Westport Fuel Systems Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Cespira Momentum Accelerates, Funding Needs Decline

Operator: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westport’s Q1 2026 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during this session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Ashley Nuell. Please go ahead.

Ashley Nuell, Conference Call Moderator, Westport Fuel Systems: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Westport Fuel Systems’ conference call regarding the first quarter 2026 financial and operational results. This call is being held to coincide with the press release containing our financial results that was issued yesterday after market close. On today’s call, speaking on behalf of Westport Fuel Systems will be our Chief Executive Officer and Director, Dan Sceli, and our Chief Financial Officer, Elizabeth Owens. Attendance on this call is open to the public, but questions will be restricted to the analyst community. You are reminded that certain statements made on the conference call and our responses to certain may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of U.S. and applicable Canadian securities laws. As such, forward-looking statements are made based on our current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties. With that, I will turn the call over to you, Dan.

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: Thank you, Ashley, and good morning, everyone. I’ll turn to our financial results. Cespira’s momentum continues to build, with revenue up 33% year-over-year in the first quarter. That growth is increasingly material to Westport, reflecting stronger volumes, broader market adoption of HPDI, and progress with a second OEM. Importantly, we expect this momentum to continue through 2026, supported by favorable fuel economics, tightening emissions regulations, and growing OEM and fleet interest in practical low-carbon solutions. The significance for our investors is not only top-line growth, but the financial read-through. As Cespira continues to scale and improve operating performance, we expect our funding requirements for the joint venture to continue to decline. That creates a more direct link between commercial execution at Cespira and improved capital efficiency at Westport. The broader market backdrop also remains supportive.

Volvo Trucks recently announced it has delivered more than 10,000 gas-powered trucks globally, highlighting growing adoption in key European markets. Cognitive Market Research projects the European LNG heavy truck market to grow at a 12.5% growth rate through 2031. Together, those indicators reinforce our view that Cespira is participating in a market with both near-term momentum and multi-year growth potential. Our high-pressure controls business has also reflected improved results in Q1 2026, with a 21% increase in revenue compared with the same period last year. What makes it truly meaningful is how we delivered it. Our brand, GFI Control Systems, provides critical components that make this system viable. AFS ensures that the technologies come together as a complete real-world solution, enabling the performance, reliability, and control our customers expect.

Adding to this result, we commenced production at the expanded product development and manufacturing facility in Cambridge, Ontario, and GFI’s new China Hydrogen Innovation Center and manufacturing facility in Zhengzhou, China. With production underway at all facilities, combined with strong demand from large industrial companies, we remain optimistic about its performance this year, building off this strong start. Moving on to some recent excitement at the ACT Expo in Las Vegas, I believe it provides some key insights into our experience. Getting this truck to Las Vegas on time, show ready, and performing was a complex, high-pressure effort, and the fact that we delivered it speaks volumes. At ACT, from the moment the show floor opened, we saw strong interest. Other exhibitors, fleets, and OEMs stopping to take a closer look and excited by what they saw because this is not a concept.

It’s a fully integrated platform that proves we can deliver diesel performance with cleaner, more cost-effective fuel today. A focused team brought this to life, but their success reflects something bigger, our ability to execute, to integrate, and to lead. As we showcased this platform, we demonstrated what sets us apart, not just innovation, but the ability to bring it to market where it matters most, and fleets and OEMs are starting to notice. It was clear from the volume of interactions this year compared to previous years that this is an exciting time for Westport. We are making clear steps forward in expanding our technology reach. We see growing demand for high performance, lower emission alternatives.

The conference success was a clear signal that we are advancing our high-pressure CNG storage solution into a North American market with real momentum, positioning Westport to capture long-term growth opportunities in the global heavy-duty transportation market. I’ll have Elizabeth run through some financial details, and then we’ll come back. Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Owens, Chief Financial Officer, Westport Fuel Systems: Thank you, Dan. Good morning, everyone. I’ll highlight a few key milestones that Westport has achieved, the first of which remains our strong cash position through the first quarter of 2026. As of March 31st, 2026, our cash and cash equivalents position stood at $24.5 million compared to $27.2 million at December 31st, 2025.

Net cash used in operating activities from continuing operations was $3.4 million for the quarter ended March 31st, 2026, compared to $8.6 million in the prior year, an improvement of $5.2 million as a result of changes in working capital. Our capital contributions to the Cespira joint venture decreased from $4.7 million in the 1st quarter of 2025 to $2.9 million in Q1 of 2026, reflective of the improvement of Cespira’s financial performance. Our total outstanding debt sits at $1.9 million, a reduction of $1 million from the $2.9 million reported at year-end 2025. This debt will be retired in the 3rd quarter of 2026.

Our High Pressure Controls Business Segment saw meaningful growth, with revenue for Q1 2026 increasing 21% to $2.3 million from $1.9 million reported in Q1 2025. Higher year-over-year sales volumes drove the revenue increase with gross profit of $0.5 million, consistent with the prior period. As Dan highlighted, Cespira’s revenue growth is accelerating as we enter 2026. In Q1 2026, total revenue generated was $22.2 million, compared to $16.7 million in the same period last year, representing an increase of 33%, driven by higher sales volumes. Cespira product revenue of $19.5 million increased 48% compared to $13.2 million in Q1 2025. Cespira gross profit improved to $1.6 million compared to $0.4 million one year ago.

Gross margin improved in Q1 2026 to 7% from 3% in Q1 2025. Cespira also significantly improved the bottom line with a net loss in Q1 2026 of $2.5 million, a 65% reduction from the $7.1 million net loss reported in the prior year quarter. This progress is supported by strong market adoption, including Volvo reaching the milestone of more than 10,000 natural gas trucks on the road equipped with Cespira’s HPDI fuel system. We are also encouraged by the continuing progress of a second OEM that is currently conducting truck trials. We’re excited about the opportunities ahead as we target an improvement in Cespira’s capital requirements. With that, I’ll pass the call back to Dan.

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: Thank you, Elizabeth. We are operating from where the fundamentals continue to strengthen. We are seeing solid year-over-year growth in our Cespira joint venture with Volvo Group, supported by increasing demand for LNG-powered heavy-duty trucks in Europe and other parts of the world and favorable fuel economics that are driving adoption. At the same time, tightening emissions regulations and the need for practical lower emission solutions are reinforcing the role of technologies like ours in the transition of the heavy-duty sector. Against this backdrop, Westport is well positioned to capitalize on these trends. Cespira’s HPDI fuel system takes diesel delivery like performance with lower emissions, and we are seeing growing validation through increased volumes with both Volvo and an additional OEM undergoing testing as we speak.

The momentum we demonstrated at ACT Expo highlights our ability to bring fully integrated solutions to market, and we are now focused on execution, scaling commercial volumes, advancing our high-pressure CNG solutions into North America, and expanding into new regions and applications. Together, these efforts position us to build meaningful scale and capture long-term growth opportunities across the global heavy-duty transportation market. Thank you. That concludes the discussion.

Operator: As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your touch tone telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Our first question will come from the line of Eric Stine of Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Your line is open, Eric.

Eric Stine, Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group: Good morning, everyone.

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: Hey, good morning, Eric.

Eric Stine, Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group: Hey, maybe just starting with Cespira. The second truck trial, I mean, it does-- I know we just connected, what, a couple weeks ago, but it does feel like you’re giving a more optimistic tone about that trial. Curious, I mean, am I reading that right? And with that in mind, you know, can you remind us of next steps for that or the timeline we should look for, you know, over the remainder of 2026 and then in 2027?

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: Sure. Yeah, I do feel more optimistic. I mean, the truck trial is going really well. You know, discussions, negotiations continue for the next phase of this, which is a higher volume. The initial truck trial, I think, was around 200 trucks. Moving on to larger volumes and, you know, commercializing this is the discussion that’s ongoing right now.

Eric Stine, Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group: Okay. Timeline in terms of, I think last time you’d said that you expected a, you know, a decision and maybe it’s a decision as part of the negotiations you mentioned later this year. Does that still hold?

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: It does. Yeah.

Eric Stine, Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group: Okay. Got it.

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: A determination on this project before year-end.

Eric Stine, Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group: Okay. maybeYou know, I mean, you gave a lot of detail about Q4 and the end of 25 in terms of some of the new markets that Volvo, well, and Cespira is seeing momentum on a global basis, obviously North America a big focus. Just curious, I mean, are there any other contributors to Q1 that are worth highlighting, you know, as awareness of that product expands?

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: We do see, you know, beachheads opening up in India and Brazil. There’s already trucks in Peru and Chile. You know, India and Brazil are two massive markets and, you know, we’re seeing strong interest in those markets to move to alternative fuel. We’re very excited about that opportunity coming to us.

Eric Stine, Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group: Got it. All right, maybe last one for me. Just because of how things are trending with the joint venture and, you know, expectations that that momentum continues, can you just update us on, maybe current thoughts on contributions needed to the joint venture, here going forward?

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: Yeah. Obviously, you saw that we’ve, you know, the contributions are going down at a steady rate simply because volumes are going up at a steady rate. I mean, the product revenue alone, over the last 48, we’re expecting it to have that rate even grow further. You know, as we approach, you know, 2027, mid-2027, those cash contributions will be reduced a lot more.

Eric Stine, Analyst, Craig-Hallum Capital Group: Okay. You were cutting in and out there, but I guess I’ll take that. Clarify some stuff offline. Thank you.

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: Okay. Thanks, Eric.

Operator: Our next question will be coming from the line of Chris Dendrinos of RBC Capital Markets.

Chris Dendrinos, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Yeah, good morning. Thank you.

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: Good morning.

Chris Dendrinos, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Maybe just to follow up here a bit on Cespira here. You know, a good quarter with some solid gross margin there. You know, how are you thinking about gross margin for the remainder of the year? I guess what I’m kind of curious about is you highlighted some deliveries to the test OEM, and I’m curious what that volume looks like maybe for the rest of the year and how that’s playing out in terms of gross margin. Thanks.

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: Yeah, sure. I mean, as we’ve been talking about, you know, for the last year, Cespira’s margins are gonna continue to grow just simply based on volume. You know, we built out this business completely. To be a tier 1 to a automotive OEM like Volvo, you need to have a completely built out and certified business. That was, you know, day 1 almost 2 years ago. You know, all disciplines, all departments, full certifications in IATF, all that. The expense of building out the business was laid down. We’re now, you know, structuring volume to cover those product costs. As we continue to, you know, build forward and find positive margin impressions, everything we spoke to Q2, quarter four, Cespira and the business is safe.

I mean, the business we have plans to grow in the upcoming year to accelerate it through the rest of the year. In terms of the second OEM, you know, Fred, we’re in discussion with them. As you can see from here, I mean, we’re not allowed to discuss who or when or how, but Cespira is very excited to go after marketing plans and understand their capabilities. We should be able to kind of speak to that in the back half of the year as the program progresses more.

Chris Dendrinos, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Got it. Thanks. Maybe just as a follow-up here, you know, there was the service segment, and I think that project rolls off at the end of this year. Is there anything that would potentially come in and replace that? Thanks.

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: I mean, that service is really 2 major projects. HPDI 3.0, which is, you know, in conjunction with Volvo launching its case engine at the end of this year. You know, it’s an advanced HPDI system. It’s an advanced Volvo engine. That’s the first part that we’ll be wrapping up. The second is we are still doing the development work for Volvo’s hydrogen project. They’ve recently announced their, you know, perhaps on the road, we are doing that development work over the next couple of years. That service work is gonna continue.

We’re looking at additional service work, which engineering development work, on a couple of other projects that we’re not allowed to talk about yet, as you can understand. We hope that we can announce them further down the road.

Chris Dendrinos, Analyst, RBC Capital Markets: Got it. Thank you very much.

Operator: As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Our next question will be coming from the line of Rob Brown of Lake Street Capital Markets. Your line is open, Rob.

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: Hey, good morning, Rob.

Rob Brown, Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Thank you. Good morning. Just kind of at a high level, what are the next steps in the North American market? You had good, kind of a good showing at the ACT Expo and good interest. What’s sort of the next steps in the North American market development?

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: Yeah, Rob Brown, I gotta tell you, it was more than, you know, successful. It was overwhelming. The excitement, the interest that we got at the ACT Expo. We, you know, we built out a truck. Volvo got us a truck and an engine. We built it out and drove it down from Vancouver to Las Vegas. The funny thing was we had a chase car. The truck spent $280 on gas getting there, less than the chase car. And the interest is just overwhelming. There’s an awful lot of discussion right now between fleets, dealers, and the OEM on what’s next. Certainly, you know, we are planning to do more demos, fleet to fleet-driven demos.

There’s planning to be done for the EPA certification to launch this. That’s all activity that, you know, is picking up pace just coming out of the ACT Expo because of the interest from multiple fleets, multiple very large fleets. We’re very excited about that.

Rob Brown, Analyst, Lake Street Capital Markets: Okay. Thank you. In the high pressure controls business, you had a good step-up in gross margin. I assume that has a lot to do with getting China production running. How is the gross margin trends in the controls business going forward?

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: Yeah, we expect to, you know, down the road as the volume, because it is a volume issue. We shut down to move the manufacturing equipment out of Italy and move it to between Cambridge and China. The China piece was really built out to focus on the China market only for localized cost, localized manage politics. Of course, we’re gonna be, you know, localizing some of the components. We expect the margins to grow there, but we need the volume to pick up. There is still the pause in hydrogen, you know, we’re hearing from the Chinese government that’s going to get pushed forward again. The underlying product is a very high product that we can get good margins on.

What we need right now is volume, and that volume is starting to come. you know, we’re seeing it already this year. you know, one of our, I’m sure you follow them as well, customers in that had their call earlier this week are going to bring up. all over, volume is starting to go up for HyPro and as that volume goes up, the margins are gonna be there.

Operator: I’m showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the call to Dan for closing remarks.

Dan Sceli, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Westport Fuel Systems: Well, for your time today. Earlier in the quarter, we’re very excited about where we’re headed. Lots of positive trends. You know, emphasize this both ABCI and of course, controls. Look forward to the next call.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.