SES AI Corporation (NYSE:SES) Q2 2022 Earnings Conference Call August 9, 2022 5:00 PM ET

CompanyParticipants

Eric Goldstein - Vice President of Investor Relations

Jing Nealis - Chief Financial Officer

Qichao Hu - Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Conference Call Participants

Shawn Severson - Water Tower Research

David Bell - Wolfe Research

Operator

Good afternoon. Thank you for attending the SES AI Corporation Second Quarter Earnings Call. My name is Matt and I will be your moderator for today's call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to pass the conference over to our host, Eric Goldstein, Vice President of Investor Relations. Eric, please go ahead.

Eric Goldstein

Thank you. Hello, everyone and welcome to our conference call covering our second quarter 2022 results and outlook for the year. Joining me today are Qichao Hu, Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Jing Nealis, Chief Financial Officer.

We issued a press release just after 4:00 P.M. today detailing our financial results. You'll find the press release and today's conference call webcast in the Investor Relations section of our website at ses.ai. Before we get started, this is a reminder, the discussion today may contain forward-looking information or forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. These statements are based on our predictions and expectations as of today. Such statements involve certain risks, assumptions and uncertainties which may cause the company's actual or future results and performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied in these statements. They're risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from our current expectations include but are not limited to, those detailed in our latest earnings release and in our SEC filings. This afternoon, we will review our business as well as results for the quarter.

With that, I'll pass it over to Qichao.

Qichao Hu

Thank you, Eric. Good afternoon, everyone and thanks for taking the time to join our call. Our second quarter performance was in line with our expectations and our liquidity is strong. We ended the quarter with over $400 million of cash on our balance sheet and continue to believe this will be sufficient funding to reach commercialization. Jing will provide more insight into our financials later in the call. It continues to be a very busy and exciting time for our company and the industry.

Consumer interest in electric vehicles continues to grow as OEMs are introducing new models at an accelerating pace. Energy prices remained historically high and the charging infrastructure continues to expand. As a result, we believe the need for more energy-dense batteries that can improve range and reduce cost has never been greater and supports our belief that lithium metal is the next big thing in batteries. We remain the only next-gen lithium metal company to have any A-sample joint development agreement, JDAs with global car makers. And we have 3 of them in total, one each with General Motors, Hyundai and Honda. Moreover, we continue to have active dialogues with other OEMs to potentially lead to additional JDAs.