Eve Holding - Q2 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good day, and welcome to the Eve Holding Inc. Q2 2024 earnings call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I'd now like to turn the conference over to Lucio Aldworth, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Lucio Aldworth (Head of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone. This is Lucio Aldworth, the Director of Investor Relations at Eve, and I wanted to welcome everyone to our Q2 2024 earnings conference call. Our CEO, Johann Bordais, and CFO, Eduardo Couto, are joining me on this call today. After their prepared remarks, we're going to open the call for questions, at which point Luiz Valentini, our Chief Technology Officer, will also join us for more technical questions. We did prepare a deck with a few slides and additional pictures that show our achievements in the quarter, as well as the rollout of our first full-scale prototype, and that's on our website at ir.eveairmobility.com. So please feel free to download it and follow along.

Let me first say that this presentation includes forward-looking statements or statements about events or circumstances that have not yet occurred.

These are largely based on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends affecting our business and our future financial performance. These statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, including, among other things, general economic, political, and business conditions, both in Brazil and in our market. The words believe, may, will, estimates, continues, anticipates, intends, expects, and similar words are intended to identify forward-looking statements, when they take no obligations to update publicly or revise any statement because of new information, future events, or other factors. With that, the future events and circumstances discussed in this presentation may not occur, and actual results could differ substantially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. With that, I'll now turn the presentation over to our CEO, Johann.

Johann Bordais (CEO)

Thanks, Lucio. Good morning, and thank you for joining the call today. We had a very special and exciting Q2. We continue to advance in our program, and we reached a very important milestone. As we had anticipated before, we completed the assembly of our prototype, and we rolled it out to the hangar for the first time in early July. This is a traditional ceremony to present a new aircraft to the public, the press, and investors. As a reminder, this is a full-scale engineering prototype without cabin nor cockpit, made of composite materials that will be piloted remotely. This prototype will be used to validate and improve the accuracy of previous subscale and computer models. It will also serve to build on the several rigs that we have for different individual components.

We will now start a series of ground tests before moving to hover and full transition flight tests. We expect these tests to initiate later this year, and they will be performed at the Embraer facilities in [Foreign language], also known and called GPX in the state of São Paulo. GPX offers an unparalleled infrastructure for test flight that was specially and specifically designed to test Embraer prototype aircraft. In parallel, we continue to down select suppliers and sign binding contracts. These define technical specifications for the component and commercial aspect with volume, unit prices, and aftermarket support conditions.

Just last month, we selected KRD, [Foreign language] and [Foreign language]. As a reminder, we had selected earlier in the year Caifor the pylons, [Foreign language] for the wings, [Foreign language] for the pilot and incepter, and also FACC for the tail section of our vehicle.

We have now completed the selection of what we call the flight-critical component suppliers for our aircraft, and we'll continue to work on defining the non-critical partners. We will come back to this later on. Now, moving to the next few slides, we will show some pictures of the rollout event and the aircraft itself. These show the full scale of our prototype, which, by the way, will closely resemble the commercial version. As we mentioned before, our eVTOL will have similar dimensions to most widely used helicopters so that it fits the helipad and also carries the same number of passengers. One interesting fact is that the prototype is made of multiple composite panels that are easily detachable, removable.

This will allow us to have easy access to the internal electric and electronic components and facilitate any operation that we may need to be done during the flight test campaign. We always had safety and simplicity in mind when defining the lift plus cruise configuration for our vehicle. With these fixed components, we believe that our aircraft will have many advantages that will allow operators to be profitable with lower maintenance and operating costs and higher availability for their missions. This simpler design also will benefit the certification campaign. Lastly, our commercial eVTOL will have Embraer's fifth-generation fly-by-wire system. This is a proven technology that has been successfully improving safety and passenger comfort in some of the Embraer commercial, executive, and military aircraft, and we have access to it.

This, in my view, is yet another competitive advantage that Eve has, and it will become eventually clear to investors over time. Now, moving on to the slide 6, it shows the next steps of our test campaigns for our engineering prototype. We will now start ground tests to validate thrust, energy consumption, sound, vibration, and other tests before moving to the actual flight test campaign. As we have always done, we will approach the test campaign very conservatively and only move forward with the minimal risk. We will initially perform the hover flight tied up to the ground and gradually increase power and height.

Then we will move to the partial transition. This is when we engage the pusher without fully disengaging the lifters to continue controlling the aircraft horizontally. And only then will we move to the full transition flights.

The next couple of slides show a bit more of the engineering infrastructure that we are accessing at the [Foreign language] and the GPX facilities. Again, this is where Embraer manufactures and tests most of its commercial, executive, and military aircraft, and it's the home of the largest runway in the Southern Hemisphere and the fourth largest in the world. This is a state-of-the-art facility with all the necessary infrastructure for test flight and has been available to Eve Air Mobility. In fact, this is where our prototype was built and will be tested, and it's the home of a custom-built rig that is mounted on a truck. We drive it down the runway to mimic what is the real-life aerodynamic drag, vibration, or other performance criteria, which we will test with different configurations.

We'll also validate and refine our computer models and ultimately improve the design of the motor propeller rigs of our aircraft. At the same time, we have another high-tech truck that will be the nerve center for the remote flying testing phase of our prototype. The truck is equipped with all the necessary equipment for the pilots. Our first prototype will be remote controlled along with different teams to constantly monitor different telemetry variables of the aircraft. Our prototype has also been fitted with several strategically placed cameras that will also feed in real-time images to the team in the truck. Now, getting to slide 9, we can see the latest addition to our component suppliers list, which we'll start using with the first 5 or 6 conforming prototypes.

So far, in 2024, we announced several suppliers: FACC to provide the control surface and operators, [Foreign language] for the wings, [Foreign language] for the pilot control and incepter, or joystick, as we call it sometimes. We also have signed with Thales for the sensors, Honeywell for the guidance and navigation, and lastly, [Foreign language] Aero for the seats. In the Q1 of 2024, we added KAI for the pylons to this list, and now we have added KRD for the polycarbonate windows, [Foreign language] for the doors, [Foreign language] for the fuselage components. With these additions, we have completed the selection of our primary component suppliers. We have been using a best-of-breed approach to bring suppliers with experience in aviation and certification. Importantly, they will also support us in the certification campaign and throughout the EVTOL lifecycle.

Lastly, these contracts have a defined price and quantity schedule with a scale function with a reduction in unit prices as we reach higher eVTOL volumes of production. This will provide economies of scale as we increase our output. We still have a few suppliers to select, but these are the non-critical for the aircraft performance, whether they are off-the-shelf components such as the ELT or the VHF, or optional like the skids or landing gears, lights, and so forth. And when I look at this list, I'm very confident on the high level of safety, certification, and performance of our eVTOL. Now, on slide 10, our total pre-order backlog stands at 2,900 aircraft for a value of a total of $14.5 billion based on the list price.

These are non-binding letters of intent from 30 different customers spread over 13 countries and different businesses, from the mainline to regional airline, to helicopter operators, ride-sharing platform, and leasing companies. We also have LOIs for Vector, our UTM software from 16 different customers, and believe that this reflects the market's leading value proposition we bring to our customers. Beyond that, we are developing a strong network of partners in areas such as infrastructure and energy to address one of the many challenges ahead of Urban Air Mobility, which is to create a whole new ecosystem besides simply developing an aircraft. Because aircraft don't fly without proper maintenance and support, we are highly focused on providing the best-in-class services to eVTOL's operators.

We have also secured contracts with 12 different customers for the maintenance, repair, and overhaul, what we call also the MRO, that could bring up to $1.2 billion of revenue for Eve over the first five years of operation. Now, I would like to invite our CFO, Edu, to go over our financials along with the milestone checklist.

Eduardo Couto (CFO)

Thanks, Johann. Now, move to slide 11. Eve is a pre-operational company developing its eVTOL and the ecosystem around it. Currently, our financials reflect mostly the costs associated with our program development. With that said, I want to highlight some of our numbers. Eve invested $36 million during the Q2 of 2024 in our program development as R&D activities continue to speed up with more headcount and higher engagement from suppliers. The majority was invested in our eVTOL aircraft and a smaller portion in service and support and the Urban Air Traffic Management software. We also deployed $5 million in SG&A during the quarter, which has been reasonably stable as we continue to control corporate expenses to focus our resources on the eVTOL development.

Higher development expenses in the Q2 were partially offset by interest revenues and a mark-to-market gain in our warrants, resulting in a net loss of $36 million in the Q2 of 2024. Now, moving to cash flow, our operations consumed $31 million in the quarter, up $4 million versus the same period of 2023 due to higher development spending. It's important to highlight that we drew another $14 million from our pre-approved credit line with the Brazilian Development Bank during the Q2. With that, we ended the Q1 with $206 million in cash, down only $16 million from Q1 2024. We still have approximately $38 million available from this line that we expect to access in the upcoming quarters. This is going to continue to help Eve to preserve its cash position. Now, moving to slide 12, please.

In early July, a few days after the end of the Q2, we announced an additional equity raise of $96 million. This private placement included new funds from strategic investors like Embraer, Nidec, and Space Florida, as well as some financial investors. With this new equity, we managed to attract new investors to our cap table, which in our view sends a strong message as to the soundness of our development program, its competitive advantages, and the credibility of our company. At the same time, we continue to enjoy a strong relationship with Embraer, who remains our controlling shareholder with 83% participation at Eve.

Considering the new fund, our Q2 pro forma liquidity reached approximately $340 million. I think this new cash improves what was already a comfortable financial position, considering our commitments to the program in the foreseeable future and secures our operations for multiple years ahead.

As a reminder, we expect to invest around $130 million-$170 million this year, and our cash consumption should intensify next year with the assembly of 5 conforming prototypes, as previously mentioned, and investments in our manufacturing site in Brazil, our Taubaté plant. Now, moving to slide 13, we remain on track to deliver our milestones for 2024. And in fact, just checked the assembly of our first full-scale prototype and presented it publicly a few weeks ago as initially planned.

We will now start ground tests in the second half of the year, but we want to call attention to the delivery of electric motors as they are in the critical path for some of our prototype tests in the second half, and we are monitoring it closely. In parallel, Brazil's Certification Authority, ANAC, concluded its public hearing process in mid-March to define the basis of certification.

The agency is now compiling all comments, and we expect the basis of certification to be published this year. Lastly, we continue to prepare our first eVTOL manufacturing plant in an existing site of Embraer in Brazil, in the city of Taubaté. We're also working to secure the necessary funding for the eVTOL industrialization through long-term financing. All our 2024 efforts will consume between $130 million-$170 million throughout this year. It's important to mention that the recent depreciation of the Brazilian currency versus the US dollar will help to reduce our cash consumption this year as the majority of our expenses are in the Brazilian currency. With that, we conclude our remarks, and I would like to open the call for questions. Operator, please proceed.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touch-tone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. At this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Savi Syth from Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Savi Syth (Analyst)

Hey, good morning, everyone. I was wondering, you mentioned the electric motors. I was wondering what the kind of expectation on when those will be delivered. And as you kind of contemplate building those certification-conforming prototypes for next year, what do you need to see before you start building those? Is it anything around the test campaign, or what are the factors that will decide when you move forward with that?

Johann Bordais (CEO)

Hello, Savi. Thank you. Thank you for the question. Yes, it was mentioned that now we've done the rollout of the prototype and what we call it the engineering prototype, which is different from the conforming prototype, which we'll start building next year. We'll have 5-6 conforming prototypes that we'll use with the certification authorities, ANAC, to get the certification. Okay? So we did mention that the critical path on the electrical motor end, this is for the—and we're talking about the engineering prototype. Okay? So that was what we mentioned here.

Savi Syth (Analyst)

Sorry, just wondering when you're expecting the electric motor delivered and if there's anything in the testing that you're doing here with that Engineering Prototype that will then decide when you start building the Conforming Prototypes?

Johann Bordais (CEO)

Okay. Well, Valentini. It would be nice to explain the process here.

Eduardo Couto (CFO)

Sure. Good morning. Hi, Savi. Thank you for the question. We expect the motors to be delivered still in the second semester, which then will allow us to start the flight test campaign, which includes first integration tests of these equipment on the vehicle. You can think of them as production tests to make sure that everything that is installed on the vehicle works together. Then from there, we can start actually a flight testing campaign and a ground testing campaign also that is more geared towards developing vehicle features, right? So studying things like noise, vibration characteristics of the vehicle during transition between hover and cruise flight and things like that.

So the arrival of the motors will allow us to complete these production tests that I'm calling for this engineering prototype and also move on to complete this engineering flight test campaign, which, as we have been saying, brings more maturity to the vehicle definitions so that we can start the testing with the conforming prototypes with more confidence and more efficiency towards certification. With respect to how that connects to the building of the conforming prototypes, we are basing the building and the definitions of the conforming prototypes much more on the relationship and the work that has been going now with the suppliers so that we are moving ahead in parallel with the development of the conforming prototypes while we are developing this engineering prototype.

We don't expect to have a change at this moment in the path and in the pace of the development of the conforming prototypes with this challenge on the delivery of the motors. We are still moving ahead. Then once the vehicle, the engineering vehicle flies, we can bring the learnings into the conforming prototypes. Again, just emphasizing that these are parallel paths.

Savi Syth (Analyst)

Very helpful. Thank you. And if I might, just on the Edu's comments on liquidity, and I think the release had multiple years of liquidity sufficient. So in terms of the step up next year, it doesn't seem like it's a big step up, even though you're doing a lot more of building and testing. Is that a fair comment, Edu?

Eduardo Couto (CFO)

That's correct, Savi. We may have a higher cash burn next year. It shouldn't be that higher than this year, especially because we have a couple of, I would say, positive things like the recent depreciation of the Brazilian currency against the dollar, right? It helps us because the majority of our expenses are in Brazilian reais. With a stronger dollar, that translates in a lower cash burn in dollar terms. We have a couple of positives that may help. Despite the higher activity next year, as you mentioned, I don't believe the cash consumption will be significantly higher. Of course, we're still working on the numbers, and we're going to come with more details as we go towards the end of this year. I think your assumption is reasonable.

Savi Syth (Analyst)

All right. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Andres Sheppard from Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.

Andres Sheppard (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking our questions and congratulations on the quarter. Johann, it was great seeing you at Farnborough a few weeks ago.

Johann Bordais (CEO)

Thank you.

Andres Sheppard (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Thank you.

Just a quick question. I was hoping maybe you can give us a little bit more color regarding kind of the test flights that you're going to be initiating in the second half of this year? Wondering if you can maybe walk us through the timeline there, kind of what those tests, how you anticipate those tests ramping up? And then maybe in addition to that, just remind us again the plans to assemble the additional up to five prototypes, the ones that will be certification compliant.

Certified.

Yeah, exactly. Thank you.

Johann Bordais (CEO)

Yeah. Oh, sure. And I'll pass it on to having the CTO with us here. He will give you more insight, obviously, on what's going to be the next step. So Valentini.

Luiz Valentini (CTO)

Sure. Thank you for the question, Andres. So the idea is to have a gradual opening of what we call the flight envelope of the vehicle. So we'll start running hover flight tests. These are important for us to balance and to improve the accuracy of our models with respect to things like the power needed to maneuver the vehicle in hover, the power needed, and the controllability features for failure cases that might happen while the vehicle is in flight. It will also include ground tests on things like the interference, the electromagnetic interference between the systems of the vehicle since we're dealing with high-voltage power systems. This is very important. That is very well figured out of the vehicle.

So with these ground tests and then initiating the hover flight tests, we will gradually move on to what Johann referred to as partial transition, which means that we will start including forward speeds of increasing amplitude until we get to the transition and complete the transition between hover and cruise flight, at which time, you remember, the rotors of our vehicle will be turned off and the vehicle will fly as a fixed-wing airplane, right? So during this transition, there are characteristics of flight that we need to make sure that are well understood and, again, are well captured by our models and our solutions.

For the vehicle in cruise flight, there are also learnings that we expect to have from this vehicle, but this is a more well-known flight condition coming from the previous history of Embraer airplanes and the use, for example, of the fly-by-wire technology that Johann mentioned that we have the advantage of use coming from Embraer. So that's the concept of the ground and flight test campaign that we have scheduled. With respect to the conforming prototypes you mentioned, then those also have some development in the sense that the vehicles will not be exactly the same as this engineering prototype, as was mentioned earlier. So since we had to freeze the design to build this prototype, the conforming prototypes still went through some evolution that this engineering prototype didn't go through, right?

So they have slightly different characteristics, which will then require some development in ground and flight testing also. But then we expect to quickly move to the certification flight test campaign, which will be geared towards showing compliance with the certification requirements of both ANAC and FAA initially, then expanding to other authorities in the world. So this test campaign will be made using five vehicles. We might add more vehicles if we think that is beneficial to the project overall, but initially, we are expecting to do that with five vehicles that will start being produced and flown next year.

Andres Sheppard (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Got it. That's super helpful. I appreciate all that color. Maybe just a quick follow-up on certification. So obviously, ANAC has been kind of the primary type certification that you've been targeting in concurrence with the FAA. But my question is, with all the recent developments in the UAE, I'm wondering if that maybe has changed some of your type certification plans or how you're thinking about that market. Is that a certification that you'll pursue as well now? And if so, how do you see that process unfolding? Thank you.

Luiz Valentini (CTO)

Sure. So that's a good point. It doesn't change the process of certification the way that we have established in the sense that ANAC, being the primary certification authority, gears us towards defining requirements and then defining how to show compliance with these requirements first and foremost. What we do with ANAC in this case, as Embraer has done in the past, but is even more important this time around, is to align what requirements will be applicable to the eVTOL certification. And ANAC, and also Eve is supporting that very much. ANAC has been very active in seeking alignment and understanding and as much as they feel that they are comfortable with harmonizing those requirements with other authorities in the world. So by doing that, they steer a certification basis that is more closely acceptable for validation by other authorities in the world.

So our path has been that from the beginning, which is to build this basis with ANAC, try to make it such that it is as common as we can with other authorities so that once we receive the type certificate from ANAC, we have, let's say, a more clearly paved way towards getting this validation from other authorities. And then that includes UAE and other authorities that we have mentioned previously of markets that are of interest to Eve. So I'm just summarizing it. UAE or other authorities, we expect them to be very well captured, so to speak, by this process of building a basis with ANAC that is well aligned with other authorities in the world.

Andres Sheppard (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)

Wonderful. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Congrats on the quarter again. I'll pass it on.

Luiz Valentini (CTO)

Thank you.

Johann Bordais (CEO)

Thanks, Andres.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Austin Moeller from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Austin Moeller (Director, Equity Research)

Hi, good morning. Great to see you at Farnborough, Johann. My first question.

Johann Bordais (CEO)

Oh, thank you.

Austin Moeller (Director, Equity Research)

Just on the battery. So the battery is being supplied by BAE. I know they've done some work providing those for industrial vehicles and buses, but I was just wondering, what does the production volumes look like for the cells within the batteries being provided by BAE? Are they being built at a production volume each year that could enable a strong manufacturing supply chain going out the gate? And what does that look like? If you could just tell us a little bit more.

Johann Bordais (CEO)

All right, Austin, thank you so much for your question. Yes, BAE is definitely the suppliers that won the bidding process. And simply because, like you mentioned, I mean, they have more than 8,000 EVs running around the world, especially most of the coaches and buses that you have in the major cities around the world are actually made by BAE. The batteries are made by BAE. So they do have an extensive experience and how the reliability and production. They are using most of the OEM or eVTOL are using the same cells, right? So they're not different. This one is also multi-cell. There's the cylindric little cells that you're using. And this is the one that we elected with BAE. And I'll let Valentini explain what are the benefits of this, obviously.

But when we signed those contracts, and we've done this since last year, we've signed 21 contracts of the PSA. And BAE was the first one. And it does cover the ramp-up of production. So we make sure that they have the ability to ramp up production as we go, as we sell and deliver those eVTOL. And we're confident they've been doing that. And also, they've been looking at the risking operations, which is quite important for us, right, when it comes to production sites, not only the capacity, but also making sure that if something happened to one side, then they have a backup production site. Okay? So we're actually in line. And yeah, Valentini, if you want to mention a bit more detail on the technology used there.

Sure. So we're using cells that are not specific to our project, right? I mean, these have similar cells being used by other eVTOL manufacturers, as has been publicly stated. And also our cells that are used in other applications in the world, such as power tools and other things. So with respect to the production volume, as Johann mentioned, we don't believe that there's a question there. We believe that BAE will supply the batteries for us as we have the production plan for. And I just wanted to bring quickly a point with respect to us selecting BAE. As Johann mentioned, they have a pretty significant experience with their electric vehicles and batteries and electric vehicles in operation today. So that brings a vision and an experience of the life cycle of the products, which is very important.

So we talk very much about certification of these batteries, thermal runaway, containment, and containment of propagation, things like that. These are very important for the safety of the vehicle. But it's also very important that the characteristics of the battery in operation on the hands of the operators are very well known, and how to treat occurrences with these products in the field are very well known. So BAE has, over the years, built experience and knowledge about these products in operation, which we believe that brings quite a bit of maturity to our product. They also have quite a bit of experience in aeronautical developments from previous projects, right?

We believe that this combination of being an aeronautical aviation company with the history and knowledge that they have of these batteries in operation will bring the maturity level of the solution and our vehicle up for the start of entry, the start of operations at the entry into service.

Austin Moeller (Director, Equity Research)

Excellent. Just to follow up, depending on where your first launch customers are once you get to serial manufacturing stage and you're certified, do you expect to provide aftermarket support from day one in one specific geography, or do you expect to provide aftermarket support at all of Embraer's MRO facilities right from the beginning?

Johann Bordais (CEO)

We're actually looking at all possible scenarios. One thing is for sure is that Eve will be the face of the customer. This is the way that we build up with our partners, with the suppliers, but also this is a wish from the customers. I think it has to do with the fact that we're really breaking ground on the new segment, and they want to make sure that the OEM is engaged and will guarantee the operational cost and also the availability.

Different models are open to us, how we're going to be making this face of the customer available, whether it's going to be own MRO of Eve or using the Embraer footprint, which obviously is very large, with more than 70 and 80 authorized service centers around the world with the own Embraer or even unauthorized one, and/or that will be the model that we'll be using, right?

Austin Moeller (Director, Equity Research)

Awesome. Thanks. That's all for me.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Connor Wolters from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Connor Wolters (Analyst)

Hi guys. Congrats on the progress in the quarter, and thanks for taking my question. Maybe just to go back on liquidity. As of the Q1, you indicated that the $280 million that you had at the time was sufficient to support operations well into 2025. So curious on the rationale for the equity raise in the quarter.

Luiz Valentini (CTO)

Yeah, I think we had this opportunity, right, to bring new partners, new investors, right? It was a very, I would say, very selected and interesting group. We brought the strategic investors like Nidec, right, which is a partner in the program as well. Embraer, our controller, also invested. Space Florida. We also brought some additional financial investors. I think it was an opportunity to raise additional capital, right, the almost $100 million that we raised. With that, we have now an even stronger liquidity that, as you said before, we had sufficient resources until the end of 2025. With these additional equity raise and some long-term finances, right, that we are discussing, we believe we have resources for multiple years now, probably that will get us into 2027. I think it was an opportunity that showed up.

It's important, right, as a pre-operational company to have a very strong liquidity. Now, I think we have probably the longest runway among all eVTOL manufacturers, right? And I think that gives us comfort to continue to advance the program at full speed that we're doing without having to worry about resources, right? Now we have plenty of funds to get the certification and start to deliver the eVTOLs. And we thought this additional capital made sense in that context.

Connor Wolters (Analyst)

Okay. Got it. That's very helpful. And maybe just to go back to your commentary about a modest step up in cash burn into 2025, is there any way that you can frame the cadence for quarterly cash burn over maybe the next Q4 as we think about you progressing through these next few milestones?

Luiz Valentini (CTO)

As I said, right, this year we're going to be around the $130-$170, probably a little closer to the 130 than the 170 because we have this tailwind, right, of the weaker Brazilian currency against the dollar that will help us. Despite the higher, the increasing headcounts and the additional prototypes, we have this positive. The expenses, they're going to continue to go up. As I mentioned to Savi, I don't think it's a big step up. We're still working on the detailed budget for 2025. I believe we're going to have more color on that as we get closer to the end of this year. But as I said, we are anticipating some increase next year. We also have the initial investments on the manufacturing plant in Taubaté, in São Paulo, in Brazil, that will give us the capacity for the initial eVTOL deliveries.

There will be an increase. I don't think it's a big one, but we're still working on the detailed numbers. I hope at some point later this year, we're going to come with a figure for the cash burn in 2025.

Connor Wolters (Analyst)

Okay. Great. Thanks so much. I'll leave it there.

Operator (participant)

Our next question comes from Sheila Kahyaoglu from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Sheila Kahyaoglu (Managing Director)

Thank you so much. Sorry, Connor and I are tag teaming as I'm at the airport. So he got my cash questions in. And I just maybe do want to ask about orders. You haven't had vehicle orders, but you got a big chunk of maintenance orders that you guys highlighted in the script. So maybe can you talk about how we should expect that? Should we expect more maintenance orders? You gave that $1.2 billion over the next five years. Can you talk a little bit about how you expect that to transition to revenue? Thank you.

Johann Bordais (CEO)

Yeah. Thank you.

Luiz Valentini (CTO)

Thank you.

Yes. Yeah, yeah. I'd love to. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. As a matter of fact, I mean, you didn't mention it. We're 2,900 vehicles sold through the LOI. I think this is really the diversity of our customer base. It tells a lot of how they are comfortable with the model that we're providing to them. They really trust that we have the right solution. Like I've been always saying, it's not only the vehicle, but it's also the service and support. We didn't mention it. There was a question about what would be the MRO network that we will have. It will be the face of the customer. The Urban ATM also is very important, at least for the scale-up, right? So something that we're thinking about. We don't want to substitute only few helicopters.

We really want to make it a segment, a new segment, and create new opportunities for operators. So service and support is definitely a big chunk. Yes, $1.2 billion up to. It's over a period of five years. We'll have to define when the time is correct with the customers, what's the scope. We're being very conservative when it comes to the initial scope and those LOIs when it comes to service and support. It's basically maintenance and also the spare parts, what we call the flat-out program.

But we expect that as we get closer and we get to the conversion of those LOIs, then we'll be able to discuss in more depth what will be the scope of the services that will go along with the firm order, okay? So this is a process that we're right now.

I think the priority for us with all those customers is to get a list of 5-6 strategic customers around the world, obviously, because of being the primary certification, ANAC, and also with this bilateral agreement they have with FAA, we can expect our launch customer to be in Brazil and also in the United States. Right now, we're defining the ecosystem per city, all right? So it's the network, creating a network and a growing network per city. And so then, obviously, it will come along with the service and support. So that's what we expect. We're working on right now is to get the firm orders. It doesn't have to be this year.

The priority is always making sure that we have the ecosystem ready. But over the next 12 months, we should be having something about the firm order.

Sheila Kahyaoglu (Managing Director)

Got it. Thank you.

Luiz Valentini (CTO)

Okay. Thanks, Sheila. Appreciate it.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Cai von Rumohr from Cowen. Please go ahead.

cai von Rumohr (Managing Director)

Yes. Thanks so much. Edu, you said you have the funds to get to 2027. Maybe when do you expect to begin getting PDPs on the planes? And secondly, are there any financial requirements on your part or advances that you expect as a result of your MRO agreements?

Eduardo Couto (CFO)

Yeah. I may start here and maybe Johann can add. But in terms of the PDPs, as Johann mentioned, right, we are now working very closely with all these LOIs and customers that we have to make sure we select the ones that will be the launch customers. And we can convert those LOIs into firm orders. Those discussions are happening right now. And we expect to start to convert that in the next 12 months. So that will translate into initial deposits, right, and PDPs, additional pre-delivery payments that we're going to receive prior to the delivery of the aircraft.

So that will be an extra source of funds for the company in the months and years ahead. We also have, as I mentioned before, advanced discussions for long-term finance, right, for our manufacturing facility in Brazil and even for R&D expenses.

We are feeling very comfortable with our funds, right, not only the equity raise we recently did, but these PDPs and, as I said, this additional long-term finance that we may get. That gives us a runway until 2027, as I mentioned.

cai von Rumohr (Managing Director)

Terrific. Thank you. And then Valentini, we're getting closer to get definition by the FAA and others in terms of what's going to be required to get your design and other designs certified. Now that we have a little bit more visibility there, could you comment at all in terms of the difficulty of certifying a tilt rotor, which is what most of the other guys have, and a lift cruise design, which seems like inherently a little safer in the sense that basically you can fly with the rotors and you can fly with the pusher prop?

Luiz Valentini (CTO)

Yes. Hi, Cai. Thank you for the question. The reason why we went for a lift plus cruise configuration is that we believe that a configuration that has tilting rotors or tilting mechanisms in general brings complexities in two main fronts. One is certification, as you mentioned. I'll start with the other, which is consistency of operation. By having more systems and more actuation, more sensors, there are more areas and more components that can become sources of disruption to the operation of the vehicles in service, right?

That was one aspect that weighed very heavily. That comes, I think, very much from the experience of Embraer with their airplanes into service, knowing how important it is that these vehicles have a consistency of operation into the hands, right, and into the fields, and so serving the business model of the operators. That was one point.

But going back to the certification, as you asked, we believe that there are complexities in the flight of the vehicle. So, for example, one of the things that we usually do with authorities is to determine what is a most critical condition in flight in which you have to show compliance with requirements so that all other conditions are covered, right? So you don't have to do every single, let's say, maneuver in every single point of the flight envelope and every single configuration. You sort of have to define what is an umbrella and show compliance in these most critical cases. If you have a more complex flight profile with more complex mechanisms, sometimes determining what is this most critical condition is more difficult.

So this makes your flight test campaign longer, for example, because you cannot take credit of determining what is the single condition that you have to show compliance with. But you have to be adding other conditions. You have to be discussing this with the authority. So we believe that the complexity of the flight profile brings also more discussion and more uncertainty to the certification path. And so that was the other aspect that weighed in our decision for going to the Lift + Cruise configuration.

cai von Rumohr (Managing Director)

Terrific. Thank you very much. And then, Johann, when you put it all together, do you have a rough target? Obviously, you can't know exactly, but a rough target in terms of when you might achieve certification and when you might see entry into service?

Johann Bordais (CEO)

Thank you. Thank you, Cai. Yes. Well, been now 11 months, almost a year on the job. So yeah, I get a good grasp of the challenges that we have. As we mentioned from the beginning, and I'm going back to 2017, the schedule is very challenging, right, of certification into the service. But we remain confident that we can be succeeded. And simply because, first of all, we're differentiated when it comes with a vast aeronautical experience, and we have access of the Embraer resources. We're using the proven method. I think Valentini's explained in detail how it's cost-effective and successful, the certification process, and also the preparation for the entry into service that we're bringing and the expertise from Embraer, but also we're building our own expertise from all the CONOPS that we've done with our customers.

Service and support, air traffic management, the training is something we're familiar with. The third one that we would say that is an advantage, or let's say that we're making good progress, and it is evidenced by the full-scale prototype we just announced. Then we've also done multiple wind tunnel tests. Yes, I think we're at the point where there's a main challenge now with a few suppliers. We're right now in a joint definition phase. It's always, and since the very beginning for everyone, creating the segments, all the OEM, it's all this pushing the limit and looking on the size, the weight, and the power, and always the trade-off that you get to look at.

We want to make sure that we have a robust and reliable vehicle that will also be profitable for the operation of our customers.

Like I said, there are many challenges, but all the good reason I just mentioned, Max just believed that we're going to be on the 2026 entry to service.

cai von Rumohr (Managing Director)

Okay. Great. Thank you so much.

Johann Bordais (CEO)

Excellent, Kai.

Operator (participant)

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

Lucio Aldworth (Head of Investor Relations)

Thanks, Jason. Thanks, everyone who joined the call today. As you can see, we accomplished several important milestones.

This meeting is no longer being transcribed. This meeting is no longer being recorded.

We're going to continue updating you on our progress throughout the next few quarters, and we look forward to meeting you in the upcoming events we're going to attend. As always, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to me or to my team. Thanks, and have a good day.

Operator (participant)

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