Vmoto maintains sales revenue growth despite COVID-19 pandemic
Vmoto reported ‘significant interest’ for its products worldwide including 7,245 new international orders.
Electric vehicle supplier Vmoto (ASX: VMT) has updated the market of its first quarter company metrics, describing the past three months as bearing “strong operational and commercial performance” while continuing to progress its strategy of selling high value two-wheel EV products into international markets.
Just last week, Vmoto went to the market to raise $1 million through a share purchase plan and discovered investor interest to be heavily oversubscribed, with applications received for approximately $3.95 million.
According to the company, it sold a total of 4,121 units in the first quarter of this year, representing an 8% increase on a year-on-year basis. Of these, 3,741 units were sold outside Australia.
Robust sales figures helped Vmoto achieve positive operational cash flows and a strong cash position of $7.9 million and it said it “remains confident in its position and currently boasts an extremely strong order book for the coming quarter”.
At the end of March this year, the scooter supplier had firm international orders for 7,245 units and said it continues to receive additional orders from existing and new customers.
Moreover, Vmoto reported its quarterly sales figures were in line with expectations and general seasonal fluctuations due to Christmas closures, the Chinese New Year holiday and delays that were expected due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Despite initial fears of a prolonged shutdown of operations, Vmoto confirmed its manufacturing facility has remained fully operational and manufacturing has been “unaffected” by the current pandemic.
B2B focus
Vmoto operates in both the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) markets, with further sales growth being “actively pursued” including within sharing and delivery markets.
Within B2B, Vmoto is supplying products to six sharing operators globally and said it is actively engaged in advanced discussions with a further 10 firms.
The company said it has received a significant increase in interest from business customers including food delivery and parcel delivery companies for its new delivery electric scooter, E-Max VS1.
Vmoto also reported that COVID-19 effects have played a part, spurring a global increase in the use of delivery services because of the global lockdown.
Macro sales factors
In a statement to the market, Vmoto identified several external growth drivers it believes will deliver further sales growth.
It referred to government policy and initiatives around the world, including the offering of monetary incentives for using EVs, green initiatives, banning petrol vehicles and further investment in charging infrastructure as key factors that are expected to drive adoption of EVs as transportation.
Another factor that Vmoto expects to play a part is the shift in preference from public to personal transportation choices.
Ridesharing
Vmoto reported a string of updates relating to its ride-sharing operations across Australia and internationally including 50 initial orders from eMoped Motosharing in Brisbane, the first batch of scooters to Go Sharing in the Netherlands in April, 90 units to Antik Motosharing in Slovakia, 300 electric scooters to Zig Zag in Italy, and 329 units to Loopshare based in Vancouver, Canada.
“Vmoto is also in discussions with a number of potential sharing customers in Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Mexico, Slovakia, Spain and Turkey,” the company said.