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QuantumScapeC
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2026-06-02
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2026-05-22
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Earnings documents stored for QS.

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Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-05-22

Why Is QuantumScape (QS) Up 13.1% Since Last Earnings Report?

Zacks

A month has gone by since the last earnings report for QuantumScape Corporation (QS). Shares have added about 13.1% in that time frame, outperforming the S&P 500. Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is QuantumScape due for a pullback? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at the most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers. QuantumScape reported a loss of 16 cents per share for the first quarter of 2026, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 18 cents. It delivered an earnings surprise of 11.1%.The quarter also showed improving year-over-year performance, with loss per share narrowing from 21 cents in the year-ago period. Operationally, the company reported progress in ramping up the Eagle Line, with early production underway and ongoing efforts to enhance efficiency and output.QuantumScape remains a development-stage company with no GAAP revenues to date. Operating expenses fell to $109.2 million, and net loss narrowed to $100.8 million. QuantumScape reiterated that EV development remains its core focus and primary source of customer activity. The company continues to work closely with Volkswagen Group’s PowerCo as it advances its automotive commercialization roadmap, with the next phase focused on field testing under real-world conditions to drive iteration.Beyond Volkswagen, the company shipped cells to an automotive joint development agreement partner for testing during the first quarter. QuantumScape also reported completing a technology evaluation with another top-10 global automotive OEM, which included hands-on engineering work and competitive benchmarking, and the engagement is now progressing into joint development activities. QS described its ecosystem strategy as a key part of keeping costs low while scaling up. Instead of building everything itself, it partners with others to expand production of its solid ceramic separators. The company is working with Murata Manufacturing and Corning to scale up separator production using its Cobra process, with ongoing technical collaboration.A notable milestone this quarter was the company’s first customer billings from partners, totaling $11 million. The company noted that partners are investing in QS-specific equipment and systems, demonstrating...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-04-24

QuantumScape Q1 Earnings Call Highlights

MarketBeat

Eagle Line installation is complete and QuantumScape plans to ramp production of its QSE-5 cells in Q2, using integrated AI to improve equipment uptime, throughput and cell quality to support automotive and other applications. Automotive remains the core focus with field testing with Volkswagen using QSE-5 next, and four of the world’s top 10 OEMs engaged as partners moving from evaluation to joint development and potential licensing. QuantumScape reported its first customer billings of $11M in Q1, ended the quarter with approximately $904.7M in liquidity, and reiterated full‑year 2026 guidance of an adjusted EBITDA loss of $250M–$275M and CapEx of $40M–$60M. Interested in QuantumScape Corporation? Here are five stocks we like better. $134M in Insider Moves: What It Might Mean for KMI, ISRG and QS QuantumScape (NYSE:QS) executives highlighted progress on its automated pilot production line, early customer billings from ecosystem partners, and expanding interest beyond automotive during the company’s first-quarter 2026 earnings call. CEO Dr. Siva Sivaram said the company completed installation of its “Eagle Line” in the first quarter and began startup operations. The Eagle Line is QuantumScape’s “highly automated pilot production line” intended to demonstrate scalable manufacturing of its solid-state lithium-metal battery technology. → GE Vernova Beats Earnings by 790% as Data Center Demand Explodes 5 Surprising Stocks Set to Benefit From a Future Robotics Boom According to Sivaram, QuantumScape is producing initial volumes of its QSE-5 cells and is focusing on improving “equipment uptime, line throughput, control systems, and process stability.” He added that the company has been integrating advanced AI models into the line and said it has seen “substantive progress on cell quality and reliability,” attributing improvements to faster and more consistent quality determinations using metrology data. Looking ahead, Sivaram said QuantumScape plans to ramp QSE-5 production in the second quarter to support customer programs “across automotive and other applications.” Responding to Deutsche Bank’s Winnie Dong about the pace of the ramp, Sivaram said the company would begin ramping in Q2 and “continue to go up satisfying these demands through the rest of the year,” citing ongoing demand for samples from both automotive customers and prospective new markets. → STMicr...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-04-24

Stock Market Today, April 23: QuantumScape Jumps After Q1 Results as Management Eyes New Markets

Motley Fool

QuantumScape (NASDAQ:QS), which develops solid-state lithium-metal battery technology for electric vehicles, closed Thursday at $7.41, up 1.37%. The stock moved higher after Q1 2026 results, and QuantumScape detailed Eagle production line progress. Investors are also watching how new AI and defense end markets could translate into commercial deals. Trading volume reached 111.8 million shares, about 651% above its three-month average of 14.9 million shares. QuantumScape IPO'd in 2020 and has fallen 25% since going public. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC) fell 0.41% to 7,108, while the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) lost 0.89% to finish at 24,439. Within battery and energy storage names, EnerSys (NYSE:ENS) closed at $207.80 (+2.72%) and Energizer (NYSE:ENR) ended at $19.96 (-0.30%) as investors weighed battery-demand trends across the industry. After soaring 32% in early trading, QuantumScape gave back almost all of those gains Thursday. QuantumScape reported a Q1 loss of $0.16 per share versus a $0.18 forecast, but that wasn’t the big news for investors. The company is just beginning to ramp up its Eagle Line for QSE-5 solid-state battery cells. Automotive customers will be testing the cells with QuantumScape hoping to begin commercial production upon approvals. Management also noted that it is now eyeing new markets for its battery technology. They include data centers, aerospace, and military. That may help explain why the company added former U.S. Air Force Chief Scientist Dr. Mark Maybury to its Strategic Advisory Board earlier this month. Investors should watch for more commentary related to these sectors. Before you buy stock in QuantumScape, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and QuantumScape wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $502,837!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,241,433!* Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 977% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 200% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-04-23

QuantumScape Q1 Earnings Beat Estimates on Eagle Line Startup Progress

Zacks

QuantumScape Corporation QS reported a loss of 16 cents per share for the first quarter of 2026, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 18 cents. It delivered an earnings surprise of 11.1%. The quarter also showed improving year-over-year performance, with loss per share narrowing from 21 cents in the year-ago period. Operationally, the company reported progress in ramping up the Eagle Line, with early production underway and ongoing efforts to enhance efficiency and output. QuantumScape remains a development-stage company with no GAAP revenues to date. Operating expenses fell to $109.2 million, and net loss narrowed to $100.8 million. QuantumScape Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | QuantumScape Corporation Quote QuantumScape reiterated that EV development remains its core focus and primary source of customer activity. The company continues to work closely with Volkswagen Group’s PowerCo as it advances its automotive commercialization roadmap, with the next phase focused on field testing under real-world conditions to drive iteration. Beyond Volkswagen, the company shipped cells to an automotive joint development agreement partner for testing during the first quarter. QuantumScape also reported completing a technology evaluation with another top-10 global automotive OEM, which included hands-on engineering work and competitive benchmarking, and the engagement is now progressing into joint development activities. QS described its ecosystem strategy as a key part of keeping costs low while scaling up. Instead of building everything itself, it partners with others to expand production of its solid ceramic separators. The company is working with Murata Manufacturing and Corning to scale up separator production using its Cobra process, with ongoing technical collaboration. A notable milestone this quarter was the company’s first customer billings from partners, totaling $11 million. The company noted that partners are investing in QS-specific equipment and systems, demonstrating commitment while also generating revenue, as QuantumScape shares its equipment, processes and know-how while retaining control of its core technology. On spending, QS reported first-quarter 2026 capital expenditures of $10 million, primarily reflecting final payments tied to the Eagle Line. For full-year 2026, the company has maintained its capex guidance of...

TranscriptFY2026 Q12026-04-22

FY2026 Q1 earnings call transcript

Earnings source - 62 paragraphs
Operator

Good day, and welcome to QuantumScape's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone. If your question has been answered and you'd like to remove yourself from the queue, simply press star one one again. As a reminder, today's program is being recorded. Now I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, Sam Kamara, QuantumScape's Senior Director, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Sam Kamara

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, and thank you to everyone for joining QuantumScape's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. To supplement today's discussion, please go to our investor relations website at ir.quantumscape.com to view our shareholder letter. Before we begin, I want to call your attention to the Safe Harbor provision for forward-looking statements that is posted on our website as part of our quarterly update. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events, future technology progress, or future financial or operating performance. Our expectations and beliefs regarding these matters may not materialize. Actual results and financial periods are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected.

Sam Kamara

There are risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the content of our forward-looking statements for the reasons that we cite in our shareholder letter, Form 10-K and other SEC filings, including uncertainties posed by the difficulty in predicting future outcomes. Joining us today will be QuantumScape's CEO, Dr. Siva Sivaram, and our CFO, Kevin Hettrich. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Siva.

Siva Sivaram

Thank you, Sam. First, an update on our Eagle Line. This is our highly automated pilot production line to demonstrate scalable production of our solid-state lithium-metal battery technology. In Q1, we completed installation of the Eagle Line and commenced startup operations. We are producing initial volumes of QSE-5 cells, and we have been working to continuously improve all aspects of Eagle Line functionality, such as equipment uptime, line throughput, control systems, and process stability. We have been integrating advanced AI models into the Eagle Line, and we have seen substantive progress on cell quality and reliability. We believe that the increased production capacity of the Eagle Line will help drive a virtuous cycle of higher data volume, more rapid learning cycles, and enhanced quality. In Q2, we plan to ramp QSE-5 cell production to support customer programs across automotive and other applications.

Siva Sivaram

Development work for EV applications remains our core focus and our largest source of customer billings. We continue to work closely with the Volkswagen Group's PowerCo as we advance through the phases of our automotive commercialization roadmap. The next phase is field testing. Cells from the Eagle Line will be put through a demanding set of real-world test conditions, and that customer feedback will be used to learn and iterate. Beyond our work with Volkswagen, in Q1, we shipped cells to an automotive JDA partner for testing. We continue to work through our two JDAs with top 10 global automotive OEMs to bring our solid-state lithium metal technology into their vehicle programs. In addition, this quarter, we successfully completed our technology evaluation with another top 10 global automotive OEM customer. Their engineers performed hands-on testing of our technology and ran competitive benchmarks against other solid-state technology approaches.

Siva Sivaram

With the success of this effort, we are moving into the next phase of this engagement, joint development activities with the ultimate goal of deploying QS technology in their automotive and other applications. Next, an update on our QS ecosystem. This is the cornerstone of our capital-light business model. By teaming up with world-class companies across the value chain, we can bring our technology to global scale faster and more efficiently. These alliances are a force multiplier for our commercialization efforts as we distribute our technology knowhow to trusted partners. We continue to work closely with both Murata Manufacturing and Corning on scaling up production of our solid ceramic separator using our groundbreaking Cobra process to build the global value chain necessary for gigawatt hour scale production of QS technology. Our ecosystem partners are also investing in QS proprietary hardware and systems to produce our ceramic separator.

Siva Sivaram

We see this as a clear sign of their commitment to our ecosystem, as well as a source of customer billings. In Q1, we recorded our first customer billings from our ecosystem. Next, a word on new markets. We believe our high-performance solid-state design has compelling attributes to address the evolving energy storage needs of AI data centers, where conventional lithium-ion technology faces safety and performance limitations. Driven by massive compute demand, data centers are transitioning to 800V DC designs and adopting power systems architecture and technology from the electric vehicle industry. We see this as a natural fit for our no-compromise solid state battery. In rack energy storage and power delivery is a large and fast-growing market, and the higher energy density of our battery technology can enable increased compute density for AI factories.

Siva Sivaram

In addition, we have seen strong customer interest in our battery technology from global players in the military, aerospace, and government sectors. Our battery technology unlocks step-change improvements in both energy density and power simultaneously. Combined with the superior safety of our solid-state design, this is a highly attractive combination for these advanced applications. Our anode-free architecture also has supply chain benefits for these customers. Conventional lithium-ion batteries require graphite that is almost exclusively sourced from China. In contrast, our battery design is graphite-free, eliminating a major pain point for defense applications. To conclude, I want to take a moment to look at the big picture. The world's energy system is experiencing rapid change. The way we produce, store, and use energy is undergoing a once-in-a-century transformation.

Siva Sivaram

From electric vehicles and AI data centers to grid storage, drones, and aerospace, the future of the world economy is being built on electrification, electrotech. To give just one example, the speed of change and growth in the AI data center market is breathtaking. The technology of the past is struggling to keep up, and innovations in energy storage are essential to this transformational change. Thanks to our years of careful planning, consistent execution, and constancy of vision, QS is in the middle of this electrotech story. From geopolitical disruptions to the energy system and supply chain risks for critical materials, to the explosive growth of electrification across the world economy, the tailwinds for our technology have never been stronger. We believe we have the differentiated technology, world-class team, ecosystem partners, and customer relationships to capitalize on this revolution.

Siva Sivaram

Even as we tackle the challenges still ahead, our dedicated team is motivated by a market opportunity that is global in scale and growing every day. We look forward to updating you on our progress over the months to come. With that, I'll turn things over to Kevin for a word on our financial outlook.

Kevin Hettrich

Thank you, Siva. GAAP operating expenses and GAAP net loss in Q1 were $109.2 million and $100.8 million, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $63.2 million in Q1, in line with expectations. For full year 2026, we reiterate our adjusted EBITDA loss guidance of between $250 million and $275 million. A table reconciling GAAP net loss and adjusted EBITDA is available in the financial statement at the end of this shareholder letter. Capital expenditures in the first quarter were $10 million. Q1 CapEx was primarily composed of final payments related to the Eagle Line. For full year 2026, we reiterate our capital guidance of between $40 million and $60 million. Customer billings for Q1 were $11 million, representing a mix of customer development activities and ecosystem partner payments.

Kevin Hettrich

Customer billings as a metric represents the total value of all invoices issued by QS to our customers and partners in the period, regardless of accounting treatment. As a reminder, customer billings may vary from quarter to quarter due to fluctuations in activity as we progress through various phases of engagement. Customer billings is a key operational metric meant to give insight into customer activity and future cash inflows. The metric is not a substitute for revenue under US GAAP. We ended Q1 with $904.7 million in liquidity and will remain prudent with our strong balance sheet going forward. As always, we encourage investors to read more on our financial information, business outlook, and risk factors in our quarterly and annual SEC filings on our investor relations website.

Sam Kamara

Thanks, Kevin. We will begin today's Q&A portion with a few questions we have received from investors or that I believe would interest investors. Siva, you've outlined our strategic blueprint and laid out our 2026 goals. With the first quarter behind us, can you describe the progress on our core annual goals?

Siva Sivaram

Thank you, Sam. The Eagle Line is central to us. We are using the Eagle Line to demonstrate scalable production so that our licensing customers can take our technology and scale it up. You can measure progress in two ways, the technical side and the commercial side. On the technical side, the Eagle Line is making the expected progress as we ramp up. The team has been doing great work together with PowerCo. The day-to-day is all about getting the details right. Equipment uptime, line throughput, control systems, process stability, and so on. The improvements we have made in reliability are enabled by some of our new AI models that take data from our metrology, make determinations about the quality faster, more accurately, and more consistently than a human could possibly do. This enables an accelerated feedback and feed-forward loop, which drives the continuous improvement cycle faster.

Siva Sivaram

We ship samples in Q1, and in Q2, we'll be ramping to support more shipments. That's the technical side. On the overall commercial side, we have great customer traction across major geographies in the automotive business, Europe, North America, and Japan. We are working closely with VW on field testing in the near term, leading to large-scale production transfer. We have shipped cells to an auto JDA partner, successfully completed a technology evaluation with an additional top 10 automaker. All told, that's four of the top 10 that are well engaged in our auto pipeline. We are seeing our ecosystem business model also gaining momentum. Our ecosystem partners are making investments in hardware and systems to make our technology, which shows their commitment to the opportunity. Not only that, but these investments are beginning to flow through into QS customer billings.

Siva Sivaram

Our work on automotive ecosystem engagements and the higher throughput of the Eagle Line comes together to give us the resources that we need to go after some new markets as well.

Sam Kamara

Thanks, Siva. On the new markets you've described, what makes the opportunity in AI data centers and defense interesting?

Siva Sivaram

Sam, we think the opportunity for our technology in AI data centers is obvious and compelling. It's early days, but right now, I would call it a great addition to our automotive portfolio. It checks all the boxes, the size of spend in the market, the growth, the product market fit, and our ability to create and capture value. The requirements for in-rack power solutions align well with our technology. You need better energy density to increase the compute density of the data center. You need the power performance, charge and discharge, to provide power smoothing for these AI workloads, which from the battery's point of view, is almost like being on a racetrack. Safety really matters for a data center where operating temperatures are higher, and a fire in a GPU rack could easily cost millions in damage and downtime.

Siva Sivaram

Our differentiated technology allows us to do things traditional lithium-ion cannot do. Better performance with better safety lets you get closer to the system and provide power over the last meter. We are staffing up for this opportunity, as well as other markets like military, aviation, and space. We have added Ross Niebergall to the board and Dr. Mark Maybury as an advisor to help us with these opportunities. Their expertise and networks are extremely valuable. We are really excited about these new markets and will be shipping samples from Eagle Line to meet the increasing inbound customer interest.

Sam Kamara

Kevin, we reported our first customer billings from ecosystem partners this quarter. Can you explain why that milestone matters and what it demonstrates about the longer-term economics of our business model?

Kevin Hettrich

Our first customer billings from ecosystem partners are an important milestone for three reasons. First, this is an indicator of ecosystem investment in our technology platform. We believe this accumulation of investment by partners is an amplifier that is a strength of our capital-light business model. Second, these billings are an additional source of cash flow into the company as we transfer equipment, processes, and know-how that enable our partners to move faster while retaining QS ownership of the core technology. Third, similar to our business model with customers, we plan to earn longer-term ecosystem licensing payments and royalties. We believe these ecosystem payments will be an important driver of shareholder value creation. As a reminder, we define customer billings as the total value of all invoices issued by QS to our customers and ecosystem partners during the period, regardless of accounting treatment.

Kevin Hettrich

This is an operational indicator rather than a substitute for GAAP revenue. The amount and accounting treatment can vary by agreement and by quarter, but taken together, we believe they demonstrate growing external validation of our technology and the flexibility of our business model as we scale.

Sam Kamara

Okay. Thanks so much, Kevin. We are now ready to begin the live portion of today's call. Operator, please open up the line for questions.

Operator

Certainly. Our first question for today comes from the line of Winnie Dong from Deutsche Bank. Your question, please.

Winnie Dong

Hi. Thank you for taking my question, sorry. I was wondering if you can potentially qualitatively characterize the ramp of QSE-5 production in 2Q. It seems like there's going to be some steep, I guess, quarter-over-quarter improvement in terms of the output. I was wondering if you can characterize it for us perhaps qualitatively or even directionally. Thank you.

Siva Sivaram

Winnie, yes. We are beginning the ramp of the Eagle Line in Q2. As you would expect with a highly automated line such as the Eagle Line, once we have installed and started bringing the initial volume of cells, we need to continuously improve the uptime, the throughput, the control systems, the process stability, all of this to continuously improve. There's an ongoing demand for samples from our automotive customers and from these new markets that we are attempting to enter, and these demands pile up. Q2, we begin ramping, and we'll continue to go up satisfying these demands through the rest of the year. That gives you a good feel for how fast we are ramping the Eagle Line, Winnie.

Winnie Dong

Okay. Got it. Second question is on the expansion to new markets. It seems like you think the cells can really be used for energy storage in data center. Maybe can you talk about some of the potential investments that you may need to put into this? What kind of timeframe we're looking at in terms of launching a potential product for that. Does it need some substantial change in terms of the technology and product, or is it an easy sort of transfer into that market? Thank you.

Siva Sivaram

Yeah, that's a very interesting question, Winnie. Most of the learning from automotive business transfers here. The data center market is going into the 800-volt architecture, and many of the requirements are very similar with respect to energy density and power density and cycling life, et cetera. However, the most important thing we have to offer in addition is the safety and the no-compromise nature of the product, meaning you don't have to sacrifice performance for safety. You can have the product as close to the compute as possible. This is what we mean by last-meter power. In all of these AI data centers and the AI factories, what you need is to be able to maximize the compute density.

Siva Sivaram

The ability of our cells to be close and deliver high-quality last-meter power is what makes us very attractive, and it is a natural transition from the automotive product to the data center product.

Kevin Hettrich

Winnie, I'm happy to take the capital allocation part of the question. As you know, our strategy is to develop technology platforms that serve multiple markets. The bulk of the investment goes into developing a platform. It's more incremental to tailor a product and to engage customers. Where we see incremental investment opportunities in the best interest of shareholders, of course, we're going to go after them. We're very excited about the new high-value markets that we mentioned in the letter and in our remarks. As a reminder, one of our goals, number three, is to expand into high-value markets. Our annual operating plan and the financial guidance, upon which it's based, already contemplate that.

Kevin Hettrich

In today's call, we reiterated our adjusted EBITDA guidance, our CapEx guidance, and we also reiterate that we are tracking to our year-over-year increase in customer billings, all reiterated on today's call.

Winnie Dong

Got it. Awesome. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Thanks. I'll pass it on.

Siva Sivaram

Thank you, Winnie.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ben Kallo from Baird. Your question, please.

Ben Kallo

Hey, good afternoon. Good evening, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the first billings. Just maybe on the last question a little, if you could expand, just would it be similar in a license model? Or is it something that you could do on your PowerCo with the expanded purview that you guys did a while back?

Siva Sivaram

Ben, it's exactly correct. We will be looking at both of those. Initially, the samples will come out of the Eagle Line. Additionally, PowerCo has 5 GW hours of capacity reserved for markets outside the automotive, and we will continue to find other opportunities for these markets as well. All of these are, as you said, right in our path of how we want to take it through. The ecosystem also plays a big role. Our ability to ramp the separated production from either Corning or Murata helps with this. We expect to see the same phenomenon happen with our equipment and materials partner, who all will help us with this ramp.

Ben Kallo

Just thank you for that. Just moving on to the other auto OEMs that you're working with. Could you just talk about kind of what if there is kind of a view on the progression of turning those to a formal licensing partner, from the JDA to the formal licensing partner, like a timeframe or any kind of what they're looking for to solidify that relationship. Thank you, guys.

Siva Sivaram

Yeah. Ben, thank you. Thanks for that question. Yes. Upfront, I want to say four of the top 10 auto OEMs in the world are now actively involved with us across the major geographies, North America, Japan, and of course, Europe with Volkswagen. In all cases, we are carefully gauging the progress with evaluation to joint development, working towards licensing. As you know, Volkswagen is the most advanced in that relationship. The others are well on their way for us to progress towards getting a license from them. All of these, of course, run through the Eagle Line. The Eagle Line makes the difference in our ability to sample and move this process along towards licensing.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mark Shooter from William Blair. Your question please.

Mark Shooter

Hey, team. Thanks for taking my question. Kevin, it was great to see you at the conference. Congrats on all the progress this quarter and the Eagle Line and the new auto engagement. Regarding the OEMs and the field testing as the next step, my understanding is that you'll need to size up the cell from the QSE-5 to fit into VW's unified cell architecture. Do you still need to do that for field testing with them, or are they now taking the QSE-5 to field test? Is another customer that you're working with leapfrogging VW and beating them to field testing?

Siva Sivaram

Mark, a very interesting question. Yes, we are field testing with the QSE-5. As we demonstrated with the Ducati bike last year and onwards, they will be field testing. You are absolutely right. VW has the unified cell to work with, and they are working closely with us to design that cell as well. I expect that each one of our OEM customers will want their specific form factors as well. We work with each of them. This is one of the biggest advantages of the licensing business model, is that our separator can handle all these form factors, but they will be working with us on how to ramp on their specific needs.

Mark Shooter

Great, Siva. Thank you. That's very helpful. Switching to some other markets here, it's very evident where you're trying to go by the people you've added to the board with the former military defense contractors. I'll ask about the potential drone market in aerospace and defense. Your auto sample cell, the QSE-5 has a significant performance advantage for autos. But I'm wondering if there's some juice left, per se, and if you were to redesign that for a drone spec, because drones, they require a higher specific energy density, but also they don't need as much cycle life. I'm wondering if there's knobs to turn, like separator thickness and cell packaging, where that could give you some torque on some performance improvements.

Siva Sivaram

You are 100% correct, Mark. One of our goals for this year is to go beyond QSE-5. As we keep repeating, we are just at the start of this S-curve. There are many levers still left to move us up the performance curve. Please allow us to come and show you what we are developing sometime later this year. They'll be applicable not just to the drone market, but to all other markets as well. We will continue to push the technology frontier for all of this. The separator technology, the ceramic separator, is the key to our cell's architecture and its performance. We will continue to evolve in all fronts to make the cells adapted to different applications.

Mark Shooter

Appreciate the time. Thank you, Siva.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question at this time, please press star one one on your telephone. Our next question comes from the line of Mark Delaney from Goldman Sachs. Your question please.

Ayush Ghosh

Hi. Good afternoon. You've got Ayush Ghosh on for Mark Delaney. Thank you for taking the questions. On billings, how should we think about the potential increases in billings going forward, considering you recorded the first billings from the ecosystem and also with the new JDA and other non-auto end markets?

Kevin Hettrich

Ayush, thank you for the question. In fiscal year 2025, we recorded approximately $19.5 million in customer billings. In Q1 2026, on this call, we recorded $11 million in the quarter. If you recall, our guidance is to increase billings year-over-year, 2026 compared to 2025. We reiterate that guidance today.

Ayush Ghosh

Got it. Thank you for that. Separately, you also mentioned you transitioned from the technology evaluation to the JDA with the top 10 OEM, and congrats on that. Can you sort of speak on some of the benchmarking tests, what they were, and how QS performed, and also what some of the initial feedback was?

Siva Sivaram

Yes, I would love to talk about it. These are hands-on in-lab evaluation by these customer engineers in our pilot facilities. They spend a lot of time working with us, making the cells and measuring them here. They have a lot of experience in solid state in their own labs, and of course, all OEMs kick the tires from around the world. These are top 10 OEMs. They are not novices to this technology, and they get actively involved with us. For us to feel good about moving to the next stage, that makes us feel good and sort of ratifies our own confidence in how far we have been in this differentiated technology.

Ayush Ghosh

Thank you for the time.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Laisha Zaack from HSBC. Your question please.

Laisha Zaack

Hi, Siva, Kevin, can you hear me?

Siva Sivaram

Yes. Hi, Laisha.

Laisha Zaack

Hi.

Kevin Hettrich

Hi, Laisha.

Laisha Zaack

How are you? Thanks for taking my question. I just have one very quick on timing. I wanted to know how does going into these new markets change the time frames that you've set for your automotive goals. Are these new possibilities using some of the human capital that you've destined for automotive, and the teams that you have established for automotive or are you going to start to expand your workforce, your teams or resources? How does this work? How should we think about it?

Siva Sivaram

Laisha, a great question. The automotive marketplace still remains an important focus for us. We are adding these additional markets to our automotive portfolio. We are adding customers in the automotive marketplace. Four of the top 10 are joining us. It is not like we are taking our eye away from the ball with respect to the automotive marketplace. However, these new, big growing marketplaces with respect to data center and defense aerospace are very good fits for our product. As Kevin mentioned earlier, at the start of the year, we had looked at these markets and appropriately sized our resourcing for this as part of our annual operating plan. We have well-resourced this, and we'll continue to invest as needed. This is not an either/or. We are looking at both of these opportunities with creating and capturing shareholder value.

Laisha Zaack

Okay. Thank you so much. That makes a lot of sense.

Siva Sivaram

Thank you, Laisha.

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude the question and answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to Siva Sivaram for any further remarks.

Siva Sivaram

Thank you, operator. Finally, today I want to recognize the entire QS team for their execution and thank our shareholders for their continued support. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the months ahead. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-04-09

QuantumScape Announces Timing of First Quarter 2026 Business Results and Webcast

GlobeNewswire

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- QuantumScape Corporation (NASDAQ: QS), a global leader in next-generation solid-state lithium-metal battery technology, today announced it will release its 2026 first-quarter business results after market close on Wednesday, April 22, 2026. This will be followed by a conference call at 2 p.m. Pacific Time (5 p.m. Eastern Time). Siva Sivaram, chief executive officer, and Kevin Hettrich, chief financial officer, will participate on the call. Starting today, April 8, shareholders can submit questions (here) they would like addressed on the call. QuantumScape management will respond to a selection of the submitted questions. The company will accept questions until Tuesday, April 21, at 2 p.m. Pacific Time (5 p.m. Eastern Time). The call will be accessible live via a webcast on QuantumScape’s IR Events Calendar page. An archive of the webcast will be available shortly after the call for 12 months. About QuantumScape Corporation QuantumScape is on a mission to revolutionize energy storage to enable a sustainable future. The company’s next-generation batteries are designed to enable greater energy density, faster charging and enhanced safety to support the transition away from legacy energy sources toward a lower carbon future. For more information, visit www.quantumscape.com. Contacts: For Investors [email protected] For Media [email protected]

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-03-13

QuantumScape (QS) Down 11.1% Since Last Earnings Report: Can It Rebound?

Zacks

It has been about a month since the last earnings report for QuantumScape Corporation (QS). Shares have lost about 11.1% in that time frame, underperforming the S&P 500. Will the recent negative trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is QuantumScape due for a breakout? Well, first let's take a quick look at its latest earnings report in order to get a better handle on the recent catalysts for QuantumScape Corporation before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late. QuantumScape remains a development-stage company with zero GAAP revenue to date. Adjusted fourth-quarter 2025 loss per share came in at 17 cents, wider than the consensus mark of 16 cents. Total operating expenses came in at $115 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, down from $130.2 million generated in the year-ago period. Net Loss declined to $105 million from $119 million incurred in the corresponding quarter of 2024. Fourth quarter 2025 capex of $12.3 million primarily supported facilities, equipment, and Eagle Line commissioning Full-year 2025 Capex was $36.3 million (vs. $62.1 million in 2024), reflecting disciplined capital allocation as the Cobra and Eagle Line installations neared completion. Liquidity improved to $970.8 million at year-end (versus $910.8 million at the end of 2024). Last year, marked the first customer billings totaling $19.5 million, establishing early monetization under the capital-light model. Due to related-party accounting treatment, 2025 billings were recorded directly to shareholders' equity and excluded from revenue and EBITDA; this non-GAAP operational metric represents cash inflows from development activities and initial customer engagements but does not yet flow through traditional P&L measures. The year 2025 culminated with Eagle Line installation and inauguration on Feb 4, 2026, incorporating the high-throughput Cobra separator process intended to underpin higher-volume QSE-5 B-sample output and serve as a scalable blueprint for licensees. For 2026, management guides adjusted EBITDA loss to $250-$275 million, and Capex to $40-$60 million with the majority directed toward next-generation technology development Management expects higher customer billings in 2026 versus 2025 but emphasizes quarterly lumpiness tied to project timing and milestone achievement. Key operational focus is demonstrating Eagle Line scalabili...

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-02-13

QuantumScape Stock Tumbles After Earnings. This Could Be a Worry for Investors.

Barrons.com

It’s not unusual for the battery maker’s shares to be volatile, and short interest in the stock has added to the uncertainty.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-02-12

QuantumScape Corporation Q4 2025 Earnings Call Summary

Moby

Successfully integrated the breakthrough COBRA process into the production baseline, serving as the primary catalyst for a capital-light licensing business model. Commissioned the Eagle Line pilot production facility to serve as a scalable blueprint for licensing partners to replicate at gigawatt-hour scale. Expanded the commercial portfolio by adding two major global automotive OEMs through new joint development and technology evaluation agreements. Achieved first-ever customer billings of $19.5 million, validating the ability to generate cash inflows during the development phase prior to royalty earnings. Strengthened the domestic supply chain ecosystem by partnering with ceramic production experts Murata Manufacturing and Corning. Demonstrated real-world technology viability via the Ducati V21L race bike debut, marking the first integration of QSE-5 cells into a functional electric vehicle. Maintained financial discipline by narrowing adjusted EBITDA loss by approximately 10% year-over-year through value engineering and real estate optimization. 2026 guidance assumes adjusted EBITDA loss between $250 million and $275 million, reflecting increased activity across multiple customer engagements with a flat resource base. CapEx is projected at $40 million to $60 million, with the majority allocated toward 'Beyond QSE-5' next-generation technology development. Management expects 2026 customer billings to increase over 2025 levels as automotive partnerships deepen and expand into pre-testing and industrialization phases. Expansion into high-value non-automotive markets, including data centers, robotics, and aviation, to leverage the cell's high power and safety characteristics while maintaining a primary focus on the automotive market. The Eagle Line will be utilized to demonstrate increasingly efficient cell output, focusing on unsexy but critical metrics like uptime, yield, and cycle time for partner transfer. Transitioned to a licensing-only model for PowerCo, where QuantumScape provides the blueprint while the partner assumes the multi-billion dollar capital risk of gigawatt-hour scaling. Reported $19.5 million in cash from billings directly to shareholders' equity rather than revenue due to the related-party nature of the transaction under U.S. GAAP. Acknowledged market 'turbulence' and OEM retrenchment in the U.S. but maintained that long-term electrifica...

TranscriptFY2025 Q42026-02-11

FY2025 Q4 earnings call transcript

Earnings source - 143 paragraphs
Operator

Good day, and welcome to QuantumScape Corporation's 2025Q4 Earnings Conference Call. Sam Kamra, QuantumScape Corporation's Senior Director, Investor Relations, you may begin the conference. Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, and thank you to everyone for joining

Sam Kamra

QuantumScape Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. To supplement today's discussion, please go to our IR website at investors.quantumscape.com to view our shareholder letter. Before we begin, I want to call your attention to the safe harbor provision for forward-looking statements that is posted on our website as part of our quarterly update. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events, or future financial or operating performance. Our expectations and beliefs regarding these matters may not materialize, and results may differ materially from those projected. Results in financial periods are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the content of our forward-looking statements for the reasons that we cite in our shareholder letter, Form 10-K, and SEC filings, including uncertainties caused by the difficulty in speaking to outcomes. Joining us today will be Siva Sivaram, CEO, and Kevin Hettrich, CFO. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Siva. Thank you, Sam. I would like to begin by reviewing our progress over the course of 2025. It was an extraordinary year on all fronts for QuantumScape Corporation. At the beginning of

Siva Sivaram

the year.

Siva Sivaram

We set aggressive goals for ourselves to basically grow the COBRA process, ship COBRA-based QSE-5, install equipment for our Eagle Line, and expand our commercial engagements. We are proud to report that we succeeded on all four key goals. In June, we announced that our breakthrough COBRA process has been integrated into our cell production baseline. This groundbreaking process enables gigawatt-hour-scale product and is a catalyst for our capital-light development and licensing business model. With respect to commercial engagements, in 2025, we expanded our collaboration and licensing agreement with PowerCo, the battery manufacturer of the Volkswagen Group. We also added two major global automotive OEMs to our portfolio customers, announcing new joint development and technology evaluation agreements. Additionally, in 2025, we issued our first customer billing. In 2025, we added two globally renowned ceramic production experts to our U.S. ecosystem: Murata Manufacturing and Corning. We capped the year with our second annual Solid-State Battery Symposium in Kyoto, where we brought together ecosystem partners, automotive OEM customers, and government officials. 2025 also saw milestones in our technology and industrialization roadmap. COBRA-enabled QSE-5 cells shipped to the Volkswagen Group. In September, we made headlines as the Ducati V21L race bike powered by QSE-5 cells rode across the stage at IAA Mobility in Munich.

Siva Sivaram

This exciting event

Siva Sivaram

was the world debut of our solid-state lithium-metal battery technology in a real-world electric vehicle. Finally, over the course of 2025, we installed our pilot cell production line, the Eagle Line. On 2026-02-04, we held an inauguration event for the Eagle Line with attendance from automotive OEM customers, technology partners, and local and state government officials. Incorporating the innovative COBRA process, the Eagle Line is a suite of equipment, materials, and highly automated processes forming the blueprint for production of QSE-5 technology. This leads me to our four key goals for 2026. Firstly, we will demonstrate scalable production of the Eagle Line. The purpose of the Eagle Line is threefold. First, it will produce QSE-5 cells to support customer sampling and testing, technology demonstrations, and product integration efforts. Second, the Eagle Line will show scalable process steps for production of our battery technology to enable licensing partners to bring our technology to gigawatt-hour scale in their own facility. Third, the Eagle Line gives us a platform to develop and test further enhancements and refinements at meaningful scale, allowing us to accelerate our advanced development efforts. In 2026, we will demonstrate the scalability of the Eagle Line through increasingly efficient cell output. Secondly, we will advance automotive commercialization. The automotive market remains our core focus, and in 2026, we aim to advance our automotive customers through the stages of our technology development licensing business model. Working with multiple global auto OEMs, we will use our technology platform to tailor product solutions for vehicle programs, undertake pre-testing, customer-specific industrialization strategy, and implement high-value markets. Thirdly, we will expand into new markets. Our solid-state battery technology offers a step-change improvement over conventional lithium-ion technology. Batteries are becoming a disruptive force across the entire economy, and we see the opportunity set for advanced energy storage expanding across existing and new applications. In 2026, with differentiated solid-state technology, we aim to seize opportunities where our technology encapsulates significant value. And finally, as a technology innovation company, we will go beyond QSE-5.

Siva Sivaram

battery performance.

Siva Sivaram

As we ramp production of our current QSE-5 platform, in 2026, we are focused on further advancements to meet the ever-growing need for energy storage in existing and emerging applications. And this year, we will announce progress along our technology roadmap. To conclude, I would like to say a word about our strategic outlook. 2025 was a remarkable year, and it would not have been possible without the tireless effort of our outstanding employees. Our ambitious goals for 2026 will require continued disciplined execution on the part of the team. Looking at the broader landscape, the world at large faces important challenges around technology and secure supply chain. We view this as a golden opportunity. Our mission to revolutionize energy storage has positioned us to offer solutions to these exact challenges. For industry partners who need better batteries, we seek to offer a future-proof technology platform that delivers better performance across the board and continuously improves over time. For players across the automotive, data center, robotics, aviation, and defense spaces, who are in need of next-generation energy storage to power demanding applications, our technology represents a compelling and unique solution. We believe we have a diverse group of customer and application opportunities, and a differentiated technology platform and growing partner ecosystem

Siva Sivaram

continuously improving.

Siva Sivaram

And capturing benefits of increasing scale. Even as we face the many challenges still ahead, we are establishing a strong foundation to build the future of energy storage. As a final note, we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Professor Dr. Fritz Prinz, one of the cofounders of QuantumScape Corporation, who is retiring from our board of directors after more than fifteen years of service. We thank Fritz for his leadership, guidance, and friendship through this remarkable period of QuantumScape Corporation’s history. Thank you. With that, I will turn things over to Kevin for a word on our financial outlook.

Kevin Hettrich

Tila.

Kevin Hettrich

GAAP operating expenses and GAAP net loss in Q4 were $110,500,000 and $100,100,000. And for full year 2025,

Kevin Hettrich

were $472,600,000 and $435,100,000, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA loss was $63,300,000 in Q4, in line with expectations, and for full year 2025, was $252,300,000 within guidance. A table reconciling GAAP net loss and adjusted EBITDA is available in the financial statements at the end of the shareholder letter. For 2026, we expect full year adjusted EBITDA loss to be between $250,000,000 and $275,000,000 as we work towards our goals while continuing to drive greater operational efficiency across the company. For 2026, Q4 CapEx primarily supported facilities and equipment purchases for the Eagle Line. Capital expenditures in the fourth quarter were $12,300,000, and for full year 2025 were $36,300,000, within guidance. We expect full year 2026 CapEx to be between $40,000,000 and $60,000,000, the majority of which we plan to invest into the next generation of our technology. Customer billings for full year 2025 were $19,500,000.

Kevin Hettrich

As a reminder,

Kevin Hettrich

customer billings may vary from quarter to quarter due to fluctuations in activity as we progress through various phases of an agreed scope of work. Customer billings is a key operational metric meant to give insight into customer activity and future cash flows. The metric is not a substitute for revenue under U.S. GAAP. During the quarter, we received $19,500,000 in cash from 2025 customer billings. As noted on our Q3 call, due to the related party nature, U.S. GAAP required this amount to be reported directly to shareholders’ equity once certain requirements were met. We ended 2025 with $970,800,000 in liquidity, and we will remain prudent with our strong balance sheet going forward. As always, we encourage investors to read more on our financial information, business outlook, and risk factors in our quarterly and annual SEC filings on our Investor Relations website.

Siva Sivaram

Thanks, Kevin. We will begin today’s Q&A portion with a few questions we have received from investors or that I believe investors would be interested in. Siva, can you expand further on why the inauguration of the Eagle Line was such a significant milestone and a notable event on QuantumScape Corporation’s commercialization pathway? Also, how will we use this line to demonstrate scalable production? And the Eagle Line is an extremely important catalyst for our technology commercialization goals.

Kevin Hettrich

At the beginning of 2025,

Siva Sivaram

we set out the goal of increasing our output of QSE-5 cells. When we were ramping volumes for the Munich IAA show, we had a stable baseline to make cells for the Ducati bike. We decided that the processes were sufficiently mature, and it was time to significantly increase the automation of the line to better match the productivity of the COBRA process. In the subsequent ten months, we designed the line, prototyped it, formed partners for equipment, built the tools, installed the tools at QuantumScape Corporation, qualified the processes on the tools, and released the equipment to the baseline. This was an incredible effort on the part of the team to get it done in such a short time.

Siva Sivaram

As we said in the letter,

Siva Sivaram

the Eagle Line enables pilot production of cells for sampling and is a platform to develop technologies for future generations. But the most important outcome is to have a blueprint for production. This is what we intend to transfer to our customers so that they can ramp to gigawatt-hour scale in their factory. Success on the Eagle Line is to have a blueprint for scale, cost, quality, and cycle time that a customer can deploy into their manufacturing line. This is about demonstrating the technology to our licensing partners for them to take the next step up in scale. Thanks, Siva. You have highlighted growing interest beyond automotive. How are you thinking about those opportunities while maintaining focus on automotive commercialization? Siva: Automotive customers remain our core focus. It is still the biggest and most valuable market for batteries. Nothing has changed on that front. The long-term global trend towards electrification is going to continue. If you think about autonomous vehicles really starting to become mainstream, those fleets make the economic logic for EVs even more compelling. We have a cell and a design that is unique. It is capable of being safer, performing better across a wide temperature range, combining high power and high energy density. These characteristics are highly valuable across other applications. For example, in a data center, you have high ambient temperatures but you absolutely cannot have a fire

Kevin Hettrich

racks. It is a million-dollar GPUs.

Siva Sivaram

In a drone, you need better energy density, but also extremely high discharge power. In addition, our architecture can work with different cathode chemistry, which makes our technology even more versatile. We can offer a differentiated and no-compromise solution to these emerging applications. These markets are growing rapidly. It is a logical step for us to pursue these markets.

Kevin Hettrich

Thanks, Siva.

Siva Sivaram

Kevin, would you assess QuantumScape Corporation’s performance in 2025? And how are you thinking about achieving the company’s 2026 objectives while maintaining operational and capital efficiency?

Kevin Hettrich

I characterized 2025 as a strong year for QuantumScape Corporation. We executed on our key objectives for the year, and just as importantly, we did so with a high degree of financial discipline. We delivered approximately a 10% year-over-year improvement in adjusted EBITDA loss, narrowing from $285,000,000 to approximately $252,000,000. That improvement reflects a sustained company-wide focus on cost effectiveness. We made deliberate choices that improved our cost structure, for example, advancing value engineering efforts across the Eagle Line, as well as optimizing our real estate footprint. These actions allowed us to make meaningful technical progress while improving capital efficiency. 2025 was also an important validation year for our development and licensing model. Under this structure, we said we could generate customer-related cash inflows ahead of earning licensing royalties. During the year, we demonstrated that capability by achieving our first customer billings, totaling $19,500,000. Finally, we exited 2025 with $970,800,000 of liquidity, leaving us with a strong balance sheet for this next phase of execution. Looking ahead to 2026, we believe our plan is well aligned with the goals we have laid out, and importantly, it allows us to advance those objectives while we further improve and monetize the platform we have built. Regarding efficiency, our plan is to continue to systematically, methodically, and iteratively drive efficiency gains across the organization via the activities you would expect: ongoing value engineering, higher equipment uptime and throughput, and further improvements in yield and reliability. We are well along in deploying machine learning and AI tools to accelerate development cycles and improve engineering productivity. On monetization, we expect customer billings in 2026 to increase relative to 2025 levels as we deepen and expand customer engagements.

Siva Sivaram

Okay. Thanks so much, Kevin. We are now ready to begin the live portion of today’s call. Operator, please open up the line for questions.

Operator

Thank you so much. And as a reminder to our tele-audience, if you do have a question, press 1-1 and wait for your name to be announced. To remove yourself, press 1-1 again. One moment for our first question. It comes from Mark Haywood Shooter with William Blair. Please proceed.

Mark Haywood Shooter

Hi, Siva. Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on commissioning the Eagle Line.

Aman S. Gupta

And my question here is, with this new manufacturing technology, I know there is a lot of improvement in throughput and yield, but I am wondering if there is an ability to increase the surface area of your ceramic separator, and therefore maybe increase the cell size. Is this possible, or is this on your technology roadmap?

Siva Sivaram

Mark, thank you. Thanks for the question.

Kevin Hettrich

The Eagle Line clearly

Siva Sivaram

enables us to do all the things you just said: improving yield, improving uptime, improving operational efficiency, improving materials utilization, so that we can show our customers the efficiency with which we can make. Equally importantly, the Eagle Line and the COBRA line are set up to be adaptable to making the line useful for every customer for their specific needs. Our aim is to use the Eagle Line as the backbone so that when we industrialize for a specific customer for specific needs, we can adapt the line to make that happen. That is exactly what we are using as this transfer platform. So the Eagle Line acts as the scalable blueprint for us to take a core technology platform and adapt it to every one of our

Kevin Hettrich

customers,

Siva Sivaram

specific needs.

Kevin Hettrich

Yeah. Mark, as you mentioned, those are probably the three vectors we would expect our automotive customers to work with: either the choice of cathode, capacity of the cell, and assortment of cell format. Our COBRA process is capable of those and as is the Eagle Line. And that exactly fits into that first of our two phases of our business model, working together with customers to customize our technology platform to their product solutions, earning the first line of cash flow and longer term setting up that much larger licensing opportunity.

Aman S. Gupta

Yeah. Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate the color there. Just as a follow-up, maybe a bit of a finer point. And the reason why I asked about this surface area increase and maybe larger cells

Kevin Hettrich

is

Aman S. Gupta

what I thought I heard from the PowerCo arrangement is that the QuantumScape Corporation cells need to fit into the unified cell architecture. And I am wondering if that can be done with the current size, the QSE-5, or is that a larger cell that you need to develop?

Siva Sivaram

Yeah. As you just said, the QSE-5 cell is a certain aspect ratio, providing us with about 5.6 amp-hour

Kevin Hettrich

and about 21 watt-hour

Operator

cell.

Kevin Hettrich

The UFC is a largest form factor, and every customer has their specific need for what they need for their application.

Siva Sivaram

And fully knowing that, we use this as the adaptable baseline. The Eagle Line will show that the platform is from which we can adapt it to make it bigger, smaller, whatever we need to. And that is the whole point of establishing one stable baseline from which we can build for different customers.

Aman S. Gupta

Very helpful. Thank you.

Siva Sivaram

Thank you. Our next question comes from Winnie Dong with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.

Winnie Dong

Hi. Thank you so much for taking my questions. In your prepared remarks, you alluded to various verticals, including data centers and robotics, aviation, as potential applications outside of automotive. And I think in the past, consumer electronics was also a potential application as well. I was wondering if you can help us understand, is there one vertical where your technology is more suitable than the other ones? For instance, I am just trying to understand, in, for example, stationary storage, a lot of companies that are seeking out that, they are still trying to use LFP. So just curious, why is lithium metal just as good or even better for some of these applications? Thank you. Yeah. So, Winnie, I will start out, and then Kevin has some strong views on the subject.

Siva Sivaram

he will continue on. Clearly, the architecture that we have developed with the ceramic separator provides you what we call a no-compromise solution. Meaning, concurrently, at the same time, we can deliver high energy density, high power density in both charge and discharge, better safety capability, cycle life, and because we eliminate the anode, we have better—and because the formation is so short, we can deliver a better cost profile. Each of these markets that we just talked about have unique needs. For example, as you add, the consumer electronics product is very big on volumetric energy density. We are trying to make sure that we size the opportunity, work with customers, move rapidly so that we can take our no-compromise cell and fit it into the appropriate platform, appropriate form factor, and quickly get to market. That is the idea behind it. As you would expect, the automotive market still is the larger market, and we remain focused, and logically, the automotive market also takes the longest time to develop, qualify, and deploy into larger fleets. These are just facts of the marketplace that we work with, but the cell itself is so useful across different markets that we do think it is logical for us to take that leap.

Kevin Hettrich

Yeah. As Siva mentioned, we are starting from a good place with that no-compromise battery advantages laid out. We see opportunities over the fullness of time across the broad set of energy storage applications. I believe you listed several potential applications. Consumer electronics tends to get excited about the volumetric energy density advantage. AI-dense data centers value safety. Drones, and anything that flies, love the gravimetric savings and the power, and the grid, at least for the major load shifting application, values cost per round-trip cycle. So we believe we can offer compelling solutions to all these spaces, and as a management team, it is our job to decide how many of these do we do in parallel, and in what order do we sequence them, to both delight our customers and to optimize returns for our shareholders.

Siva Sivaram

And everything we just discussed about, we are intending in goal number three that we laid out

Kevin Hettrich

in our letter today, expand into high-value markets.

Siva Sivaram

And the whole thing is enabled by the Eagle Line. The Eagle Line allows us the flexibility of going and trying this out because we have the ability to make more samples for more customers. And that is what makes this whole thing possible. Got it. Thank you. My second question is on the year’s

Operator

EBITDA guidance. I was wondering if you can help us flesh it out in terms of the OpEx and also in the context of some of the billable help that you can get from your partner as a result of partnership. Thank you.

Kevin Hettrich

So, and then, Winnie, can you help me with the color around which aspect? And then you were asking about color on billings. Is that a correct rephrasing of your question?

Winnie Dong

Yeah. Essentially, you are guiding to—you have the year’s EBITDA guidance. I am just curious, in the context of existing partnership, I think in the past you have been getting operational help from some of these partners. Is it being considered within the outlook? And yeah.

Kevin Hettrich

Yeah. So, that is a great question. So to answer what you just mentioned first: Yes, our EBITDA guidance is inclusive of help, either from OEM partners or ecosystem partners. That is all baked in. And by the way, there is significant resource being put in by all of those three. In terms of just some color, the EBITDA guidance is relatively flat year over year, but I would point out that the team is seeking to take on a lot more with expanding and deepening the automotive partnerships, as well as expanding into new high-value markets. There are all sorts of activities behind that as well as pushing the frontier of battery development. So our goal is to deliver much more with the same resource base, improving efficiency to shareholders. But we need just to be clear, for this year, Kevin just announced $19,500,000 of billings and cash received. And that, as he has pointed out, has gone directly into

Siva Sivaram

equity, and that is not part of

Aman S. Gupta

the

Siva Sivaram

EBITDA loss that we just announced.

Kevin Hettrich

Correct. And as I mentioned in the comments, please expect that to be lumpy quarter to quarter as we do this type of agreed development work with customers and ecosystem partners, as well as our desire to improve on that 2026 versus 2025.

Winnie Dong

Got it. That is very helpful. I will pass along. Thank you. Thank you so much. Our next question comes from the line of Joseph Spak with UBS. Please proceed.

Aman S. Gupta

Thank you. Good afternoon. First question is just, if I compare

Kevin Hettrich

the slides that you put out today versus prior, it looks like that

Aman S. Gupta

conditional cash inflows is now $150,000,000. Last time, it was $261,000,000. Can you detail what changed there?

Kevin Hettrich

If you—just to rephrase or maybe to clarify, when we expanded the VW development and collaboration and licensing agreement with Volkswagen last summer, there is an opportunity to earn up to $131,000,000 worth of those development

Siva Sivaram

payments.

Kevin Hettrich

Is that what you are referring to?

Aman S. Gupta

Joe: Yeah. Like, if I—you put on, like, on

Gabriel Alexander Gonzales

slide 16, you have on the slide detailing your relationship with

Joseph Spak

PowerCo. It says $150,000,000-plus of conditional cash inflows. If I look at the last quarter slide, that $150 was $261.

Siva Sivaram

Let me

Kevin Hettrich

let me pull that up and revert with you in a few minutes. I do not have

Aman S. Gupta

it in front of me. I will revert with you on that.

Kevin Hettrich

Okay.

Joseph Spak

The next question then, just, you know, obviously, PowerCo is a deep and important partner here. There had been some reports that Volkswagen sort of slashed the funding there. Just curious if that, sort of, you felt that at all, if that sort of impacted your business or your work with them. If it has even increased some of your urgency to diversify to other customers.

Kevin Hettrich

Yeah. So, Joe, our work with PowerCo is continuing on unchanged.

Siva Sivaram

Their commitment to us is very, very good. Our relationship with them and the focus with which we are working together is as good as ever. We are both working towards a set of agreed-upon scope of work that has not changed, and we are continuing to bill them the way we have agreed in that $131,000,000 deal that Kevin just talked about. So in July, we agreed on a scope of work, and our partnership is as strong as ever. And the work itself is lumpy, as in the way it is planned, up and down. But we are doing very well with respect to worksite. That does not mean we are not working with other customers. As we announced in the letter, we have added two new large global auto OEMs to our portfolio, with whom we are working. And we have also announced additional technology development and technology evaluation agreements with them together. So this is in a good place. The customer interest has been very strong, and the Volkswagen and PowerCo relationship still remains very, very strong.

Joseph Spak

Okay. Last question for me. And you touched on some of this, and I just sort of want to better understand how you are thinking about it because you talked about new end-market opportunities, energy storage, robotics. Exciting stuff. But, you know, if I look at what you have done with the auto business, you have effectively, right, left the commercialization industrialization to PowerCo and other partners. So as you move to these other end markets, like, how is it—you know, if you are not making a sort of a standard cell, and I understand the Eagle Line sort of helps you sort of do different form factors or different cells—but, like, are you not going to need to sort of reach out individually to help sort of scale these different form factors for these opportunities? It just seems maybe a little bit more difficult as you go to some of these other end markets where there might be some more bespoke use cases versus, you know, the old strategy, which was doing it yourself. But maybe I misunderstood that sort of stuff.

Siva Sivaram

Very perceptive question. I am glad you asked. The licensing and the capital-light business model is not a single flavor. There are a lot of different ways of doing the same thing: having manufacturing rights, having contract manufacturing, having our partners manufacture for others,

Kevin Hettrich

having

Siva Sivaram

customer-provided manufacturing abilities. There are many different ways of doing it. As long as we are not spending the capital to build it, we can do this very well. And these markets are fully amenable to these business models. So we are exploring those with our new customers. I am not saying that we rule anything out, but our preference has always been a license and capital-light business model. So I am glad you asked this question. Even in these markets, such different variations on the theme are very possible.

Aman S. Gupta

Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

Siva Sivaram

We did—I did have a chance to look at the

Kevin Hettrich

the slide you referenced. The prior reference to 02/06 or February is when you sum both parts of the economics with Volkswagen together: the $130,000,000 prepay and the up to $131,000,000 of development payments. That is the former number you referenced. In this latest round, as footnoted, what we are doing is we are only—we are having more of a backwards-looking view where we are only counting the billings to date plus the $130. So it is a different cut at the same two numbers. There is nothing changed contractually.

Joseph Spak

Okay. So nothing changed with that other—with that delta—that is sort of more

Kevin Hettrich

Correct.

Joseph Spak

potentially to come.

Kevin Hettrich

Okay. Correct. It is more looking at the bird in the hand relative

Joseph Spak

to billings as opposed to the bird in the bush with the up to.

Kevin Hettrich

Thank you for that. I appreciate it.

Siva Sivaram

Yep.

Operator

Thank you.

Siva Sivaram

Our next question comes from Mark Delaney with Goldman Sachs.

Operator

Please proceed.

Kevin Hettrich

Hi, good evening. Thank you for taking the

Aman S. Gupta

questions. I have Aman on for Mark. Maybe kind of starting on your goal for the Eagle Line and scaling that. And congrats on getting that installed. Can you maybe help what key metrics for that line are today? Like, provide some context for where some of the yields and production time and things like that are, and how you see that scaling over the course of the year, and what is needed to then, you know, exiting the year, get to commercial transfer to your licensing partners.

Joseph Spak

Thank you.

Siva Sivaram

Yeah. Aman, thank you for the question. So last year, we had a manual line with which we were producing cells for applications such as the IAA Munich demonstration and the Ducati bike. We developed a very stable baseline, and we decided that was a good time to convert it to be a much more highly automated line so that we can match the output of the highly productive COBRA line to the cell-making line. And so in the ten months since March, we have literally conceived the line, designed it, found the build partners for the equipment, built the equipment and brought them over here, installed them, qualified them, developed the process, transferred the process, and then integrated it into the baseline, and we are running it. And that is what we inaugurated last week this time.

Kevin Hettrich

Now

Siva Sivaram

this is a manufacturing prototype pilot line. So this is what we are using to convince and work with our partners who are going to be working with us hand in glove, watching how this is done. So all of the metrics that we normally use in a pilot production facility—such as uptime, mean time between failure, mean time to assist, mean time to repair, yields, reliability, quality, cycle time, cost—all of these kinds of metrics have to be made efficient so that our customers come and work with us and say, okay, I am ready to go take this line and convert it to all of my own factory for scalability. So these are the things that you just asked and what we will be very, very closely monitoring as we ramp it up. We are in a good place, and we will continue to work with our customers, and we need to show this to our customers who are here with us watching this. And when we inaugurated the line here, the customers were actually here with us as we got the start.

Kevin Hettrich

And just some other dots to connect. The Eagle Line is certainly called out in our first corporate goal for 2026: demonstrate scalable production with Eagle Line. As Siva was mentioning, it is central to the other three. Without that type of prototype and sampling and demo volume, that is the currency with which we can advance automotive commercialization, new and existing, as well as gives us the currency to expand into new high-value markets. And it also gives us other parts for internal use to do development on, to support that beyond QSE-5 roadmap. So that Eagle Line demonstrated last week is really important to set up a successful 2026. Now, having said all that,

Siva Sivaram

Aman, this is the unsexy part of the work. This will be systematic, methodical, iterative improvement of every one of those so that the customers see and work with us to see the data progress on all of them. So this is not a new thing. I have done this many times in the past, and the employees know what it is that we need to do here at QuantumScape Corporation. We will get that done.

Aman S. Gupta

Appreciate the color there. Thank you. And maybe tying that to my follow-up here, Kevin, you talked about $40,000,000 to $60,000,000 of CapEx. Can you maybe help dimension that across some of the spending you have kind of outlined in your goals, whether that is for the Eagle Line and scaling that versus expanding some of the QSE-5 technology and potential incremental spend related to expanding to some of these other end markets? And how should we think about that level then being sustained beyond 2026 in terms of further continuing to explore those opportunities? Thank you.

Kevin Hettrich

It is a good question, Aman. The bulk of the spend goes towards the fourth goal of going beyond the QSE-5, and the bulk of the CapEx spend from $40,000,000 to $60,000,000, as you referenced. There is CapEx in the other categories, but with the maturity of the QSE-5 platform, for example, in the case of expanding into new high-value markets or doing custom development for OEMs, it is more incremental on choice of cathode or dimensions or form factor. That is more of an incremental spend as opposed to core development spend. As a technology licensing company, it is our core job to develop and pilot and transfer high-performance battery technology to our customers and partners. Capital is required to push that frontier, and this is the type of magnitude we think investors should expect going forward for that steady-state advanced runway development. And I would also like to draw a contrast with this type of spend under a technology licensing model versus that of a full-blown manufacturing company, which requires billions of dollars of investment for gigawatt-hour scale done years before that factory even comes online. So we think that our choice of business model is in the best interest of our shareholders.

Aman S. Gupta

Thank you. And maybe just on that point, too, quickly, can you kind of dimension what are the goals you are trying to hit for the QSE-5, like, beyond the QSE-5 platform that you are spending on? I apologize if you have discussed it before. I do not have it off the top of my head.

Siva Sivaram

No. Aman, last year, we put out our blueprint on how we move forward as a technology company. The QSE-5 is our first minimum viable product. Clearly, as we move up the S-curve rapidly, we need to make the performance metrics better on every aspect of it and keep moving this up. And every eighteen to twenty-four months, we will be coming up with new upgrades on this that we need to come and show you all, show our customers, and show our shareholders where we are spending the money and to move the technology frontier forward. That is where the business is headed from the QSE-5 moving

Aman S. Gupta

Thank you very much.

Siva Sivaram

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Ben Kallo with Baird. Please proceed.

Ben Kallo

Hey,

Aman S. Gupta

good evening, guys. It was great to see you last week. One thing I noticed when I was visiting is your supply partners

Ben Kallo

there. I just want to get a sense of how they are thinking about your future or potential customers outside of Volkswagen. I know you guys have done a lot of work with supply chain, so if you could talk about that and just how that helps you with new potential customers.

Siva Sivaram

Ben, great to see you last week. Thank you for being here. You are 100% correct. The QuantumScape Corporation ecosystem is very important to us. This level of technology change cannot be done by a single company. It requires a whole ecosystem to move this forward. Whether it be in capital equipment, whether it be in advanced materials, whether it be in things like software and AI systems, there are places where we need help. Murata and Corning being able to take over and run the manufacturing for the ceramic separator is a big step forward for last year.

Ben Kallo

In our

Siva Sivaram

solid-state symposium that we hosted in Kyoto, we brought together, similarly, our tool vendors from across the world to be there. And you saw some of these suppliers here in the U.S. who helped us build the Eagle Line. These folks are very excited about the possibility of us expanding further into other form factors, into other markets, into new customers both in the automotive and non-automotive space. We are counting on their support, and we will be expanding the ecosystem continuously to make sure that we can bring this along.

Kevin Hettrich

And again, Kevin is very passionate about our secure supply chain, and let him

Siva Sivaram

talk about that. Yes. So

Kevin Hettrich

as Siva mentioned, in the ecosystem we are building where there are customers, there are cell manufacturers, certain suppliers of materials and equipment. As you add more activity to it, it makes the whole stronger. Certainly from the view of some manufacturer or supplier of equipment or materials, more additional end markets and expanding and deepening automotive relationships is a good place to sell their goods and services into. But then from the flip side, if you are a QSE-5 customer or manufacturer themselves, having a ready supply chain with the world’s leading examples in their respective spots only strengthens the value proposition as well. So we are very excited with the progress that we made in 2025, and our goal is to continue that moving forward into 2026.

Siva Sivaram

And, Ben, equally important is the people you did not see in that group. You did not see a graphite supplier. You did not see an anode supplier. So securing the supply chain is as much for us about making sure that the suppliers that we need are there as much as making sure that we are not unduly dependent on any one material from any one place. So that also helps us in securing our supply chain.

Ben Kallo

Thank you. You know, we see OEMs retrenching or retreating, however you want to characterize it, and, you know, there is excess cell capacity out there. And I just wonder how that impacts your discussions with new potential customers. Yeah. I will leave it there, and thank you, guys.

Siva Sivaram

Ben, thank you. Yes. So, clearly, there is turbulence in the marketplace, at least in the U.S. However, the folks, especially at the senior levels in these companies as we talk to,

Operator

consistently are

Siva Sivaram

more optimistic about the long term. We see the fact that electrification as a longer term is still the right way to do it. The more we see about, for example, self-driving vehicles, navigation systems, you start to see there are other vectors that are forcing the EV conversion. So every customer we talk to is upbeat about two things: application, but in particular, solid-state batteries. Both are things that they come to talk to us about, and we sense that excitement with our partners.

Kevin Hettrich

And we hope you can see that some of these themes were certainly playing out in 2025. And against that backdrop, we expanded the VW/PowerCo collaboration agreement. We signed two new joint development agreements. We added a new technology evaluation agreement. We think that is consistent with the excitement that Siva mentioned. And while you used the word retrenchment, the automotive industry still is growing. It still is very much a growth sector. So the short, medium, and long-term prospects we think are still of growth.

Ben Kallo

Great. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

Siva Sivaram

Thank you.

Operator

Our last question comes from Leisha Satt with HSBC. Hi, Siva. Hi, Kevin. How are you? Thanks for having us last week. I just have one question because my brief answer was already answered. But I wanted to know if you have any KPIs that you can share with us on how you will measure the goals that you set for 2026?

Siva Sivaram

Leisha, it was great to see you last week. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Clearly, the four goals that we have outlined are all very quantitative for us inside the company.

Kevin Hettrich

Whether it is

Siva Sivaram

about the Eagle Line demonstrating the efficiency and scaling of the Eagle Line for the purpose that we just talked about, whether it is about making sure that we expand,

Kevin Hettrich

advance our partnerships with the automotive

Siva Sivaram

markets, whether it is to go beyond the QSE-5 and expand into high-value markets. Each of those is an extremely important vector for the company to continue to progress on.

Kevin Hettrich

We will

Siva Sivaram

continue to update you as we progress on each of those, and you will see this progress as we give you updates. And our job is to make sure that, just like we did last year, tell you what we are going to do, and then do as we say and on time, and give you the updates.

Operator

Okay. That makes a lot of sense. And just one last thing. I know you mentioned that your focus is still automotive, but when you eventually start looking at other applications, does the Eagle Line require major adjustments depending on the segment that you cater to? And will this imply a higher CapEx also, like, you know, for the customers? You said that the blueprint is easily adjustable to each customer’s needs, but does this imply that they need to invest more to adjust to whatever they want to create because it is depending on the market or segment that the customer is in?

Siva Sivaram

Yeah. This is the dilemma. This is the reason we chose the licensing business model. In the battery business, every customer wants their unique form factor. If we try to set up a line for everyone else, it becomes untenable. What we have done is a foundational technology, a scalable blueprint that we can do it. But any change that we do for any specific customer, clearly, we expect that as part of the earlier payment we would be working with them on financial arrangements to make sure it is done, that we stay capital light. And when we take our technology roadmap and show it to our customers, we clearly set the expectation that we intend to be a capital-light licensing company. Okay.

Operator

Well, thank you so much, Siva. And congrats again on the inauguration.

Siva Sivaram

Thank you, Leisha.

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes our Q&A session for today, and I will pass it back to Siva Sivaram for closing comments.

Kevin Hettrich

Thank you, Operator. Finally, today, I want to recognize the entire

Siva Sivaram

QuantumScape Corporation team for their execution in Q4 and throughout 2025.

Aman S. Gupta

And I want to thank our shareholders for their continuous support.

Siva Sivaram

We look forward to updating you on our progress in the months ahead. Thank you.

Operator

This concludes our conference. Thank you all for participating, and you may now disconnect.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-02-07

QuantumScape Earnings Preview: What To Expect From Upcoming Report

GuruFocus.com

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. QuantumScape (NASDAQ:QS) is set to release fourth-quarter 2025 results on upcoming Wednesday, and options traders are bracing for sizable near-term volatility, with implied moves of 15.21% in either direction. That expected swing far exceeds the company's recent average post-earnings move of roughly 4.36%, reflecting acute uncertainty around commercialization progress and timelines. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Signs with QS. Is QS fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Investors will focus on signs that the solid-state battery developer can advance from pilot builds to scaled production. QuantumScape remains essentially pre-revenue, so management updates on manufacturing yield, cell longevity and energy density will drive sentiment. Any clarity on automotive deals or pilot expansions would be taken as validation; conversely, delays would likely deepen the sell-off. Cash burn and liquidity are central. Analysts expect a narrower net loss, about $0.17 a share, and no meaningful revenue, leaving guidance and management tone as market drivers.

Investor releaseQuarter not tagged2026-01-30

Auto Sector Q4 Earnings: 4 Stocks With Surprise Potential

Zacks

The fourth-quarter earnings season for the Auto-Tires-Trucks sector is underway. So far, three S&P 500 sector components— Tesla, General Motors and PACCAR— have reported quarterly numbers. While Tesla and General Motors beat earnings expectations, PACCAR matched the same. Per the Earnings Trend report dated Jan. 23, the auto sector’s earnings for fourth-quarter 2025 are expected to decline 12.9% on a year-over-year basis. Revenues are also estimated to contract 5.7%. With a majority of companies left to release fourth-quarter results, we have identified — with the help of the Zacks Stock Screener — a few auto players, which are positioned to outshine the Zacks Consensus Estimate this earnings season. These include Ford F, QuantumScape QS, BorgWarner BWA and Lear Corp. LEA. Before we discuss the companies, let’s take a look at the factors shaping the quarterly performance. The U.S. auto industry lost steam in the fourth quarter after a strong run earlier in the year. Vehicle sales slowed noticeably, with the annualized pace falling to 15.6 million units from 16.4 million in the third quarter, per Cox Automotive. This made the fourth quarter the weakest period of the year. Tariffs on imported vehicles and components continued to pressure automakers, raising costs and weighing on profitability. Inflation also remained a concern, squeezing both manufacturers and consumers. After nine months of resilient demand, these pressures finally caught up with the market. Affordability became a major issue for buyers. New vehicle prices climbed to record levels, with the average transaction price reaching $50,326 in December, according to Kelley Blue Book. The electric vehicle (EV) market saw an even sharper slowdown. After a strong third quarter, EV demand cooled rapidly in the fourth quarter following the expiration of federal tax credits in early October. Per Cox Automotive, EV sales were 234,000 units in the fourth quarter, down 46% and 36% on a sequential and a year-over-year basis, respectively. Overall, the fourth quarter reflected a more cautious consumer and a market adjusting to higher costs, fewer incentives and tougher economic conditions. While it is not possible to be sure about which companies are well-positioned to beat earnings estimates, our proprietary methodology — Earnings ESP — makes it relatively simple. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell...

As of 2026-05-30 • Updated weeklySource: Earnings sourceIngestion runbook