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Date
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 at 5 p.m. ET
Call participants
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer — Soroush Salehian
Chief Financial Officer — Saurabh Sinha
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Takeaways
Revenue -- $3.6 million, driven by ongoing sensor shipments and non-recurring engineering (NRE) related to the Daimler Truck program.
Non-GAAP operating loss -- $27.2 million non-GAAP operating loss, representing a 13% year-over-year reduction.
Gross cash use -- $33.6 million, reflecting higher sequential cash outflow due to payment timing and working capital adjustments.
Available liquidity (as of September) -- $173.9 million as of September 2025, including $48.9 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, plus $125 million in undrawn credit facility, excluding the newly announced Apollo investment.
Convertible notes issuance -- $100 million in convertible senior notes from Apollo Global Management with a 4.375% coupon, 115% conversion price to stock, seven-year tenor due November 2032, and no financial or maintenance covenants.
Pro forma liquidity after Apollo investment -- $270 million, as stated by Saurabh Sinha.
Daimler Truck program -- Initial vehicle build sensor deliveries completed, with exclusivity for long-range and ultra-long-range LiDAR and first orders for 2026 already received.
Top 10 global passenger OEM engagement -- Development program completed ahead of schedule, with late-stage contract negotiations underway for a global series production award excluding China.
Precision sensing segment -- Initial shipments against orders of over 1,000 EVE-1D sensors have begun, and production of the new EVE-1V motion sensor commenced with first customer orders received.
Thailand production line -- The EVE sensor factory was installed and became operational, with first units shipped and capacity in place to meet 2026 demand; expansion plans are ongoing.
Strategic investment by LG InnoTech -- $32.5 million in gross proceeds received; the partnership includes manufacturing audits and support for the OEM production ramp.
Automotive market pipeline -- Aeva Technologies is actively engaged in multiple RFI and RFQ processes across automotive, trucking, and mobility sectors, with an expectation that initial OEM wins will drive further customer interest.
Summary
Aeva Technologies (AEVA 0.11%) advanced its commercial position by completing a key automotive OEM development program ahead of timeline and entering late-stage contract talks for a global series production award. The company issued $100 million in convertible senior notes in November 2025, providing flexibility without covenants and boosting pro forma liquidity to support expanded operations. Management detailed production milestones met for the Daimler Truck program, including exclusivity for LiDAR supply and initial 2026 orders. The precision sensing business initiated fulfillment of over 1,000 unit orders and revealed new motion-sensor products targeting manufacturing automation. The board strengthened its partnership network by closing a strategic investment from LG InnoTech, which was accompanied by completed manufacturing audits in support of scaled delivery for customer programs.
CEO Salehian said, "we have completed this development program ahead of plan and are now in late-stage contract negotiations for a series production award."
Saurabh Sinha stated, "Including the new investment, our total pro forma liquidity position now stands at $270 million."
Initial production at the Thailand facility has begun, with capacity in place to fulfill next year's expected volumes and plans to expand as demand grows.
Salehian cited "are now shifting gears" on precision sensing manufacturing, responding to early demand and customer feedback by accelerating setup and deliveries.
Management highlighted a target to reduce full-year 2025 non-GAAP operating expenses by 10% to 20% year-over-year.
Industry glossary
FMCW: Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave; a LiDAR technology measuring both distance and velocity, providing high-precision, interference-resistant sensing used in automotive and automation.
4D LiDAR: LiDAR technology delivering real-time measurements of distance, velocity, reflectivity, and sometimes angle in a single sensor output.
Non-recurring engineering (NRE): One-time design and development revenue or costs associated with customer-specific customizations and project milestones.
Series production award: Formal customer authorization to proceed with full-scale, commercial manufacturing following a successful development engagement.
Atlas Ultra / Atlas Vinyl / Atlas C / Atmos 40 LiDAR: Specific LiDAR sensor product lines referenced by Aeva Technologies for varying automotive and trucking applications.
EVE-1D / EVE-1V: Aeva Technologies’ industrial precision sensing products, with EVE-1D focused on displacement sensing and EVE-1V delivering contactless motion measurement capabilities.
Full Conference Call Transcript
Andrew Fung: Thank you, and welcome, everyone, to Aeva Technologies, Inc.'s third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Joining on the call today are Soroush Salehian, Aeva Technologies, Inc.'s Co-Founder and CEO, and Saurabh Sinha, Aeva Technologies, Inc.'s CFO. Ahead of this call, we issued our third quarter 2025 press release and presentation, which we will refer to today and can be found on our Investor Relations website at investors.aeva.com. Please note that on this call, we will be making forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements reflect our views only as of today and should not be relied upon as representative of our views as of any subsequent date.
These statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. For a further discussion of the material risks and other important factors that could affect our financial results, please refer to our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-Q and Form 10-Ks. In addition, during today's discussion, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe are useful as supplemental measures of Aeva Technologies, Inc.'s performance. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results. The webcast replay of this call will be available on our company website under the Investor Relations link.
And with that, let me turn the call over to Soroush.
Soroush Salehian: Thanks, Andrew, and good afternoon, everyone. It has been an incredibly busy and productive quarter here at Aeva Technologies, Inc. Following Aeva Day this summer, where we shared how our breakthrough unified perception platform is enabling new levels of perception for customers across a broad range of applications, interest for Aeva Technologies, Inc. technology has continued to grow significantly. Our focus has been on achieving important milestones for our partners and positioning Aeva Technologies, Inc. to meet the expanding demand to adopt our differentiated FMCW technology. The key highlight this quarter is our progress with the top 10 global passenger OEM.
At the start of the year, we announced that the OEM had selected Aeva Technologies, Inc. for a development program and also issued Aeva Technologies, Inc. a letter of intent for production, where upon successful completion of the development program, the engagement would transition to a series production award opportunity. I am very pleased to share that we have completed this development program ahead of plan and are now in late-stage contract negotiations for a series production award. And more on that later. We also continue to make good progress on the Daimler Truck Production Program.
Aeva Technologies, Inc.'s deliverables for the initial vehicle builds have been completed, and we are now shifting our focus to support Daimler Trucks' growing vehicle fleet in 2026 and have already received initial orders for next year's shipments of our Atlas Vinyl samples. Overall, we remain on track for Daimler Truck's planned market entry in 2027. Outside of automotive, we are pushing deeper into precision sensing. We have already started shipping against our first 1,000 plus units orders for our EVE-1D sensors. In just a few months, we have expanded our precision sensing product line with the unveiling of our EVE-1V sensor.
This builds on the EVE-1D product by adding motion measurements to our product line to address what we believe is more of the multibillion manufacturing automation market. Reception has been really strong with multiple customers already placing initial orders with the opportunity to incorporate EVE-1D and 1V into their product portfolios. In Q3, we completed installation and bring-up of the production line for our EVE sensors in Thailand. The first sensors have come off the line and shipped to customers. We believe we now have the capacity ahead of time to fulfill next year's volume and will continue to increase the capacity as the demand grows.
Now to support our growing commercial traction across multiple segments and our scaling, today, we announced a $100 million investment from one of the world's leading investment firms, Apollo Global Management, in the form of convertible notes. This comes at a defining time in the industry, and we believe it further positions Aeva Technologies, Inc. to support not only the scaling of our existing programs but to also win additional programs. This also follows our partnership and strategic investment from LG Innotech that we announced earlier this year, further reinforcing Aeva Technologies, Inc.'s leadership position in the next generation of sensing and perception.
So to sum up this quarter, Aeva Technologies, Inc. continues to execute on the exciting and vast opportunities we highlighted at Aeva Day. We believe that we are positioned to finish the year strong, including closing the top 10 global passenger OEM production program decision. With our differentiated technology and strong balance sheet, we see this as just the beginning, with significant potential to continue our momentum into 2026 and forward. Now let's go into more detail on our key business developments. Starting first with our engagement with the top 10 global passenger OEM.
As we shared at the start of this year, this OEM selected Aeva Technologies, Inc. for a development program using our Atlas Ultra sensor for the OEM's next-generation global production platform. We expected to complete the development program by the end of this year, and I am pleased to say that we have successfully completed it in Q3 ahead of plan. The development program was focused on packaging and integration to be able to incorporate our Atlas Ultra as one standard platform across the OEM's multiple vehicle model lines. This is a global production program with a worldwide rollout plan across geographies excluding China.
The OEM plans to offer Level 3 across a broad range of their global vehicle model lineup, not just the top-of-the-line models. As part of our joint development, we also successfully completed key performance testing to help ensure that Atlas Ultra enables the OEM to introduce new functions of Level 3 driving, including both highway and city driving. In addition, we completed comprehensive manufacturing audits with our partner LG Innotech for this OEM and detailed out our industrialization plan for the OEM's planned production. All of this now paves the way for the OEM to make the series production award.
As we disclosed earlier this year, we secured a letter of intent from this OEM toward the Series Production Program award, where upon successful completion of the development program, the engagements will transition to a global production program opportunity for Aeva Technologies, Inc. We are now in late stages of contract negotiations and believe that Aeva Technologies, Inc. is well positioned to supply for the series production program. Beyond this particular program, we believe that the top 10 OEM selection of Aeva Technologies, Inc. for their global series production program would represent one of the strongest validations of our technology platform, in particular of the superior performance and maturity of our technology.
This OEM has a long history of leading in the automotive industry, with significant influence and a reputation for excellence, and introducing industry-defining features in automotive at mass volume on a global scale. This would also be the first time a passenger OEM would transition from time of flight to FMCW to enable Level 3 for both highway and city driving. As such, we believe their vote of confidence in Aeva Technologies, Inc. has the potential to accelerate the interest in FMCW technology as a blueprint for other fast-follower passenger car makers.
To that end, we are already engaged with a number of OEMs and industry players across RFI and RFQ stages looking to leverage 4D LiDAR for passenger vehicles, trucking, and mobility. Over the course of this year, our pipeline has continued to grow, and we expect our first passenger OEM win to further increase interest in Aeva Technologies, Inc. as other OEMs view the top 10 OEM's decision as a reference design for implementing Level 3 automated driving functionality. Turning to our production program with Daimler Truck, we are progressing well on the OEM's milestones, keeping us on track to meet Daimler Truck's planned market entry in 2027.
We have now completed sensor deliveries for the OEM's initial vehicle builds, and Daimler Truck, together with its subsidiary Torc, are operating this fleet of trucks on large routes to validate production intent hardware autonomous capabilities ahead of commercialization. Aeva Technologies, Inc. is the exclusive long-range and ultra-long-range LiDAR supplier for Daimler Truck's autonomous truck production program, with our Atmos 40 LiDAR playing an important role as the primary detection sensor.
We are now preparing for next year to support the expansion of vehicle fleet rollout by Daimler Truck and Torc, and we have already received the first orders for 2026 and plan to deliver our Atlas C samples to fulfill Daimler Truck's scaling of vehicle build throughout next year and ahead of launch. Now moving to precision sensing, with the introduction of our EVE-1V motion sensor, Aeva Technologies, Inc. is expanding into a whole new category of applications within the multibillion-dollar manufacturing automation market.
EVE-1V uses our core FMCW LiDAR on-chip technology to deliver high precision contactless motion sensing, which means we can consistently do this more accurately, faster, and without the wear and tear challenges of traditional encoders and tactile sensors that are used to measure an object's motion in manufacturing today. We also designed EVE-1V for a wide range of applications and flexibility for users across multiple processes. This has the potential to be a game-changer for the industry, and reception so far has been very encouraging. We have already received initial orders from multiple customers for our EVE-1V sensor.
Now more broadly, the number of engagements for our precision sensing capabilities continues to increase since we first announced our product line this year. Precision sensing is a unique market opportunity for Aeva Technologies, Inc. due to our technology's ability to achieve the needed micron-level accuracy that is not really possible with traditional time of flight LiDAR. We are working aggressively now to meet the growing interest, including ramping up manufacturing. Importantly, over time, we plan to expand our product lines for industrial manufacturing and robotics to new categories beyond 1D and 1V to address even more of this major market opportunity.
Key to enabling this is the precision sensor manufacturing line at our partner Fabrinet, a leader in the manufacturing of optical components. This quarter, we completed installation and bring-up of our line with the first sensors produced and shipped to customers. We now have the capacity in place to fulfill next year's expected volumes for EVE-1D and building capacity for our 1D sensors following its introduction. We have also started shipping against our initial orders of over 1,000 units that we received just a few months ago. Our ability to scale is driven by our chip-based architecture, which we designed specifically for fully automated assembly process steps.
By integrating all optics onto a silicon photonics module, we have significantly reduced the number of components within a LiDAR that can be manufactured with greater efficiency and quality. Through our partnership with global manufacturing leaders, we believe that we can lean on their expertise and scale to ramp production quickly without the need to invest significant levels of CapEx. With that, let me now turn the call to Saurabh, who will discuss our financial results.
Saurabh Sinha: Thank you, Soroush, and good afternoon, everyone. Let me share more about Aeva Technologies, Inc.'s third quarter 2025 financial results. Starting with the revenue, it was $3.6 million in Q3, with contribution from ongoing sensor shipments to multiple customers as well as NRE such as for the Daimler Truck program. Moving to non-GAAP operating loss for this quarter, it declined by 13% year over year to $27.2 million, which largely reflects our target to reduce full-year 2025 non-GAAP operating expense by 10% to 20% year over year.
Aeva Technologies, Inc.'s gross cash use, which we define as operating cash flow less CapEx, was $33.6 million in Q3, which is higher than the prior quarter due to timing of certain payments and working capital adjustments. In addition, we have received cash of $32.5 million in gross proceeds from LG InnoTech upon closing of their strategic equity investment. This brought total available liquidity at September to $173.9 million, excluding the Apollo investment we announced today. This is comprised of $48.9 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, and $125 million in undrawn facility that is fully available to draw at Aeva Technologies, Inc.'s sole discretion. Let me talk a bit more about the capital raise we announced today.
The $100 million in convertible senior notes will provide incremental capital for Aeva Technologies, Inc. to continue to accelerate our ongoing growth. The notes have a coupon of 4.375% payable in cash or stock at the option of the company and a conversion price of 115% to the stock price. The notes are due in seven years in November 2032. This represents a flexible source of unsecured capital with no financial or maintenance covenants, and we will retain the flexibility to settle the convertible in cash, shares, or any combination, at our election upon a conversion. For additional details, please refer to the related 8-Ks.
Including the new investment, our total pro forma liquidity position now stands at $270 million, which we believe provides Aeva Technologies, Inc. a strong competitive advantage to support existing programs as well as secure more wins. As we detailed at Aeva Day this summer, Aeva Technologies, Inc.'s unified perception platform enables us to bring new levels of perception to a broad range of large markets and applications. Our momentum has only grown since then, and as we continue to execute, we believe that we are in a strong position to convert additional opportunities into wins. With that, let me turn the call back to Soroush for closing remarks.
Soroush Salehian: Thanks, Saurabh. At a pivotal time for the industry, Aeva Technologies, Inc. is increasing its leadership position in next-generation sensing and perception. We are firing on all cylinders, achieving major milestones on existing programs, progressing towards additional wins, and strengthening our balance sheet to scale multiple programs across many markets. I would like to thank the Aeva Technologies, Inc. team for their continued dedication and our stakeholders for their ongoing support. Together, we are in a strong position to realize Aeva Technologies, Inc.'s vision to bring the next wave of perception to all devices. And with that, we will now move to Q&A.
Operator: In the interest of time, we do ask that you limit yourself to one question. Again, it is star and one to ask a question today. We will take our first question from Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer and Company. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Colin Rusch: Thanks so much, guys. Can you talk a little bit about the ramp in metrology sales? I mean, certainly it looks like you have a pretty meaningful opportunity there and a number of opportunities. A number of applications. I would just love to understand kind of how that cadence of product rollout really starts to hit as we get to the balance of this year and into 2026.
Soroush Salehian: Yeah. Hi, Colin. This is Soroush. Happy to answer that. So obviously, as you know, we are, as I said, firing on multiple cylinders this year. So, you know, we announced our EVE-1D sensor just a few months ago earlier this year. Since then, we talked about how the traction in the market has been very strong. Following that, we started getting initial orders. We talked about the first 1,000 plus units orders. And since then, a couple of things that we have done in the past two or three months. One, we pulled forward our setup of our manufacturing line for the EVE sensor due to this increasing demand.
Our team is engaged with multiple intensive customers in this space alone. Each one represents significant opportunity volumes for us. And in this quarter, what we talked about just earlier today was we have now been able to set up the line quickly within a couple of months' time frame. And also start building out the units off of this line. We started to ship the first unit against those 1,000 plus units order already. So that is very important for us, which means we are starting to now crank that gear around the units towards those customers.
Separate from that, as we also get in the market, we are also getting feedback from customers about the capabilities of our sensor. So beyond measuring micron-level accuracy for distance sensors, we have also been able to provide an initial SKU or new type of product with our EVE-1V sensor, which is now measuring the speed of things on the manufacturing line, with a very high level of accuracy. Right? So sub-millimeter per second precision. So that is what provides additional opportunities for us. We are already starting to get some orders for that as well from existing customers, also some new customers.
But just to give you a rough sense of that, the market for this industry, as we talked earlier, is about 2 million sensors a year for these kinds of displacement sensors. And it is, you know, roughly, ASPs are higher than automotive, so it is multibillion dollars, $4 billion going to about $6 billion in the coming years. And we are partnering already with some of the key leaders in the space, including SIC, LMI, and others that are coming down the pipe that we can talk about hopefully as we go forward. And those themselves represent double-digit percent of the market share here, right?
So you are talking about, for example, SIC maybe shipping 200,000 to 250,000 sensors annually every year. Right? So when you look at that, I think for us, the way we see the ramp-up is obviously it is not going to be overnight, but it is going to be faster also than some of the automotive applications. It helps us kind of also fill in that revenue growth and pipeline for the company as we go along. So we are very encouraged by the perception that we are seeing from the market.
Importantly, we are now shifting gears on focus on building the units and we are bringing up the manufacturing line and getting ready for the demand ahead of time for next year. Right? So that is what I can share at this point. And as we are able to get additional information from our customers and orders, of course, we will be talking about that as well.
Colin Rusch: Okay. Perfect. And then as a follow-up, you know, just the L2 ADAS and your kind of, you know, L2 plus ADAS opportunity on the trucking side seems pretty substantial. You know, obviously, those are some longer sales cycles, but also, you know, the articulation of the insurance needs and all the other value capture for the truck OEM seems pretty substantial. Can you talk about the breadth and depth of customers looking at your solution for that L2 and L2 plus sort of application in the trucking market?
Soroush Salehian: Yeah. Absolutely. So as I mentioned on the call earlier, you know, we have been focused on the one unified perception platform that can allow us to enter multiple market segments with one core technology without a ton of optimizations using the same hardware platform with adaptive software that can go into addressing these multiple markets across automotive, both for Level 3 and plus driving as well as entering to Level 2 plus, especially on commercial vehicles, which is your question. I will get to that in a second. But also then applying that to the other markets, including industrial that we just talked about.
So specifically on L2 plus, one of the biggest debates that we have talked about over and over again the past few years is the need for LiDAR and then, you know, the famous quotes around you do not need LiDAR for even going into Level 2 Level 3 applications maybe, but Level 2. I think over time, that argument has fallen. I think Level 3 is very clear with our progress and the successful completion of this top 10 OEM, the Level 3 with LiDAR is going to be standard, and it is going to be the key enabling feature for making these vehicles and driving the customer's choice of purchase.
But on the Level 2 plus, I think we have a unique opportunity at Aeva Technologies, Inc. due to our unique technology, which is because of the fact that we can measure velocity, because of the fact that we can do some of the perception on the sensor, we have been able to demonstrate that we can do more reducing the need and maybe the cost of other modalities in the Level 2 traditional stack, which is today, especially for commercial vehicles, tends to be camera image sensors, plus maybe radar and then some compute box.
So one of the partnerships that we have there that we talked about earlier is with Bendix, which is the market leader in North America. Part of a large tier-one company, around providing Level 2 plus ADAS. It is really automatic emergency braking. This company is, you know, shipping already in the 200,000 to 300,000 fusion systems every year, these automatic emergency braking systems every year. And they are really standard as the technology of choice for the flagship models of many of the top vehicle OEMs. Right? Volvo, PACCAR, Navistar, even Daimler, in some examples.
So we see an opportunity here together with Bendix to provide a next-generation Level 2 plus solution that leverages our 4D LiDAR technology, reducing the need for some of those other components, and having the combination of image camera plus forwarding information with processing on the edge, an edge device that I think is going to be bringing the cost down. But because we leverage the same core unified platform, chip technology, we can use the economy scale to then also provide those benefits and the flywheel effect into other markets. So we think that is a massive opportunity. We are working towards that.
We introduced this partner earlier in the year, but we think that could be another marquee win for us, especially as we close out, you know, this top 10 passenger OEM. We think that is going to set the reference as a blueprint for other OEMs in Level 3 for passenger and Level 4 in trucking, but also maybe in Level 2 plus for certain commercial vehicle applications as well.
Operator: We will take our next question from Suji Desilva with ROTH Capital. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Suji Desilva: Hi, Soroush. Hi, Saurabh. Congratulations on the progress here. My question is really around the length of the design cycle for additional customer opportunities. You know, looking at the tier one, you are on the brink of signing with, I am wondering this step of having to proliferate the design across their model line. I am curious what is involved there and how detailed a process that is and if there can be learnings from what you are doing here, kind of building a catalog of placements and tweaks and software updates, that would be leverageable to shorten the design cycle for future customers.
Soroush Salehian: Yeah, Suji. Happy to answer that. This is Soroush. So look, I think first of all, hope you can hear in our voice, we are very excited about the progress that we have made and the successful completion of this top 10 passenger OEM program. To give a quick recap, earlier in the year, we announced and said that we were awarded a development program from this top 10 passenger OEM, along with a letter of intent for the Series Production Award. And we set out that there are going to be a number of milestones that we are going to be working together to really develop a scalable, modular platform for their global production platform.
And that is going to be applied to multiple vehicle model lines. So since then, we have completed all the key milestones satisfactorily, which includes, as I mentioned earlier, around packaging, integration of our sensors, to make sure that it really works across the OEM's multiple vehicle model lineup. And this is not intended to go into one top, you know, top trim or premium model only. It is intended to be really as a standard platform across their multiple vehicle models. And two was around aligning up performance, making sure that it really addresses the key use cases, most importantly, to enable Level 3 driving.
From the get-go both across highway and then also eventually around city driving, which we think is going to be a key driver. And then the third piece was around really the industrialization and manufacturing. In which together with our partnership with LG Innotech, which we secured along with a strategic investment, we then got to work. And we did comprehensive audits of our manufacturing line with a manufacturing partner LG Innotech and this top 10 OEM have really defined a clear industrialization plan of how we are going to go to production. So in some way, this was really the first phase of the series production development.
And what we have now is we said at the beginning of the year, we are going to complete this by the end of the year. We are seeing now that OEM is very eager to also move forward faster and they are pulling forward that timeline. So we were able to successfully complete this a quarter early. Which is now in Q3. We have completed that. And the work from here really is around, you know, we are in late stages of commercial negotiations. And that so we are feeling good about that. Obviously, it is not done until the ink is dry, but we are feeling confident about our position about securing this program.
So that is what I would say. And I think you asked an important question, which is what is the work from here, the cycles with additional wins, and how could this OEM be relevant? This OEM is a major OEM, a top 10 OEM, globally. We see that this program is for worldwide deployment, excluding China. They are making millions of vehicles every year. They are known as a leader to bring in new technology, but also do it at scale. So that is very important.
So I think that what we believe that does, as they have shown time and again over the many decades, is that it is going to provide a blueprint and a reference design for other OEMs that are looking to provide this Level 3 functionality really with FMCW technology we believe, to use that and also implement that. So that is going to be basically from a competitive landscape, we think that is going to be critical. So we believe that this could be a defining moment, you know, when we would have that award around our company, but also the industry for the adoption of Level 3 technology in the next three plus years, right?
So that, I think, is very important in our plans ahead. So that is a quick background on that.
Suji Desilva: Okay. And quick follow-up there on the applicability to mobility as urban scenarios. Where is time of flight, you know, time of flight sufficient there versus FMCW? Curious your thoughts there. It just sounds like you are kind of addressing both highway and mobility in your comments.
Soroush Salehian: Yeah. I think look. The way I think the OEMs and this OEM and others kind of see it is they are making a platform technology choice that they are going to be working within hardware, hopefully, for many years to come. This obviously would be a long-term kind of production going into the next decade. And the idea is that we have talked about it, you need to future-proof the stack, right? And we believe we are at this inflection point where this is one of the first times, it will be the first time, actually, that an OEM in the passenger car space will be transitioning from time of flight LiDAR to FMCW.
And this obviously is a testament to both the technology capability as well as maturity of our products. But also, it is important because we think that it is going to lead up to other, of course, programs. My personal opinion is that in a few years from now, consumers, when they buy vehicles, it is not going to be just based on any more specs on feeds or speeds or infotainment. It is going to really be also importantly around the ease of use and saving us time in our daily commutes and our day-to-day life. And that, I think, is going to be one of the key enablers by Level 3.
Like, Level 3 driving is going to be the key driver for the sales of cars, not these other things. So that is why I think we are going to see that as you are starting to see some of that in Asia, we are seeing that for the rest of the world. That is going to be the key driver for I think most key OEMs to go to really have Level 3 from the get-go. And this means it needs to be end-to-end. Right? Like, you get in the car and you get to a destination. From point A to point B, which includes city driving as well as highway.
So long form of that is, yes, we believe that they are choosing one hardware, and they are going to use it for all use cases and, you know, use a software approach of upgrade over time to be able to enable highway, city driving, but most importantly, to have Level 3 functionality into it.
Operator: And we will take our next question from George Gianarikas with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Matt: Hey, everyone. You have Matt here on for George. Congrats on the quarter and thank you for taking my questions.
Soroush Salehian: Of course, Matt. Go ahead.
Matt: So just to start off, could you guys just provide a little more color on, you know, the timeline with Daimler? Like, what is kind of needed for the program to, you know, reach validation ahead of production? And then maybe just a little bit about the Torc relationship. It looked like they were looking for a capital partner for that. You know, with that and potential slipping of funding, do you foresee any slippage in the timeline?
Soroush Salehian: Yeah. Sure. Happy to answer that. I think you have to push that I think, you know, maybe for a time there. But I can tell you high level. Look, first of all, Daimler Truck and Torc, you know, they have been very clear and public about their commitment to autonomy. This is one of their key drivers of growth. If you look at that from Karen and the management team at Daimler talking even on their public earnings, and they have been very clear and consistent about their messaging. 2027 market entry is on track. It is a go for us. We are obviously a key portion for the technology and perception detection.
So as I mentioned, we are the exclusive supplier for LiDAR on long-range and ultra-long-range for Daimler Truck and Torc. We are progressing on track. They are also progressing on track in and delivering on their milestones. We have a clear line of sight with 2026 vehicle build plans and the growing of that. We actually have received initial orders already, and we are going to start shipping our Atlas C samples again that. So that is important. I think just to also mention about capitalization. Obviously, I think that is a question for Daimler and Torc. But as you know, Torc is an independent subsidiary of Daimler Truck, right? And they are investing heavily in this very committed.
So we do not think that is a risk topic for us to really worry about. I think overall, the program is really progressing well. And I think, look, if any OEM has the scale to really make this happen, and resources, including capital, it is really Daimler Truck. And others, of course, are also working on it. We are also engaged with a number of other OEMs in the commercial vehicle space. So overall, I think we are feeling good about that.
I think Justin also mentioned Daimler Truck has publicly talked about I think even recently, about their outlook for autonomy because of the use cases and the business case of over, I think, about $3 billion of annual revenues, and $1 billion profit by 2030 just from autonomous trucking. So I think it is important for the industry that players, including Daimler Truck and others, make this happen. And we think the timeline remains in '27, and the scaling is going to go from there. So we are feeling confident about that and our ability to deliver against it.
Matt: Great. Thanks. And maybe just to switch gears here, you know, it looks like you guys obviously raised the $100 million investment from Apollo. Could you just provide a little more color on what you intend to use that for and how that is going to help you just push commercialization faster?
Saurabh Sinha: Hey, Matt. This is Saurabh. Happy to take your question. So, the $100 million in convertible notes is for general corporate purposes. We are already, as mentioned in our prepared remarks, making tremendous progress with our customers and potential customers. And we use a unified platform, perception platform, which helps us to execute on multiple wins and bring new customers on board without any step function increase in our expenditure. In fact, we have been very disciplined in our capital allocation and spending. And this year, we are coming down from last year in the range of 10% to 20% on a non-GAAP OpEx basis, despite increasing our commercial momentum. We feel pretty good about it.
It is for general corporate purposes.
Soroush Salehian: Yep. And just to add to that, I think, you know, obviously, Apollo by themselves, the name is one of the leaders in financial investments. We are excited to have them as partners. I think it sends a clear signal as the sole investor and party to, you know, really support our growth and momentum here. And it comes at an important time, I think, for our company. Also an inflection point of the industry. You know? I think we have all the pieces in place. We have methodically, as we talked about, set out our plan to grow from each segment, establish a leadership position within key players, we are executing on that.
And we are looking forward to executing that well. Right? So from automotive, from trucking with Daimler Truck, passenger top 10 OEM and others that we are working on, industrial with SIC, LMI, have the partnership with LG Innotech around that for industrial as well as robotics applications and then expanding from there. So we are very excited about the progress so far. And, obviously, you know, we are looking forward to continuing on this momentum.
Operator: And we will take our next from Richard Shannon with Craig Hallum. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Richard Shannon: Well, thanks, Soroush and Saurabh, for taking my questions. Apologize for the ambient noise rolling through an airport here tonight. I guess I will ask kind of a two-parter on the top 10 OEM. Just want to make sure that you are in an exclusive negotiation position. There are not any other competitors here. I think you have alluded to that is probably the case, but just want to make sure that is accurate. Then also maybe if you can elaborate. Hopefully, you did mention this before when I was on the call, but what kind of time frames are we looking at for ramping here?
I would assume it is earlier than 2027, but just want to get your take on that, sir. Thank you.
Soroush Salehian: Yeah. Absolutely. Look. I do not want to comment on anything that is, you know, sensitive or confidential information, obviously, here, but I, you know, I think, hopefully, you can see from the updates that we provided. We feel that we are the only party here that is, you know, going through this late-stage negotiations. But I will stop at that. I think we are feeling good about securing this production program. And importantly, I think, you know, the time of that is pulled forward. So to really get going on this. So yeah, it is about kind of what it looks like from here and kind of the timing. I think look.
The point of this initial development program was to ensure that we have a solution jointly that is going to be applicable to the OEM's broad vehicle lineup, is going to be, you know, from a generation standpoint, it works across multiple trims, multiple models. That the performance enables Level 3 driving for, you know, both highway as well as city. And to also make sure that we have the proper end of the installation plan, and comprehensive audits and then all of that we can really hit the ground running. The team is working very diligently on that. This is, in, you know, another way or form, really the first stage of the series development already.
So we are really hitting the ground running. And, you know, we think that we are on track for this, you know, late 2027, early 2028 timeline for the launch of this OEM. So that is the timeline that we have been working with, and we are excited to deliver on it.
Richard Shannon: Okay. Appreciate that detail, Soroush. My last question here is just from the comments in the press release, I suspect you maybe addressed in the prepared remarks today. Did not get it early to hear, but you are just talking about growing interest engagements from other major OEMs. Leveraging for L3 automotive applications here. Is there some sort of catalyst or other event here driving this? Related either to the market or to Aeva Technologies, Inc.'s products and technology development to maybe just clarify what you meant by that? Thank you.
Soroush Salehian: Yeah. Absolutely. Look, I think we have been obviously engaged with a number of programs across various stages from RFIs to RFQs, and multiple segments within automotive as well as industrial. The question, I think, is around automotive. Within automotive includes passenger, multiple programs there, and trucking. I think one, you know, there are multiple, I think, factors that have been happening, of course, with the industry as well as, I think, you know, with Aeva Technologies, Inc. So first of all, we have laid out a clear foundation of our path to winning business and delivering on it.
Which, you know, includes partnering with the leaders in each respective space, which means they have to also want to partner with us and select us. And two, leveraging our perception platform and the chip-based technology to scale that according to their timeline. And three, be able to apply that without having to invest heavily in a bunch of new CapEx or a bunch of new teams for different product lines and segments, using this approach of the one platform. So we have been able to do that.
I think obviously, with our progression and the success of completion of this development program with the top 10 passenger OEM, and we hope that upon a production win, this would be the first time that a passenger carmaker will be transitioning from time of flight to FMCW to enable a key use case that is differentiated for the end customers. And we think that is a key driver with some of those uptick in the engagements for us. We think that it has the potential to provide us with potential additional wins in a faster time frame than we have in the first one.
As you know, the first one is always the toughest, but I think importantly, because this OEM is really seen as a leader in automotive, introducing new technology but doing so at scale, you know, they ship millions of vehicles every year. We think that is going to be a catalyst and really a blueprint or a reference design for other OEMs and fast followers to also enable that functionality. So I think that is part of the main interest in the space. The second piece also, I think, is around some of the consolidation of the market.
We have always talked about that though Aeva Technologies, Inc. came as one of the last players in the space, we took a contrarian path, but one that we believe is going to have the future-proof technology. And similar to, you know, radars who transitioned from pulse-based atomic flight system to FMCW, we have always believed and talked about that will be a transition that will happen over time as well. So I think that is, you know, with both the developments in the market, some of the consolidation in the players, as well as the transition of the OEMs to technology here that is more FMCW based.
I think are going to be the catalyst in our growing momentum within automotive and also additional markets.
Operator: Thank you. That does conclude the final question we have for today, and this will conclude Aeva Technologies, Inc.'s third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.