Lion Electric swings to US$2.1M profit in Q1 as sales surge with vehicle deliveries

MONTREAL (CP) – The Lion Electric Co. says it swung to a profit last quarter as sales nearly quadrupled on a large increase in vehicle deliveries.

The Montreal-based manufacturer of all-electric medium and heavy-duty urban vehicles says it earned US$2.1 million or one cent per diluted share in the first quarter, compared with a net loss of US$16.1 million or 15 cents per share a year earlier.

Net earnings included a US$21.5-million gain related to non-cash decrease in the fair value of share warrant obligations and a US$3.8-million charge related to non-cash share-based compensation, compared with a US$5.2-million charge related to non-cash share-based compensation in the first quarter of fiscal 2021.

Its comprehensive profit reached US$5.35 million, versus a US$17.4-million loss in the first quarter of 2021.

Reporting in U.S. dollars, revenues for the three months ended March 31 were US$22.6 million, up from $6.2 million in the prior year.

Lion was expected to report a net loss of eight cents per share on US$23 million of revenues, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.

“Despite the ongoing challenges in the supply chain environment, we continued to experience improvements and achieved a record number of quarterly vehicle deliveries,” Lion CEO and founder Marc Bedard said in a news release.

“We also sustained momentum in vehicle manufacturing and we expect that cadence of production, and therefore of deliveries, should gradually improve over the rest of the coming year.”

The company, which has been a public company for a year, delivered 84 vehicles in the quarter, including 72 school buses and 12 trucks, an increase of 60 vehicles from the same period a year earlier.