Electrovaya Inc. eked out a $100,000 profit in the third quarter of 2023 — which doesn’t sound like much until it’s compared to the $1.5 million loss the company took in the third quarter of 2022.

The company is currently renovating the former home of Acu-Rite. Company officials said recently battery assembly at its new Ellicott Gigafactory will begin in the first quarter of 2024 with cell assembly beginning in the second quarter of 2025 as more of the plant’s renovation is completed. Electrovaya has hired its plant manager, who will start Sept. 1, company officials told county IDA officials in June. While the start of production has been pushed back slightly from earlier estimates, the company has secured more than 80% of the $48 needed for the first phase of renovations.

“As previously disclosed, we are currently embarking on the largest expansion in our history,” said Dr. Raj DasGupta, Electrovaya CEO. “We are close to finalizing a debt facility to fund the first phase of our Jamestown gigafactory, where we plan to produce our Infinity series products including cells, separators and battery systems on a much larger scale.”

The third quarter profit for Electrovaya comes on the backs of a 145% growth in third quarter revenue from $4.3 million in 2022 to $10.5 million in 2023. Management maintains revenue guidance of $42 million for the full 2023 financial year. Gross margins for the third quarter of 2023 increased to 28.1%, compared to $25.2% in the same period last year.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a measure of a company’s financial health and ability to generate cash, was $1.1 million for the third quarter of 2023, an increase from the $600,000 loss in the third quarter of 2022. Adjusted EBITDA was positive in spite of the one-time costs associated with Electrovaya’s Nasdaq listing. Management anticipates that the Company will continue to generate positive Adjusted EBITDA for the rest of 2023.

Electrovaya generated a positive cash flow of $100,000 in the nine months ended June 30, 2023 compared to a cash loss of $3.2 million million) in the nine months ended June 30, 2022.

Total debt as at June 30, 2023, was $16.9 million compared to $16.6 million as of Sept. 30, 2022, when the company ended its 2022 financial year. Management believes that available liquidity, plus $10.1 million of accounts receivable and $5.9 million of inventory, will provide adequate working capital to support its operating activities and growth targets for the rest of 2023 and into the 2024 financial year. Company officials said they anticipate revenue of $42 million for 2023, more than double the company’s 2022 revenue, with revenue expected to be generated primarily from sales of battery systems for materials handling electric vehicles.

“We generated strong growth in revenue and profitability during the third quarter, with battery system gross margins of over 30%. We expect our deliveries to accelerate during the fourth quarter and are maintaining our revenue guidance to double year over year to $42 million for the fiscal year,” DasGupta said. “We also made significant progress on other fronts during the third quarter, including the development and launch of new products, capacity expansion initiatives, and the launch of our Nasdaq listing. All of these initiatives are critical to our long-term success.”

Other recent highlights include third-party testing showing Electrovaya batteries demonstrated industry-leading cycle life. The batteries completed more than 9,000 charge/discharge cycles using aggressive vehicle duty cycles in cell testing at DNV’s BEST Test Center battery lab in Rochester, retaining 87% of their initial capacity.

On May 16, Electrovaya launched a new Infinity series cell that features a capacity increase of 10% over its current cell product. The battery has a cell capacity of 52 ampere hours (Ah) and has received both UL 2580 certification and UN38.3 certification. That was followed by the June launch of the company’s Infinity-HV battery systems, which target heavy-duty, high-voltage applications including buses, delivery trucks, construction trucks, hybrid-fuel cell/battery systems and stationary energy storage systems.

“Order volumes continue to grow for our low-voltage products, which are used in material handling and robotic applications. The order backlog for these products has increased more than 50% year over year, and our Fortune 500 customer base is expanding. We also recently launched our high-voltage battery systems for use in heavy-duty applications such as electric buses, trucks and energy storage, and I am pleased to say that interest from potential customers is very high and we have received some initial purchase orders,” Dr. DasGupta said.