Earnings call transcript: WeWrite sees revenue growth in Q1 2025

WeWrite (WRTE) reported a 1.8% increase in total revenue to $72.4 million for the first quarter of 2025. The company also saw a significant rise in product revenue and a decrease in net loss. The stock currently trades at $8.45, down significantly from its 52-week high of $44, reflecting broader market concerns. According to InvestingPro analysis, the company appears overvalued at current levels.

Key Takeaways

• Total revenue increased by 1.8% to $72.4 million.
• Product revenue grew 46.7% to $9.5 million.
• Net loss decreased by 17.7% to $385.1 million.
• The company is expanding robotaxi services globally.

Company Performance

WeWrite reported a solid performance in Q1 2025, with revenue growth driven by increased contributions from its robotaxi and product segments. The company continued to expand its global footprint, particularly in the robotaxi market, which is gaining traction in the Middle East and other regions.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $72.4 million, up 1.8% year-over-year
• Global Taxi revenue: $16.1 million
• Product revenue: $9.5 million, up 46.7%
• Net loss: $385.1 million, a 17.7% improvement
• Gross margin: 35% (Product:49.9%, Service: 32.8%)

Outlook & Guidance

WeWrite plans to deploy robotaxis in 15 new cities in partnership with Uber and is focusing on expanding in Europe and the Middle East. The company has authorized a $100 million share repurchase program, signaling confidence in its growth prospects. Analysts tracked by InvestingPro maintain optimistic price targets ranging from $19.26 to $23.03, suggesting significant upside potential. The platform offers additional insights through its comprehensive Pro Research Report, available for over 1,400 US stocks.

Executive Commentary

"We are not entering into the new market alone. We’re building a network of trusted global collaborators," said Jennifer Lee, CFO. CEO Tony Han emphasized safety as a key factor: "Safety is the best test of autonomous driving technology." He also highlighted the company’s mission: "Our shared mission is to make autonomous mobility affordable and accessible worldwide."

Risks and Challenges

• Market saturation in established regions could limit growth.
• Regulatory changes in key markets may impact operations.
• Competition from OEMs and other autonomous driving companies.
• Technological advancements required to maintain competitive edge.

WeWrite’s Q1 2025 performance showcases its strategic growth in the autonomous vehicle sector, with a focus on expanding its robotaxi services and strengthening partnerships. The company remains optimistic about its future prospects, despite potential challenges in the rapidly evolving market.

Full transcript - Wildhorse Resource Development Corp (WRD) Q1 2025:

Conference Operator: Good morning, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to WeWrite’s First Quarter twenty twenty five Earnings Conference Call. At this time, participants are in a listen only mode. The company will be hosting a question and answer session after management’s prepared remarks. Please note that today’s event is being recorded.

The company’s unaudited financial and operating results were released by the Newswire earlier today and are currently available online. Joining us today are WeWrite’s Founder, Chairman and CEO, Doctor. Tony Han and CFO, Ms. Jennifer Lee. Before we continue, I would like to refer you to the Safe Harbor statement in the company’s earnings press release, which also applies to this call as today’s call will include forward looking statements, including rewrite strategies and future plans.

These forward looking statements are made under the Safe Harbor provisions of The U. S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. The company’s actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied by these forward looking statements as a result of various important factors, and please refer to the Risk Factors section of the company’s Form 20 F filed with the SEC for a full disclosure of these risk factors.

The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward looking statements, except as required under applicable law. Please note that all numbers stated in management’s prepared remarks are in RMB terms, and we will discuss non IFRS measures today, which are more thoroughly explained and reconciled to the most comparable measures reported in the company’s earnings release and filings with the SEC. With that, I’ll now turn the call over to the company’s Founder, Chairman and CEO, Doctor. Tony Han. Please go ahead, sir.

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. I’m excited to give you an update on our last quarter. We have reached a number of new milestones as we continue our collaborate our global expansion and also cemented deeper collaboration with key partners such as Uber. Specifically with Uber, we have committed to providing robotaxis service in 15 additional cities internationally and accept and accepted a commitment for an additional $100,000,000 1 hundred million dollar equity investment on the heels of their initial investment at our IPO.

Other notable milestones included launching the first driverless robot taxi testing in Up Derby, the first of its kind in Middle East. In China, we roll out the country’s first autonomous mobility service in the central area of Guangzhou, the number three city in China. While some of this will be reflected in our near term financial results, others lay the foundation for the robust growth in the quarters to come. First, let’s quickly discuss our latest Uber announcement. This expanded partnership and the incremental $100,000,000 investment is a testament to our shared commitment to autonomous mobility and the confidence in our operational and technological excellence.

We began our partnership with Uber in The Middle East, and they continue to scale our operations there. As a reminder, we first launched up Adobe in December of last year, and have recently announced plans to expand in Dubai. There has also been mentions of expansion to a third city recently in the press. So look out for more information there. We are excited by our progress in the region and the opportunity that it presents.

In addition to The Middle East, we expect to scale and expand our robotaxi presence to other geographies such as Europe, with a particular focus on markets where we have already deployed some of our other autonomous mobility products such as our autonomous buses. We believe having multiple autonomous mobility products widens our time and also makes dialogues with stakeholders such as regulators more substantial substantial tips. We continue to expand our autonomous mobility operations in China and abroad. As I alluded to the earlier, we launched the full driverless robotaxi testing in Abu Dhabi. This means that we will be the first company to have robotaxi running without safety drivers.

At the same time, we also expanded our operational service to include a new destination such as El Maria Island and El Rim Island, covering a range of vibrant areas in the city. Through this you can see in action our phased approach to operational expansion. This phased approach allows to ensure a high quality of service while ensuring that we meet all regulatory and safety standards. To date, we have a leading safety track record in a commercial delivery of our services. In China, we expanded our robotaxis service in Beijing and Guangzhou.

In Beijing, we added a route between the sub center of the city Beijing, Yidong and the Beijing Railway Station spanning over 600 square kilometers. In Guangzhou, we launched China’s First Twenty fourseven autonomous ride hailing network and added eight routes in the city center, connecting landmarks and transport hubs such as airport, Guangzhou South Railway Station, Canton Tower, and Canton Fair Complex. These routes cover more than two fifty kilometers of public roads in a densely populated urban area with very busy traffic. Going forward, our robotaxis in China will be integrated into Tencent smart transportation mini program on WeChat to serve a wider use base in China. We also continue to expand our other autonomous mobility business businesses.

Our robust, our robust has entered downtown Guangzhou, 1 of the most complex urban environments. The development followed our follows our launch of the first robust BRT route in city last year. Robo bus has now become an integral part of the day life of Guangzhou citizens, who can easily hop on the driverless shuttle in the main district by simply tapping their city paths. It spans a paradigm of the future mobility that we envision, where autonomous vehicles are fully integrated with the local transportation system, enabling safe and a seamless movement for the communities. We are also making headway in the international markets, bringing our product to Switzerland, Spain and France.

In March, our Robo bus was granted an operation permit by France, making we ride the first and to date the only autonomous driving company whose products have received operational approvals in five countries including China, The UAE, Singapore, France and The US. Technology and safety are the cornerstones of our success. Our autonomous mobility product all operates a top what we call we ride one and autonomous driving technology platform designed to handle a broad spectrum of operational environments from complex urban settings to full day functionality and the varying weather conditions. It is proven adaptability. Its proven adaptability in a range of real world applications provide the fundamental tech advance, tech advantage over our peers.

The high level of universe, the high level of universality of we write one has recently demonstrated once again through our Robo WAN W5, which secured Guangdong’s first group of driverless testing permits for logistic equipment in less than three months after the product launch. The powerful adaptability of rewrite one is further demonstrated by our real world operations across a broad broad geographic area. The initial deployment of our AV fleets in a new city can be completed in just a couple of weeks, enabling rapid, rapid adoption for our partners. We believe safety is the best test of autonomous driving technology. In over two thousand days of operation, our safety records remaining industry leading.

While we have iterated multiple times, we have not had any accident attributed to the failure of our autonomous driving systems. Our commitment to safety and transparency is key to earning the confidence of both regulator and partners. We also leverage our core autonomous mobility know how in our ADAS business. In April, we announced a partnership with QNX, a division of BlackBerry, to work together to enhance the safety and the reliability of our ADAS solution. By integrating QNX OS for safety into our ADAS system repilot, we write this helping OEMs and tier one companies fast track the future of intelligent vehicles.

I will now hand over the call to our CFO, Jennifer Lee to discuss our financial results in more details. Jennifer, please go ahead.

Jennifer Lee, CFO, WeWrite: Thank you, Tony. Hello, Before we get into the financials, please note that all amounts are in RMB and all comparisons are on year over year basis unless otherwise stated. Now let’s discuss our first quarter financial performance. Total revenue for the first quarter of twenty twenty five increased 1.8% to $72,400,000 primarily driven by the growth in product revenue, which was partially offset by a slight decline in our service revenue. Global Taxi has been one of the core drivers in our business.

Following our achieving the record high global taxi revenue for the financial year of 2024, we continue with the momentum in the first quarter of this year with global taxi revenue of 16,100,000.0. Robotaxis contribution in group revenue reaches 22.3%, rising from 11.9% of the same period of 2024. Product revenue delivered strong growth, increasing by 46.7% to 9,500,000 for the first quarter. This encouraging growth was primarily driven by a substantial increase in the sales of Robotaxi and RoboCapers, which were introduced into a new international market with expanded operations. To 52,900,000.0, primarily due to a reduction of 33,500,000 in revenue from ADAS research and development services.

As the customized R and D project for a certain client has been completed in 2024. This decline was partially offset by an increase of 29,800,000.0 in revenue from intelligence data services and an increase of $1,900,000 in revenue from operational and technical support services. As technical support engagement increased this quarter, along with the transition into the operation phase of certain projects. We recorded a book level gross margin of 35%, representing a gross margin for product of 49.9% and a gross margin for service of 32.8%, respectively. This reflects a sustaining improvement of our business structure in line with our Robotexa business expansion and globalized commercialization.

We are building a sustainable business model by engaging trusted partners and localize deployments. It helps us sustain a healthy gross profit level. Now, turning into our operating expenses. We recorded a rise of 14.2% for the first quarter, amounting to $463,500,000 The increase was driven by a 48.4% rise in personnel related expense compared to the same period of 2024. We remain highly cost cautious and disciplined.

The increase of operating expense is mainly driven by our incremental R and D effort. In this important phase of development, we prioritize strategic investments in talent acquisition and retention to drive our technological advancements. Combining with our expansion of selling and marketing activities, we aim to solidify our leading position by laying a sustainable foundation. To further break down, R and D expense represents 70.3% of operating expenses. This line item increased by 70.3% to $325,700,000 compared to the same period of 2024.

Excluding share based compensation, R and D expenses increased by 54% to $278,000,000 Administrative expense increased by 5.2 to $123,900,000 compared to the same period of 2024. Excluding SBC, administrative expense increased by 105.8% to $73,900,000 Selling expense increased by 32.4 to $13,900,000 compared to the same period of 2024. Excluding SBC, selling expenses were up 66.7% in the first quarter. Our net loss decreased by 17.7% to $385,100,000 in the first quarter of twenty twenty five. On non IFRS basis, the net loss increased by 108.2% to $294,600,000 which was mainly contributed to our continuous investment in R and D.

As of 03/31/2025, we held a total capital reserve of 6,200,000,000.0, including 4,400,000,000.0 in cash, cash equivalents and time deposits, 14,700,000.0 in restricted cash and $1,700,000,000 in financial assets matter at fair value through profit and loss. We believe that our strong cash capital position will continue to support our ongoing R and D initiative and facilitate expansion of our growing global business. On a separate note, our board has recently authorized a share repurchase program and to which the company may repurchase up to 100,000,000 of its Class A ordinary share over the next twelve months and indicate a vote of confidence in our business fundamentals, growth trajectory, and long term outlook. In conclusion, we feel encouraged by our financial performance of the first quarter. As we continue to scale our operation with additional deployment underway in international markets, we are confident to build on the success and turn global opportunity into long term value for our stakeholders.

With that, operator, we are now ready to take on questions.

Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question now, begin We will now take our first question from the line of Tim Hsiao from Morgan Stanley. Please ask your question, team.

Tim Hsiao, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. This is Tim from Morgan Stanley. I have two questions, and both are related to our collaboration with Uber. So the first question, we noticed that Tony briefly touched on the collaboration with Uber at the beginning of the call.

Just want to quickly follow-up on why ReWrite and Uber decided to expand this partnership. It’d be great if you can share more colors on deal with us. That’s my first question. Thank you.

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: Okay. Will take this question question. Thank you, Tim, for this question. So first of all, I think our expanded partnership with Uber builds on a proven model. You know, this model is demonstrated by our successful integration of WeRite Robotaxi into Uber’s epic app in up in up Up Dhabi.

Under this collaboration, WeRide delivers our tried and tested autonomous driving product with Uber manages Uber will manage fleet operations and the customer access via its platform. Together we we are also announced our joint robotaxi launch in Dubai, where we are currently finalizing mapping and expect to begin operations soon. So I want to talk about this strong collaboration. So we have committed to deploying services across 15 major global cities within the next five years. This is a significant milestone for scalable autonomous mobility.

And I think this partnership combines we rise world class autonomous driving technology and the international expertise with Uber’s unparalleled marketplace reach and operational excellence. And also, you know, want to reemphasize as a testament of this alignment. Uber is already our shareholder, and we’ll invest an additional $100,000,000 in the ride over the next six months. To my best knowledge this ranks among Uber’s largest investment in non affiliated autonomous driving companies. Besides you know, beyond the technology, I think our vision is mission is very important.

Our shared mission is to make autonomous mobility affordable and accessible worldwide. We ride operates in over 30 cities across 10 countries with our research, R and D testing commercial deployments. We enter new markets, you know, we are not just solving the mobility challenges. We want to invest in local ecosystem by creating jobs in fleet management, maintenance and customer support. So we have a community oriented approach to ensure sustainable growth.

And I think we share this kind of mission with Uber. We also believe that by leveraging both companies leadership in our respective fields, we can accelerate the global adoption of autonomous mobility service. So I think in term of that to summary technology and mission and approach and the shared value, I think Uber and the WeVeil are well aligned. We are very excited for the next five years. We expand fifteen fifteen cities globally.

Tim Hsiao, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Great. Thank you very much for sharing all the details, Tony. And just another quick follow-up on the collaboration. So according to the announcement also what you just shared is out of the 15 cities and probably others, the potential global market, which regions or market would be the main focus to rewrite for the Robotech Zebra out? And then in the following quarters, any cycles or milestones the investor should monitor?

Yeah, that’s my second question. Thank you.

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: So about the regions of focus currently, know, we are focusing on markets mainly in Europe and The Middle East. So we are going to take a phased approach. So basically we are not going to roll out like a robotax service in one night 15 cities simultaneously. Basically we want to add cities one by one. So new cities will come online each year, maybe probably three new cities every year.

It’s just a rough estimate. And we will following a pattern of regulatory approval and then testing and then commercial operation and then scale deployment. So there are four stage. As what this four stage has been approved in our current deployment in Abu Dhabi, and I think soon it will be also be approved in Dubai. And cities will be chosen based on favorable policies, guidelines and the initiatives for autonomous driving.

And also we are, we want to, we are look forward to really maximize social value, and also want to, you know, create create value for our long term stakeholders.

Tim Hsiao, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: Great, that’s very helpful. Thanks for the additional callers. Thank you, Tony and team. Thanks.

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: Thank you, Tim.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Li Ping Chao from CICC. Please go ahead, Ping.

Li Ping Chao, Analyst, CICC: Good evening, Tony and Jennifer. Congrats for the strong robotaxi revenue in this quarter. I got two questions here. First, could you share with us your robotaxi economics? How should we consider the cost structure as you scale?

And second, could you please share more about your recent rollout at Guangzhou City Center? When should we expect you to start provide a robotaxi service in the whole city? Thank you.

Jennifer Lee, CFO, WeWrite: Okay. I’ll take the first question. Tony will take the second. And so the first question on the robotaxi economic, let’s just take a look at the number. In the conventional ride hailing, driver takes home roughly like 60% of each fare, that’s like stakes out of every 10.

Robotaxis revolutionized this model by reducing the driver cost to nearly nothing. Yes, we still have the vehicle cost for Robotaxis, which is slightly higher than traditional taxi, but eliminating the 60% cost changes everything about this business model. And cost optimization has been one of our key focuses and we are making cautious and continuous progresses. First, let’s talk about the vehicle cost. Leveraging on the booming and very mature EV supply chain here in China, we have access to component of high quality on competitive pricing.

Second, we have also built in-depth collaboration with global OEMs such as Renault and Ethan. And thirdly, we adopt a modulized design of our sensors, which enable enabling 90% shared component across different autonomous driving products. We also converted to the most cost effective semi solid LiDAR a few years ago. So, leveraging all of those, our autonomous vehicles are quite cost competitive. For instance, the cost of our sensor suite has reduced by more than 70% over the past five years.

And going forward with the more integrated design and increasing adoption of redundant drive by wirefaces, We anticipate another 20% to 30% headroom for a future cost reduction for the next gen of robotaxi. And today, we operate one of the world’s largest AV fleet globally, over 1,200 vehicles. And with more than 500 dedicated robotaxis. All of our vehicles using the standardized tech, as well as the similar sensors, safe computing platform. This will give us tremendous buying power and make maintenance so much simpler in the long run.

Our OEM partnerships will help us keeping optimizing every part of the supply chain. So in short, compared to the traditional taxi and road healing services, robotaxi is expected to be 50% or more cost effective in developed markets. We’re doing testing and operation of AV in 10 countries already. We’re seeing that on the ground confirms a very critical pinpoint. Many markets are facing very severe driver shortage.

Also, with growing challenge in hiring and retention of the drivers. This is exactly where our solution makes the difference. And by working hand in hand with our local partners, we’re not just deploying technology, we’re solving real transportation crisis caused by the labor shortage. Yeah. That’s all for the for this first question, leaving waste.

Tony, I’ll leave you to a second question on the Guangzhou plan.

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: I believe that yeah. I believe the second question is about, like, want to discuss a little bit about our recent rollout at Guangzhou City Center. And and also, you know, want some details about our robotaxis service. So first of all, you know, I want to say, last week, we launched China’s First Twenty fourseven autonomous ride hailing network covering the core areas of Guangzhou. As I mentioned Guangzhou is a number number three city in China.

And our expanded robotax service features actually eight pilot operation routes in the city center, connecting landmarks and transport hubs such as the airport Guangzhou South Railway Station, Canton Tower and Canton Fair Complex. If you are familiar with Guangzhou you know they are all the most busiest busiest and also the most important place and, you know, the hubs. And you probably if you come to Guangzhou, you will visit these places. And when we first kick off commercial robotaxis service back in the year of 2019, we started in Guangzhou. You know, this is a mega city with very busy traffic and the population you know is at least 20,000,000.

To date we have been providing autonomous mobility service to the local citizens for more than two thousand days so I’m quite confident and quite proud for this achievement. The expansion of this service is very important milestone in the industry. For the first time robotaxis allowed in the central area of such a big city. That’s not easy actually. It incorporates some of the most complicated scenarios we have ever seen including really various road types and traffic conditions as well as very subtle interactions with a wide range of road users like passenger cars, engineering cars, pedestrians, cyclists, three wheelers.

You have to handle all of these things. So it is a big challenge to our technology, but I think you know we solved all these issues quite well. And also being allowed to operate in Central Guangzhou underscores our confidence in safety records and robust technology. And we will strive to maintain a high standard of service and we will also be very careful. We will expand progressively and responsibly in accordance with the requirement of local authorities.

So I think that’s all I want to say about this question.

Li Ping Chao, Analyst, CICC: Okay, that’s very helpful. Thank you.

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Joel Ng from Nomura. Please ask your question, Joel.

Joel Ng, Analyst, Nomura: Thank you for taking my question. This is Joel from Nomura, and I have two questions. For the first one, what’s the implication for recent launch of drybreath testing in Abu Dhabi? Is there any operational plan as the next step? And my second question is since we see some aggressive OEMs also plan to enter into robotaxi business, so what’s our company’s view on it?

Are they comparative compared to level four players given they have more driving betas? And what is our edge on this? Thank you.

Jennifer Lee, CFO, WeWrite: And then I’ll take the first question. We’re very excited about the driverless testing in Abu Dhabi. To my knowledge, this is the first of its kind in The Middle East. And it’s also the first time that robotaxi without safety driver on public road is allowed outside China and The US. VRIDE is a territory in The Middle East.

We started a robotaxi trial in UAE as early as 2021. The desert climate of the country, including high temperature and the sunny environment created all the special challenges to the autonomous vehicles. Nevertheless, our robotaxi fleet delivered a high level of reliability and safety during the initial two year public operation. Building on this confidence, V Ride secured the first national autonomous driving permit in UAE in 2023, which also remains the only national permit in the world as of today. Last year, our local operation entered into a new chapter.

I’m sorry. As a joint birth of this

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: Yeah, some water, you know, just cancel water and then, you know, we have plenty of time.

Jennifer Lee, CFO, WeWrite: Speaking of our joint forces with Uber, it also allows us to provide local citizens with better services and assessibilities. So the driverless testing marks a major milestone as we begin driverless testing. This is a significant leap forward in the journey in our journey in Middle East. We are also particularly excited to have received approval to expand our service area to include Abu Dhabi’s Maria Island and our community. So, both islands, are the most dynamic urban center in Abu Dhabi.

We’re very excited to bring the cutting edge transportation solution to those places. So now, Tony, I’ll leave it to the next question. Thank you.

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: Okay. Yeah, you can take this time to really clear some throat. Okay. I’ll ask those questions. So I think thank you.

Question is really deep and I really appreciate So questions about, like, you know, our competition about against major car OEMs for robotaxis service and my view and our edge. So first of all, I I want to say, you know, the competition is ubiquitous. You know, if you are wide, if you are afraid of competition, you are not eligible to be a leading company. We write this first mover and the leading company autonomous industry, so we welcome competition and as long as the winner can bring the best quality of service, most reliable robotax service to ordinary ordinary people, the citizen, I think that will be great enough.

But we are confident with we write because, you know, first of all, I think, you know, our proven record has already show the superiority of our technology and also the reliability of our technology. And we, you know, over the past seven years, we have been closely working with some major car OEMs, you know, major car OEMs help us to build reliable vehicle platforms for robotaxi service. And I I want to say OEM actually plays a very important part in the whole ecosystem. We did learn a lot a lot from them. Having all this said, I want to emphasize the difference between the AIDAS system and the robotaxis system.

Okay. AIDAS system, you know, stands for advanced driver assistance system. So the major component who are responsible for driving the car is the person. L4 level robotaxi is for autonomous driving vehicle. They are two different things, two different species.

Mistakenly using adults for robotaxi is just like mistakenly using an L2 system for L3 system. Will lead lead to very tragic accidents. I think some accidents we have already experienced. So I want to emphasize, if you really want to do robotaxi to l four, you really need to spend lots of time, of energy in simulation platform, in robotaxi fleet, sharpen your technology and test for millions of miles. Only have a big user base is not enough.

Okay? Lots of time a big user base only tells you that your car is very good, can produce a very good L2 system, but there’s nothing to do. You have you can do a L4 system. So basically a warrior, a great warrior on the land may be not a so good warrior in a seafare, the sea warfare. So they are totally different.

So today we write real world robotaxi operation in multiple locations is actually supported by continuous investment in building and improving our platform. And it has the safety has been improved, you know, over we want to very proudly announce like over past seven years, we have a very good record that we haven’t experienced any autonomous driving system failure. I think that’s a very remarkable score. And currently, we write is one of very few companies has that that have brought level four mobility to the public, and we are really confident to maintain a leading position in this industry. Okay.

Thank you for this question. That’s all I want to say about this question.

Conference Operator: All right. Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Yawun Tan from BNP Paribas. This

Li Ping Chao, Analyst, CICC: is Yawen from BNP. Thanks for Tony and Jennifer’s time, and thanks for opportunities to discuss the exciting industry here. And I have two questions. The first one is, is there any specific plan for further expansion of the fleet size and operation area? And secondly, what’s your view on regulations in different markets?

Have we seen there are countries that is accelerating the adoption of L4 technology? Thank you.

Jennifer Lee, CFO, WeWrite: Thank you. I will take the first question for the plan for future expansion. So as TurboTaxi is penetrating traditional mobility in different region will remain a balanced strategy between China market and international markets. So in China, we will gradually increase the deployment in selected tier one cities. Our service was throughout step by step, and which is in accordance to this adoption roadmap by the local authority.

We have a track record of more than five years public operation in China. And our recent development that entered into the city center in both Beijing and Guangzhou, it’s a natural progress built on the existing momentum. And we’ll keep the momentum keep on the momentum, already on the momentum. And in overseas market, we’ll be scaling through strong global partnerships. So by working together with mobility and transportation stakeholders worldwide, we’ll be able to localize and accelerate our deployment in the market more in our international market more effectively.

For example, some of our global partners including, like say in UAE, we have the integrated transportation center in Abu Dhabi and the road and the transportation authority in Dubai that are extremely helpful. And in France, we have Renault, Fatih and Masif as our partner. And in Switzerland, we have the SBB which is the Swiss National Railway and we have the Condensurig and Swiss Transit Lab that are also we are working on multiple projects in Switzerland as well. And in Singapore, we have Comfortavo and Chart and Maintenance in Singapore. And we also have in Germany, we have Bosch as a key partner.

So last but not least, Uber is a key partner with our plan rolling out commercial robotaxis service in 15 new cities globally. So like say, if we’re talking about the site, the expansion plan. So all those cities we’re planning to enter typically have already have existing rat healing and taxi ecosystem that ranges from a few thousands to tens of thousands of shared mobility vehicles. So this is an ideal environment for L4 technology to integrate and to scale up. So as part of this partnership, V Rise Robotech Service will be available through Uber’s app and Uber will be responsible for the SLEAP operation.

So, as you can see, our global partner strategy is based on our shared execution, risk management and local market insight. We are not entering into the new market alone. Alone, we’re building a network of trusted global collaborators to accelerate adoption to shorten the deployment cycle and to meet the regulators expectation of each region together. Tony, I’ll leave you to the next question on the regulation in different markets.

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: Okay. So I’ll talk about like the regulations of different market. And actually, you know, you know, there are markets that are favorable to autonomous driving vehicles. And so currently, you know, I want to name a few like several countries in Middle East like UAE and Saudi and also several countries in Europe. And, of course, China China is very, very welcome and is also very China is actually faltering the automobile driving vehicle.

And so they are the major markets we want to deploy. So actually, you know, there there are also for the for the cities actually, for the countries, like, you know, if they really want to welcome or embrace the autonomous driving vehicle, that’s because of there are several factors they consider. Number one is the safety. Number two is the cost of labors. So we you need to take all of these factors into account.

And also for the point in this region for the countries that’s favorable autonomous driving or need autonomous driving or need robotaxis service. I think that represents huge opportunities for first movers like we ride. Actually, we experience like this kind of increasing interest in AV talk technology. And actually this kind of increasing interest can be demonstrated by our expansion and our operation. I just want to name a few actually.

In January and May we roll out our robotaxi at the robot service in Guangzhou City Center successfully. And that one I have already mentioned. In February, we actually received approval to launch our GXR for fully unmanned paid grant handling service in Beijing. Just only four months after we officially announced the new purpose to build Robotexi GXR. And in March we obtained level four operation permit in France.

In April we partnered with Dubai, Dubai’s Road And Transportation Authority at Uber to integrate our robotaxi fleet into Dubai’s public transportation system. You know, I can’t wait for this to come you know because you know our dream, mission is like to deploy robotaxi all over the world. In May, we have started for the driverless testing in Abu Dhabi. Actually, I’m currently Abu Dhabi. I just tested and I think it’s fantastic.

We now have deployed in 10 countries across Asia, Middle East, and Europe. From our experience, we understand that regulators are generally supportive towards autonomous driving, But conditioned all, we can keep our track record for safety. Overall, you know, we are really optimistic about the future and we believe URIDE is well positioned to capture the expanding penetration for autonomous driving technology. That’s my answer to this question. Thank you for this question.

Jennifer Lee, CFO, WeWrite: Thank

Conference Operator: you. We will now take our next question from the line of Hu from China Securities. Please ask your question, Tianquan.

Tianquan Hu, Analyst, China Securities: Hi, everyone. Can you hear me?

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: Yes. Yes, we can.

Tianquan Hu, Analyst, China Securities: Yeah. My first question is, is there any new product development that you could share, especially robotaxi?

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: Okay. So, you know, new products, you know, we are actually last October, we launched the new generation of robotaxi GXR, which is really a purpose built Robotaxi tailored for l four driverless. We also trim it for the for the deployment in Mid In The Mid East in like for like in today, like the the temperature is like forty forty degrees Celsius, you know, or you have to have a car that is with very powerful AC and very big batteries. We actually upgrade our GXR to make it more suitable. It’s a purpose to build global taxi to make it the most suitable for the market of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

And we, you know, to work on this we work closely with a GD very soon to customize GR, GXR, you know, we spent tons of time and efforts on it. Now our proprietary sensors with 5.6 and our HPC are ready and integrating to GXR and it’s very suitable for the extreme heat weather condition. And we also work on some redundant system. Okay. So the whole system, the GXR with full redundancy, several round of redundancies so that we have very reliable and stable braking and steering system.

And, you know, there’s another thing I want to mention like for the new products and new things like that is we are going to further upgrade GXR with the computational platform, you know, in the second half of year, we will build our computational platform by newest NVIDIA’s drive saw platform as you may as you have already probably noticed. NVIDIA is the next generation saw platform extremely powerful, and it has like have the computational power, you know, the whole computational power in our controller is actually more than 2,000 tops. So for the past five years, you know, we also try to reduce the cost like the cost of our sensors we have reduced by more than 70%. So we want to do it through innovation and new products. And for the next generation robotaxi currently under development, I think we look forward to another 20 to 30% cost reduction.

And further details we will review it after the spec be finalized. So there are a lot of thing new things ongoing, you know, that’s the really happening is working on robotaxi and this AI stuff, know, the new things comes every day. And we believe that with a powerful and smart brain, the new GXR will not only provide a high level of safety and comfortability, it will also our new purpose built GXR will redefine the robotaxi business and this car is ready for large deployment. I really look forward to see the large deployment of GXR in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Okay.

That’s my answer to this question.

Tianquan Hu, Analyst, China Securities: Thank you. Thank you. And my my and I have another question. My second question is, what’s your view on the growing level of competition in China as more companies are rolling out autonomous driving technology?

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: As I mentioned in in my answers in the previous question, right, as a leading global company, you have to face all kinds of competition, either globally or inside China, either from Carl Yan or from EDA system company or from Robotaxi, another Robotaxi company. So for my view, over my my view is like the competition good, you know. I love the beauty of the free free market. Right? You know.

So through trading through competition, the customers can get the most cost effective and high quality products. What’s wrong with that? That’s great thing. And but things are you worried about losing in this competition? I think for the past eight years of record has already show we do add growth from 10 people start up to a leading autonomous driving company with more than 2,000 employees.

The title has already proved that you know, while we have nothing, we only have a few people, a very small firm, we can start to grow. And now we are in very advantages and in our leading position. We are very confident. So, you know, I always mention like we have four core pillars we write apart from the competition. The four pillars, I want to name them one by one.

They are tech tech competence, you know, technologies, our always our foundation. Second, proven business model. And we are really look look into the large scale deployment and also deploying global market. Third one is the safety and reliability reliability record. Please go ahead to check the record.

I believe Autumn Rewrite has the best safety record all over the world. And we have fourth pillar is a strong partnership network. If I have some time, you know, do I still have some time? I want to elaborate actually this four pillars. Thanks for this question.

So so first of all, know, technology one you know over the past eight years we build up a we write one universal platform that can be deployed to use for robotaxi, robotaxi, robot sweeper, robot and an AIDA system. At the same time you get data from all over these five branches. So basically you are five times more efficient in collecting data, collecting common cases. At five times more efficient improve your idea, you know you are deploying your large scale not only in robotaxi fleet but also in robot and in robot sweeper. That’s a grand vision for me right and I think no other company have such a grand vision and I see no other company has achieved concrete steps for such great grand vision.

And about proven business, you know, look at our operation, I think why I’m quite proud and every step we have create a repeatable, scalable and monetizable business model across multiple verticals including mobility, logistic and sanitation. So that proves actually our autonomous solution can address a variety of real world challenges. So, we operate in 30 cities across 10 countries. So that means like the business model approved, not in a timeframe but also globally. Third pillar safety and reliable record.

I want to read you something about some record. So our L4 autonomous vehicle have undergo successfully successful tests and commercial deployment in diverse and extreme environments including urban village in China such as congested and unpredictable road environments in Downtown Guangzhou. And in a very northern part of China Heihe and that is like 30 degrees below 30 Celsius degrees below zero in winter and also in Abu Dhabi the high heat where I’m currently sitting in office you know 40 degrees Celsius we show that we can still operate safely. Last one very strong partnership we emphasize many times our collaboration with with Uber, with all different local authority in Switzerland, with France, Singapore, UAE and Japan. And we also have partners with multiple partners in Singapore, like in Resolve, Water, Sentosa, and the Robots operation.

So I won’t be able to name them yet. This is way long list and also for Ada system will work with the top one tier one supplier Bosch. So with all of this, I think, you know, from a competition, we are confident and I think that’s also the value of the right. Okay, that’s my answer to this question.

Tianquan Hu, Analyst, China Securities: Okay, thanks a lot. Very clear.

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: Thank you.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Leo Yo from CLSA. Please ask your question, Leo.

Leo Yo, Analyst, CLSA: Hi. Good evening, management. Thank you for the opportunity. So I wanna ask about the use of cash. So we are quite excited about the share the share repurchase program.

So would you please share more about your thoughts behind ruling out the program now, and how would you strike the balance between the shareholder return and investing in technology and products?

Jennifer Lee, CFO, WeWrite: Yeah. I’ll take this question. Thank you, Luo. So the board has authorized a share repurchase of a hundred million US dollar, which reflects in their reflects their strong confidence in the company’s solid foundation and the leading position in the autonomous driving industry and the compounding long term growth trajectory. And the proposed risk structure can be made from time to time in the form of compliant transactions.

So, so we think this initiative can allow us to opportunistically to buy back shares when we see opportunities, which also demonstrating our commitment to deliver value to the shareholder while maintaining financial flexibility for future growth. Yeah.

Leo Yo, Analyst, CLSA: Okay. Thank you, Jennifer. I I have another question on the financial part. So can you share more about the growth drivers behind the product revenue and service revenue in the first quarter? And how do you see the trend of the revenue line?

Yes.

Jennifer Lee, CFO, WeWrite: So at this stage, so our growth momentum for first quarter is primarily attributed to the growth of the robotaxa business and our global expansion. So, at this stage, given all the revenue for different product line is still relatively small. So, we think we’ll just like focusing on the product itself instead of like breaking down for because the product and service mix changes every quarter as sometimes when we deliver like a mega per project for one quarter, so the product revenue can significantly increase and on a different quarter, well, the service revenue can be the dominant factor for the quarter. And then if we’re talking about the robotaxi service, robotaxi as a business, so this is our core business from day one. And so the revenue contribution for robotaxi witnessed a significant increase of 10.4% year on year, which marking up like 22% of the total revenue of this quarter.

This is based on our knowledge and it’s also the largest published announced global taxi revenue among the peers. Yeah. And the margin level, we’re still at a very healthy, like, level of around, like, gross margin of around 35%. So so yeah.

Leo Yo, Analyst, CLSA: Okay. Thank you very much.

Conference Operator: Thank you, Liu. Thank you. Are no further questions. I’d like to hand the conference back to our management for closing remarks.

Tony Han, Founder, Chairman and CEO, WeWrite: Okay. So everyone, thank you again for your participation. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our partners and our employees. I have to say, none of the progress is possible without their support and hard work. And we look forward to keep speaking with everyone again in our next call.

Goodbye.

Conference Operator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect your lines.

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