, Step vans powered by Xos powertrains and the charger hub at one conference. The proof points behind that ecosystem kept stacking up. Over 100 powertrain orders since we launched the business with Blue Bird in the second quarter of last year, hubs operating with fleets like Caltrans, Duke Energy, Xcel Energy and Waymo, vehicles in service with UPS and FedEx ISPs and more than 1,000 Xos units in operation today.

The economics underneath all of this continue to move in our favor. With diesel in California averaging north of $7 per gallon during the quarter, heavy-duty fleets are running electric are seeing per mile fuel savings of more than 60% -- those savings are real, they are durable, and they do not depend on where federal policy lands. The regulatory tailwind may have turned, but the economic tailwind has not.

Underneath the growth story, the discipline that got us here has not changed. Gross margin will move the product mix from quarter-to-quarter, but the structural drivers, higher-margin hub and powertrain revenue, lower product costs and leaner operations are durable. And we continue to expect full year 2026 gross margins to be meaningfully better than 2025. We also strengthened the balance sheet during the quarter and closed with more cash than we started. Liana will cover both in detail.

Stepping back, Q2 2026 was the quarter Xos' addressable market got bigger, a lot bigger. Trucks put us on the road, powertrains put us inside other OEMs vehicles. The Power Hub has put us in front of the defining infrastructure challenge of this decade. The second half of this year is about converting that position into deliveries.

With that, I'll turn it over to Gio to walk through the operational highlights of the quarter.

Giordano Sordoni

Thanks, Dakota. During the second quarter, our operations and engineering teams continue to execute across our commercial vehicle, powertrain and energy storage product lines while making meaningful progress towards the launch of several new products and configurations. Across our manufacturing operations, we continue to build Xos trucks and powertrain systems alongside our Xos Hub energy storage products. One of the strengths of our operating model is that these products share much of the same underlying technology, supply chain, engineering resources and manufacturing infrastructure, allowing us to support multiple product lines within a flexible production footprint.

On the Xos Hub, Q2 was our highest production quarter to date with 29 hubs produced during the quarter. This milestone reflects the work that our team has done to improve the hub production process, increase throughput and make the production line more flexible. Importantly, these improvements aren't just about producing more units. We've also been working to increase the number of hub configurations we can efficiently build. This flexibility is becoming increasingly important as we expand the hub platform beyond mobile EV charging and into a broader range of energy storage and power applications.

A major focus during Q2 was the testing, validation and certification of these new hub configurations. Our engineering team completed a substantial amount of UL testing and certification work during the quarter. This work is critical as we expand the product into applications where customers require certified equipment that can integrate safely and reliably with existing electrical infrastructure.

We've also made significant progress towards the production launch of our AC export hub variants. These products build on the battery, power electronics, controls and software technology that we've already deployed in the field, but add the ability to directly provide AC power. This meaningfully expands the addressable applications for the hub, including temporary and backup power, industrial applications and power support for energy-intensive infrastructure such as data centers.

On the vehicle and powertrain side, we continued building Xos commercial vehicles while also producing and delivering powertrain kits to Bluebird. We began delivering powertrain kits with the vehicle-to-grid capability, giving our customers the capability to use the Xos powertrain as an energy asset that can feed energy back into the grid.

Running these programs alongside the growing hub production demonstrates the flexibility of our manufacturing operation and our ability to deploy a common technology platform across multiple end markets.

Across all of these efforts, our focus remains on building a more flexible and capital-efficient operating model. The manufacturing improvements we made during the quarter allow us to support a broader product portfolio using our existing team, facility and infrastructure.

As we move through the second half of the year, our priorities are straightforward. continue executing on truck and powertrain production, ramp our expanded hub product portfolio and build on the manufacturing and certification work completed during the first half of the year. With that, I'll turn it over to Liana.

Liana Pogosyan

Thanks, Gio. Before I go through the quarter, I want to frame the first half because 3 things came together that have not come together before. The first half of 2026 produced the highest GAAP gross margin and gross profit in Xos' history, our lowest GAAP and non-GAAP operating loss and a record half for powertrain and hub deliveries.

Margin expanding while operating loss narrows is the operating leverage we have been building toward. With that as a backdrop, let me walk through the details, including the delivery timing that shaped the second quarter.

For the first half of 2026, our revenue was $16 million on 125 units, down from $24.3 million on 164 units in the first half of 2025. Revenue decreased as a result of lower deliveries, primarily reflecting orders that shifted into subsequent quarters pending customer readiness and acceptance together with engineering resources towards the development of new hub variants.

For Q2 2026, our revenue was $4.7 million on 30 units, down from $18.4 million on 135 units in Q2 2025 and down sequentially from $11.2 million on 95 units. This quarter's deliveries were mainly driven by our hub and powertrain product lines, including Blue Bird Powertrain kits.

In the first half of 2026, we generated GAAP gross profit of $4.9 million, a 31% gross margin compared with $2.9 million or 11.8% in the first half of 2025. That is an improvement of more than 19 percentage points year-over-year and the highest first half GAAP gross margin in our history.

Non-GAAP gross profit was $4.6 million or 29% compared with $1.2 million or 4.9% a year ago, an improvement of more than 24 percentage points. The improvement reflects a favorable shift in product mix towards higher-margin hub and powertrain deliveries, together with continued savings from optimized inventory management and sourcing strategies.

For the second quarter of 2026, GAAP gross profit was $0.6 million or 12.1% compared with $1.6 million or 8.9% in the second quarter of 2025 and $4.4 million or 38.9% in the first quarter of 2026. Non-GAAP gross profit was $0.3 million or 7.2% for the second quarter of 2026 versus $0.3 million or 1.5% in the prior year quarter and $4.3 million or 38.2% in the first quarter of 2026. The sequential decline reflects the timing and mix of deliveries within the year. This quarter marks our 12th consecutive period of positive non-GAAP gross margin.

Now turning to expenses. In the first half of 2026, operating expenses were $17.5 million compared to $19.2 million in the first half of 2025. The reduction of approximately 9% reflects our continued discipline in managing costs while continuing to invest.

Our Q2 2026 operating expenses were $8.5 million, down from $8.7 million in Q2 2025 and down sequentially from $9 million in Q1 2026. Our operating loss for the first half of 2026 improved to $12.6 million compared with $16.3 million in the first half of 2025, a reduction of approximately 23% -- non-GAAP operating loss for the first half of 2026 improved to $8.8 million compared with $14.9 million in the first half of 2025, a reduction of approximately 41%, reflecting continued momentum toward profitability driven by improved operating efficiency and cost discipline.

For Q2 2026, operating loss was $7.9 million compared with $7.1 million in Q2 2025 and $4.6 million in Q1 2026, primarily reflecting lower volumes during the quarter. Non-GAAP operating loss improved year-over-year to $6.2 million compared with $6.8 million in Q2 2025, but increased sequentially from $2.6 million in Q1 2026, primarily due to the same volume dynamics.

Our EBITDA loss for the first half of 2026 improved to $11.5 million compared with a loss of $15.3 million in the first half of 2025, an improvement of approximately 25%. Adjusted EBITDA during the first half of 2026 was a loss of $7.5 million, representing an improvement of approximately 39% compared with a loss of $12.1 million in the first half of 2025, reflecting the continued benefits of cost discipline and operational efficiency.

For Q2 2026, EBITDA was a loss of $7.4 million compared with a loss of $6.5 million in Q2 2025 and a loss of $4.1 million in Q1 2026. Adjusted EBITDA for Q2 2026 was a loss of $5.1 million compared to a loss of $4.9 million in Q2 2025 and a loss of $2 million in Q1 2026.

Turning to the balance sheet. We closed Q2 2026 with cash and cash equivalents totaling $13.2 million, up from $9.8 million at the end of the first quarter, an increase of approximately 35%. During the quarter, we raised $2.2 million under our ATM offering program and $5.4 million through a registered direct offering or $7.6 million in total, net of offering costs. These raises strengthened our liquidity position and provide additional capital to support our growth initiatives.

For the first 6 months of 2026, operating cash flow less CapEx or free cash flow was negative $4.3 million compared with negative $0.1 million in the first half of 2025. The change primarily reflects a significantly larger working capital release in the prior year period when reductions in inventory and accounts receivable generated $16.3 million of cash compared with $3.6 million in the current year period.

Inventory declined to $23.5 million at the end of the second quarter of 2026 from $25 million at year-end 2025 and $31 million at the end of the second quarter of 2025, reflecting continued progress from our inventory management initiatives and broader operational discipline.

We continue to make meaningful progress in improving accounts receivable turnover. Over the past 4 quarters, we collected nearly $50 million from both customers and organizations administering state grant programs, including $7.2 million during the second quarter of 2026.

Accounts receivable net declined to $4.5 million at June 30, 2026, from $6 million at year-end 2025. This discipline remains central to building a more self-sustaining business with a stronger foundation for long-term stability. As we look ahead, our priorities remain clear: scaling efficiently, proactively managing liquidity, pursuing strategic capital raising opportunities, allocating capital with discipline and maintaining our focus on accounts receivable collections.

Now turning to our outlook. In order to better reflect changes in the expected product mix and volume expectations for the second half of the year, we are revising our full year 2026 guidance of revenue to fall within the range of $35 million to $43 million, unit deliveries to be within the range of 250 to 350 units and non-GAAP operating loss to be in the range of $14.7 million to $11.4 million. With that, I'll turn the call back over to the operator.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Ted Jackson with Northland Securities.

Question-and-Answer Session

Edward Jackson

Sorry about the slippage in units in the quarter, but congratulations on all the progress with the hub. On the hub, is it -- you said 29 units produced. Is that just produced? Or is that the number of units that actually went out the door during the quarter?

Giordano Sordoni

Yes, Ted, those were -- that's the number produced. Not all of those count as deliveries, although some of them have been paid for. Some of them are still in the factory paid for, but yet to be picked up and delivered to the customer.

Edward Jackson

On the hub, you provided some commentary with regards to efforts to get it UL listed, which obviously is critical. Could you outline kind of where you are in that process? I mean, usually, there's a fair amount of testing with regards to different components of any kind of equipment.

And then after that, you kind of test the unit in and of itself. So maybe some discussion on the different tests that you've taken in past, the ones you have left and maybe a time line to when you complete?

Giordano Sordoni

Yes. We have UL approval at the component level. As you mentioned, we're using UL approved components for the most part. We are doing system-level testing. There are a few different standards that we're going after, one of which we should have approval on in the next couple of weeks, and then we're pursuing another standard that will take a little bit longer.

It's not gating for customer deliveries completely with the amount of testing we have now and especially within a couple of weeks, there are plenty of customers that are willing and able to take the hub with the level of certification and testing that it has now, and we'll continue to build and improve upon that.

And as we kind of touched on in our comments, we're making sure to do the testing in a way where it will apply across as many variants of the platform as possible. We are building these units with different capabilities. So DC charge output versus AC power output. We want the test and certifications to cover both those use cases as well as different sizes of the hub.

In the mobile form factor, we go as small as like a 210-kilowatt hour hub and as large as a 630-kilowatthour unit. We've made a ton of improvements to the enclosure itself so that our kind of standard middle ground 400-kilowatt hour unit will come under 10,000 pounds, which is an important requirement for our customers that want to move the unit around with a kind of a standard pickup truck.

So that's another thing that we've been hard at work on in future versions of the hub. But yes, going well so far, and it's in no way going to stop us from starting to make deliveries of the new versions of the unit and continue delivering the charger hub version of the product, I should say.

Edward Jackson

Is it fair to assume that you'll have all the UL certification work done before year-end?

Giordano Sordoni

Well, I think we'll have certain standards done within the next couple of weeks as far as other standards that we're pursuing that might push into next year. But again, nothing that's gating us from being able to get up and running.

Edward Jackson

Okay. And then when looking at the unit shortfall, I mean, can you kind of give us some color? It sounds like given that you're talking a little more positively with regards to powertrains and hubs that a lot of the surprise for you is on the chassis side. Is that correct?

Dakota Semler

Yes. So part of the surprise was interest in powertrain delays. We had some orders that got delayed and slowed down on the powertrain side of the business. There were a few smaller truck orders that also pushed back. But as we highlighted, all of these orders are still expected to come through within the next year or so, some of them probably even within the next couple of quarters.

Edward Jackson

Okay. And then my final question. I know Bluebird is an important customer, and they made a pretty significant announcement when they reported with regards to taking over the chassis operations for Ford for sub and such. Is there any implications to that as it relates to what they're doing with Ford? I mean I know it sounds like it's just ICE related, but what are the -- are there any ramifications or anything that is noteworthy as it relates to Blue Bird and Xos with regards to that development?

Dakota Semler

Yes, I can't speak exactly to their internal strategy for the acquisition. We view it as a potential complementary piece. Blue Bird has bought our powertrains to sell into the commercial chassis space as well. And that's not something that currently Ford has an offering for. And their strip chassis product lineup, they have never built a zero emissions product and Bluebird looked to us to build their zero emissions commercial chassis powertrain.

So that's something we view as a potential opportunity in the future. And the capacity, we're very familiar with the Detroit chassis products facility that they bought. The capacity and throughput of that facility is incredible. I think they can produce upwards of 20,000 units a year. So it represents some very large volume opportunities that I think are exciting for Blue Bird. And as one of their potential EV powertrain suppliers, we think it could be a really interesting growth opportunity as we continue to expand our relationship with them.

Operator

Our next question comes from Craig Irwin with ROTH Capital Partners.

Craig Irwin

So Dakota, I wanted to ask a little bit more about the Power Hub. The product in the market that's competitive that's getting the most attention these days is obviously Ford's unit, where they use cattle cells. And I guess they're about 5.5 megawatt hours. So your 3.1 should make you from a unit purchase price materially less expensive.

And then I just wanted to confirm that you're going to continue using cells from Eve EVE, which were less expensive than the cattle cells in the first place. And maybe you want to comment on why 3.1 megawatt hours in the box instead of 5 and half. I do know you're running it at the same rate, over 2. But can you help us understand the customer conversations that helps you design this product?

Dakota Semler

Yes, absolutely. So one of the things that is an important call out, and I think is sometimes overlooked in the large-scale BESS industry is that when you're looking at a lot of the traditional BESS systems that are out there in the market from suppliers like CATL or from Ford, they are what is referred to as a DC block.

So as you know, all these LFP batteries and modules and systems run DC power. And so when there is a handoff of those systems, it's a DC connection. And typically, when those BESS systems are connected into utility scale generation or any kind of utility scale load, there's a separate inverter and power conversion system that's required to connect it into the grid, which is a very large system and typically quite costly as well.

So when you're buying from a CATL or from a BYD or any of these large cell manufacturers, even the Ford system that they're building now, it's what's considered a DC block. There's a new architecture that we have implemented, and there's a couple of other folks that are starting to do this, where you actually take the DC block that's in your traditional ESS and you combine it with the power conversion system and you combine it with the energy controller, which controls and moderates that power.

And essentially, what we're outputting is not just DC power, it's AC power. And that makes it really effective for a variety of different reasons. One is you're manufacturing the entire system, PCS and controller, all in one enclosure in one factory. So it brings the cost down considerably of the actual system as a combined system.

In addition to that, it makes them much quicker and faster to deploy. So instead of engineering a site where you have to design the best system connected to the PCS, connected to your controller, connected to your AC transformer or switchgear or removal switch, you are going to now design one system that plugs into the rest of the load. And so that makes it a lot quicker to be able to deploy these, and we can directly connect to a conventional diesel or recip genset.

So it makes it very, very deployable from a power standpoint. And I think it's important to draw that out because one of the biggest use cases we see is in temporary power as data centers start to see demand for their products ramping up, they need to get power quickly. And that can take 3 to 7 years for them to get power from the grid. So what a lot of operators are doing is they're bringing in large reciprocating gensets in the 2- to 4-megawatt range, and they're connecting them directly to the load.

But that creates a variety of problems for basically AI compute loads. They're very, very volatile. They're totally different than traditional historical data center loads where you see a significant ramp-up in power and that ramp-up is followed by a short -- a very quick fall in power demand. They're very volatile, which causes generators to run at very volatile RPMs, which creates a ton of maintenance issues and maintenance costs in keeping those generators operational.

The other thing it does is it causes your generator to run at suboptimal efficiency ranges. So as it's going up and down in the RPMs, you're seeing incredibly poor fuel consumption. And what you really want a generator to do is to run at their optimal efficiency level, which can be at a 70% to 80% of their rated load. And that's what the best system essentially does is it will allow these recip generators to not only operate more efficiently, but to take away those volatile peaks, reducing maintenance and wear and tear on the generators and ultimately reducing emissions because the generator is burning the most amount of fuel the most efficiently.

So as you're looking at a lot of these sites, you look at the xAI site in Memphis and you look at some of these other sites that have been powered by traditional recip diesel or nat gas or propane gen sets, -- the BESS is what's key to keeping O&M costs low and to keeping fuel costs as efficient as they can be.

So we're not just selling that DC block. A DC block can't connect into a conventional genset. You can't drop it at a site and immediately plug it in and have megawatts of power within a few days. You have to install that inverter, you have to connect it. You have to make sure your controller is synced between the generator, the PCS and the BESS system. So there's a lot of engineering and work that goes into rolling that out.

And so that's where our system is truly differentiated as you can actually deliver this to a site, plug it into any conventional reciprocating large-scale genset and immediately have site power to power these critical loads that have really expensive or costly sensitive electronics that are being powered.

And then you had a second question, which is just around cell supply. So we've worked with a number of different suppliers over the years. We have great partnerships with a lot of the large Tier 1 key suppliers globally. And our primary supplier for this product is Gotion. They've built an incredible facility in Illinois, where they're doing domestic production of battery cells and battery packs. And that was a critical requirement for us as we have a number of customers, including some of the defense customers we talked about that have specific requirements around U.S. content and U.S. manufacturing of cells and critical components.

And so in order to maintain those FEOC compliance requirements, we knew we had to source a local cell and a local pack. And so these are all built with Gotion packs, which are still incredibly competitive being that they're manufactured here, but also by an incredibly experienced cell manufacturer, one of the top 5 cell manufacturers globally.

Craig Irwin

So my next question is about inventory, right? So you've done a really good job bringing down your inventory over the last several quarters. And again, even in a light quarter, light revenue quarter, you brought inventory down. What's a fair expectation for inventory liquidation over the next couple of quarters? You do expect an uptick from what we saw in the June quarter. Does this help us release cash from the balance sheet?

Dakota Semler

Yes, it definitely does. We've taken multiple steps to improve that. I think one of the biggest things that's shifting in our model is that when we deliver powertrain kits and we deliver hubs, there is not a secondary stage of manufacturing. When those vehicles or those components or those hubs leave our factory, they change hands and title changes to the customer. And that's a little bit different with a step van where sometimes we will sell a complete strip chassis, sometimes we'll sell a completed step van.

And there might be a few months where that vehicle is in the hands of the upfitter, getting delivered to a customer, which greatly increases our inventory holding period and our inventory turnover rates or decreases our inventory turnover rates. And so as the mix and shift evolves towards increased hubs and increased powertrains, that inventory turnover is gradually accelerated just based upon the type of product that we're selling.

But beyond that, we've really focused on optimizing, getting as many things built to order as possible and reducing the amount of inventory that we carry for demos or marketing -- sales and marketing type products that we use for events and loaners and that sort of thing.

So our focus is to get that and optimize it as much as possible. We hope for multiple inventory turns per year, and we're well on our way and significantly improved from what we've seen in the last 2 or 3 years. And that's something that we think will even get better with the hub and will be supported by having domestic production of a lot of our critical components, including costly things such as battery cells and battery packs.

Craig Irwin

And my last question is a financial question. So in the June quarter, you brought your SG&A and R&D down by a few hundred thousand dollars. Can you maybe talk about whether or not these were specific cost-out actions or more a function of the variable expense around revenue generation? And can we maybe expect these at similar or slightly lower levels over the next couple of quarters?

Liana Pogosyan

Yes. Thanks for the question, Craig. As far as the cadence, there were some as a result of the functional of revenue, but a lot of the decreases were smaller purchases of R&D materials. And just as far as the cadence of it, I would say we should expect it to be at the level similar to what we had earlier this year in the first quarter.

Craig Irwin

Excellent. Well, congratulations on another step forward, right? And we look forward to watching the progress.

Operator

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

Dakota Semler

For most of our history, the size of Xos' opportunity was set by how many fleets were ready to electrify their trucks. As of this quarter, it is set by something much larger, how much power this country needs and how fast it needs it. Data centers, defense installations, government fleets and commercial operators are all hitting the same wall. Energy demand that is growing faster than the grid can deliver.

In Q2, we put Xos squarely in front of that demand with an expanding product line that is already proving itself in the field. Growth, margins and liquidity still frame every decision we make and nothing about this quarter changed that discipline. What changed is the size of the field we play on.

The second half of 2026 is where that shows up in volume. The majority of the year's deliveries are ahead of us, weighted towards the products with the strongest demand and the strongest margins in our portfolio. We built Xos to move fleets. Now we are scaling it to power far more than that. Q2 was the quarter that the future came into view. With that, we'll wrap up today's call. Thank you, everybody.

Operator

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