Electrification specialist Equipmake (EQIP) released maiden full year results which demonstrated its move into the fast lane of commercialisation for its unique powertrain solutions. It delivered the first electrically ‘repowered’ buses to First Bus York and Transport for London, which saw powertrain sales climb from £0.2m in FY2022 to £1.7m and helped lift overall revenues jump 37.8% to £5.1m.
The company’s operating loss remained flat at £5m, but that reflects the ramp up in investment throughout the year to deliver the rapidly expanding order book for vehicle repowers. Since the period end the company has signed two further bus repower orders – to Newport Transport and Big Bus Tours totalling a combined £3.22m – as well as orders and deliveries for EV powertrains for fire engines in the UK and US.
Along with first licensing and royalty revenues of £0.3m, and a quadrupling in EV component sales to £1.6m, that meant 97.7% of sales came from commercial contracts, against 72.1% last year. As of the end of September 2023, the company’s contracted orderbook stood at £9.2m.
Despite commercial progress, Equipmake continued to make R&D advances including the development of a powertrain integrating a hydrogen fuel cell with £1.6m of grant funding from innovate UK/Advance Propulsion Centre under the Hydrogen Electric Integrated Drivetrain Initiative (HEIDI). It’s also working delivering components to customers developing electric aircraft and boats, signing a term sheet with aerospace partner H55 in June.
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These results show that Equipmake has hit a commercial inflection point and is positioning itself as the go-to provider of electrification technology to support the greening of the UK’s huge bus fleet – it estimates that there are around 6,000 non-electric buses in the UK that are between 6 and 10 years old and perfect candidates for retrofitting.
Investment in a 50,000 square feet production facility should allow it to capitalise on the fast-growing demand this is likely to create, eventually providing capacity for 200 repowers a year. Phase one is expected to be complete by the end of 2024.
The company ended the year with £7m in the bank, giving it plenty of runway to launch its commercial potential, which is likely to expand further as development projects enhance its product portfolio. A licensing deal with Sona BLW Precision Forgings also gives it an exciting foothold in rapidly growing Asian markets.