Gentherm Inc
NASDAQ:THRM
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Gentherm Inc
Earnings Call Analysis
Q4-2023 Analysis
Gentherm Inc
In a noteworthy finish to the fourth quarter, Gentherm introduced their world to an impressive achievement of $900 million in new automotive business awards, a quarterly record. Eight steering wheel heater awards spread across seven OEMs stood out, with prominent wins including hands-on detection-enabled steering wheel heater awards with automotive giants such as BMW, General Motors, and Nissan. Gentherm fortified its position with General Motors, securing awards for CCS and multifunction electronic control units for their next-generation truck platform, significant for both companies. The victory of their first ClimateSense software award for future GM vehicles marks a breakthrough, validating Gentherm's software prowess.
Despite the current economic landscape, Gentherm's medical team achieved record revenue with a substantial 15% year-over-year growth. They expanded their hospital customer base in China and the U.S. and successfully pivoted their sales strategy to leverage large partnerships and white label opportunities. This strategic shift reduced the in-house sales team, aiming to optimize the cost structure and bolster both top and bottom lines in the medical segment.
Gentherm foresees 2024 revenues hitting the $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion range, expecting a modest organic revenue growth rate of 5%. Their adjusted EBITDA margin rate is projected to improve to 12.5% to 13.5%, factoring in the ramp-up of new product launches later in the year. Noteworthy is the revision of their 2026 outlook, now anticipating revenues between $1.9 billion to $2 billion, reflecting revisions due to market dynamics, including the pursuit of BPS opportunities and vehicle production forecasts.
Gentherm sets its sights on three key priorities: capturing additional automotive business and maintaining market share, executing on 'Fit-for-Growth' initiatives to widen margins, and aggressively promote their cutting-edge solutions like ClimateSense. They underscore their unique value as an independent leader in the thermal and pneumatic comfort market, banking on their innovation, efficiency, and robust financial discipline to spur growth that outstrips the market.
While the recent strike's impact hampered some financial goals, Gentherm still managed to achieve a growth rate of about 10%, thanks to one-time customer recoveries and considering foreign currency effects. The anticipated heightened activity in the latter half of the year is tied to the launch timings of new products.
Gentherm has paused the pursuit of BPS cell connecting board opportunities as they grapple with pricing competition from chemical etch approaches steering towards lower-cost batteries. This strategic move pivots resources towards growth in climate and comfort segments, which are seeing accelerated growth. The thermoelectric BPS product for 48-volt systems is also seeing pessimistic forecasts, with a preference shifting towards air cooling—Gentherm is securing wins in this area despite expecting an overall decline in BPS revenue through 2026.
Gentherm anticipates margin expansion driven by volume, Fit-for-Growth initiatives, and factory productivity. However, they expect fewer price recoveries from customers in 2024 compared to 2023, reflecting a more challenging business environment.
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Greetings and welcome to the Gentherm Fourth Quarter and Full Year Earnings. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Yijing Brentano, Senior Vice President of Strategy, Corporate Development and Investor Relations for Gentherm. Thank you. You may begin.
Thank you and good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. Gentherm's earnings results were released earlier this morning, and a copy of the release is available at gentherm.com. Additionally, a webcast replay of today's call will be available later today on the Investor Relations section of Gentherm's website.During this call, we may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and financial performance, and actual results may differ materially. We undertake no obligation to update them, except as required by law. Please see Gentherm's earnings release and its SEC filings, including the latest 10-K and subsequent reports, for discussions of our risk factors and other risks and uncertainties underlying such forward-looking statements.During the call, we may discuss non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G, including certain pro forma measures related to the Alfmeier acquisition. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release and investor presentation.On the call with me today are Phil Eyler, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Matteo Anversa, Chief Financial Officer. During their comments, Phil and Matteo will be referring to a presentation deck that we have made available on our website at gentherm.com/events. After their prepared remarks, we will be pleased to take your questions.Now I'd like to turn the call over to Phil.
Thank you, Yijing. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today.Let me start with Slide 4 for our 2023 highlights. I'm extremely proud of what the Gentherm team achieved in 2023 despite a continuously challenging operating environment. Demand for our thermal comfort, massage and lumbar solutions continues to accelerate. We secured new automotive business awards of $900 million in the fourth quarter, which brings us to $2.6 billion in 2023, setting a new quarterly and annual record.Our strong award momentum continued to drive revenue growth. We achieved record revenue for automotive, medical and total company for the full year 2023. In addition, we also achieved record annual revenue for climate controlled seats, seat heaters and steering wheel heaters in 2023. It's it's worth noting that adjusting for the impact from foreign exchange, the UAW strike and one-time recoveries, our core thermal product lines include CCS, seat heaters and steering wheel heaters, outperformed the production in our relevant markets by nearly 400 basis points in 2023.On the cost front, we continued our disciplined approach to managing operating expenses. We've reduced adjusted operating expense as a percent of revenue from 20% in 2018 when we launched our first Fit-for-Growth initiative to 16% in 2023. We delivered the highest annual adjusted EBITDA in company history, an increase of more than 30% compared to 2022. And we generated nearly $120 million of cash flow from operations and repurchased over $90 million worth of Gentherm shares. The new business wins, record revenues in key product lines, improved profitability and solid cash flow generation demonstrates strong execution by the Gentherm team.Now turning to Slide 5. Let me highlight a few key pillars that drove our record $2.6 billion in new automotive awards in 2023. First, at the top left of the slide, our core thermal products continue to expand globally, particularly in high content product categories such as CCS and hands-on detection-enabled steering wheel heaters. We won awards in 2023 which spanned across all ranges of vehicles from the likes of BMW, Cadillac, Mazda and Li Auto and BYD in China.Second, in pneumatic lumbar and massage, we are growing our market share and winning awards at a rate that is well above our original expectations. We have won conquest pneumatic lumbar and massage awards with BMW, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Li Auto, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, Volkswagen and one of the largest global EV manufacturers. These wins confirm the strength of our combined product offering, leveraging the Alfmeier acquisition. It's important to point out that a growing number of OEM customers want the combined thermal and pneumatic lumbar product, especially from an independent supplier who integrates with many seating providers. This is one of the unique value propositions that Gentherm offers.Let me remind you of a few key combined awards that we have won since the beginning of 2023. We won the highly desirable and contested award with BMW for CCS, seat heat and pneumatic lumbar and massage for their next-generation electric and ICE X Series SUVs, which include the X5, 6 and 7 and the iX5, 6 and 7. We won a combined CCS, seat heat, lumbar and massage full system award with Jaguar Land Rover for their new Jaguar BEVs. We've significantly grown our content with one of the largest global EV manufacturers, winning steering wheel heat, seat heat, CCS and pneumatic lumbar awards across multiple car lines. Finally, we won 3 CCS awards with Li Auto on their plug-in hybrid L9 and 2 future electric SUVs. In addition, we won 2 combined CCS and pneumatic massage awards from Li Auto on a future electric and plug-in hybrid SUV.Moving to the bottom left on Slide 5, our proprietary innovations such as ClimateSense and WellSense, which I will elaborate more on the next slide, have helped us to increase content per vehicle. For example, our ongoing ClimateSense development project with Honda has demonstrated significant savings in HVAC energy consumption by combining seat heat, steering wheel heat and interior heat. As a result, Honda awarded Gentherm multiple EV programs that include both heated interior solutions and our electronic control units. As we shared on the last earnings call, we won our first multifunction electronic control unit award from General Motors.And today, I'm pleased to announce one of the most important strategic awards in Gentherm's history. In the fourth quarter, we won a breakthrough, scalable ClimateSense software award for nearly all future architecture General Motors ICE and electric vehicles. Through this award, Gentherm's proprietary ClimateSense software features will be enabled across all General Motors vehicles equipped with seat heat, climate controlled seats and steering wheel heating. This will allow Gentherm's intelligent software solutions to bring increased comfort control and energy efficiency.Let me summarize my discussion regarding our award momentum by reminding you of a key differentiator for our company. Gentherm is an independent partner that can cooperate with any combination of the 50-plus vehicle OEMs and 30-plus seat manufacturers globally, including those that are vertically integrated, to create truly differentiated solutions. Our unique value proposition resonates with customers as demonstrated by our win rate of approximately 80% of our quoted pursuits for thermal and pneumatic solutions in 2023.Turning to Slide 6. Let me share a little more on how we're leading the industry in key innovations, starting with ClimateSense, the world's first scalable software-driven automotive microclimate solution. It uniquely delivers personalized thermal comfort for each occupant in the car by coordinating localized convective, conductive and radiant heating and cooling to provide optimal comfort while also reducing vehicle energy consumption and extending range. ClimateSense software seamlessly integrates with vehicle and HVAC controls to optimize the temperature for passengers individually.In addition to ClimateSense, our advanced engineering team continues to integrate our thermal products with lumbar and massage products to create innovative, full system solutions. The combination of heating and cooling the body with massage, including our industry's first proprietary pulsating massage, Pulse A, is opening vast opportunities for solutions that promote health and wellness experiences, also alertness enhancements and physical recovery in the car.As a result, at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, we unveiled WellSense, a software-defined consumer experience that delivers customized in-cabin comfort sensations that promote alertness, wellness and wellbeing. It was great to see some of you at our booth, experiencing WellSense firsthand. The technology leverages science-based physiology research as the foundation for proprietary software that orchestrates heating, cooling, lumbar and massage comfort effectors. The WellSense software development kit, which includes over-the-air feature upgrades, can be integrated into any software-defined vehicle architecture.Trends are shifting towards consumers using their vehicles as a third living space outside the home or office, offering an additional revenue opportunity for OEMs to address consumer health and wellness needs. The launch of our proprietary WellSense is the next evolution of our software-enabled technologies, which positions Gentherm at the nexus of health, wellness, comfort and energy efficiency.Lastly, I'd like to officially introduce our next-generation integrated thermal lumbar and massage hardware system, ComfortScale. ComfortScale is a modular solution, which combines several distinct thermal and pneumatic comfort components into one integrated system. We believe ComfortScale will drive significant performance improvement for our customers as well as labor cost and logistics reduction for the OEMs and seat manufacturers. ComfortScale can be integrated with any foam and with any seat. It's adaptable for all OEMs and all Tier 1 seat manufacturers. It's scalable from an entry-level lumbar and seat heat system all the way to a high-end Pulse A massage and CCS system.I'm proud of the Gentherm technology team for bringing to market innovative, differentiated proprietary solutions such as ClimateSense, WellSense and ComfortScale. These innovations are expected to significantly increase Gentherm's content per vehicle and position us to be a strong contributor to software-defined vehicles of the future.Now turning to our Q4 automotive highlights on Slide 7. In the fourth quarter, we launched our automotive solutions on 21 different vehicles across 13 OEMs, including BMW, Ford, Geely, Toyota and Volkswagen. We continue to see expanded application of our CCS solutions. In the fourth quarter, our CCS solutions were launched on the Ford Ranger, Mazda CX-90, Toyota Tacoma and the BEV truck with one of the largest global EV manufacturers.I'm pleased to share that Gentherm's ClimateSense was named a finalist for the prestigious 2023 Automotive News PACE Awards, with winners to be announced in April of 2024. In the fourth quarter, Gentherm was also named a winner of the Business Intelligence Group 2024 Big Innovation Award for our ClimateSense technology. And ClimateSense was also recognized as a winner of the 2023 Reuters DRIVE Honour in the reducing emissions category. These awards are clear recognitions of the impact ClimateSense can deliver through personalized comfort and reduced vehicle energy consumption. I'd like to congratulate the Gentherm team for receiving these coveted recognitions.Now onto Slide 8, where as I mentioned, we secured a quarterly record of $900 million of awards in automotive in the fourth quarter. We received 8 steering wheel heater awards across 7 OEMs. Importantly, we won hands-on detection-enabled steering wheel heater awards with BMW, Geely, General Motors, Li Auto and Nissan. We won several CCS awards in the quarter. Of note, we won the new Hyundai Grandeur, Hyundai QV, the Kia EV5, Nissan X-Trail, a midsized crossover for one of the largest global EV manufacturers, a new Great Wall plug-in hybrid SUV and the new Rivian electric delivery van.I'm also pleased to share that we are growing our business with our largest customer, General Motors, winning a highly contested CCS and multifunction electronic control unit awards for their next-generation truck platform, including the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. In addition, as I mentioned earlier, we also won our first ClimateSense software award for nearly all future architecture General Motors ICE and electric vehicles that will enable ClimateSense to control thermal seating and steering wheels. This is truly a breakthrough win for Gentherm that showcases the value our proprietary software provides for our customers.With software-defined vehicles expected to grow in the global market in the coming years, Gentherm is perfectly positioned to increase hardware and software content to enable greater energy efficiency, personalization and novel comfort and wellness experiences. These wins confirm our strong market-leading position in thermal and pneumatic comfort. I'd like to recognize the global Gentherm team for securing a company record of $2.6 billion of new automotive business awards in 2023.Now before I discuss the medical highlights, I'd like to provide a brief update on our Battery Performance Solutions. If you recall, Gentherm invented an innovative and proprietary thin foil, flexible circuit product line that can be used as either a battery cell heater or a cell connecting device. However, in the past year, we have not secured any new cell connecting awards based on the mechanical structuring process. There are 2 fundamental reasons for this. First, OEMs and battery makers are becoming more conservative in both technology selection and pace of production for EVs. Customers are choosing to remain with the current chemical-etched and wire-based connection solutions despite the environmental and technical benefits of our technology.Second, where we have had the opportunity to win, the margin and return profiles would have been well below our company business case requirements. Consequently, we have decided to pause our pursuit of cell-connecting opportunities for the foreseeable future. Although we will continue to pursue select battery heating and cooling opportunities, we expect our BPS revenue to gradually decrease over the next few years. We've reassigned the majority of our BPS resources to work on our unprecedented new business awards in thermal, pneumatic and electronics.Now let's turn to Slide 9 for a discussion of our medical business. The medical team delivered record revenue in 2023 with a strong finish in the fourth quarter, growing 15% year-over-year. In the fourth quarter, we added 26 new hospital customers in China, including Tung Shin, a top tier hospital. In the U.S., we successfully launched a group buy program with one of our key customers, HealthTrust Performance Group. We were awarded Blanketrol system upgrades throughout their member hospitals in the fourth quarter. And in Europe, we have converted competitors' convective warming accounts to resistive technology with our ASTOPAD as a result of increased demand for more sustainable solutions.As we shared on previous earnings calls, we've adapted our go-to-market model in the medical business to leverage large partnerships, distribution channels and white label opportunities. Consequently, we have reduced the size of our in-house sales team to improve our cost structure in medical. And we are laser focused on growing both the top and bottom line in this business.With that, I'll turn the call over to Matteo for a little more color on the financial results and to discuss 2024 guidance.
Okay. Thank you, Phil. Let me start on Slide 10 and focus on the most significant items in our fourth quarter results.For the quarter, product revenues increased by 7% compared to the same period of last year. If we adjust for the impact of foreign exchange, our overall product revenue increased by 5%. Starting with the automotive segment. Automotive revenues were $354 million, reflecting a 7% increase compared to the prior year period. Adjusting for positive foreign currency translation and excluding the negative impact of the UAW strike, phasing out of the non-automotive electronics business, as well as one-time benefits from recoveries in both periods, automotive revenues increased 10% against a difficult prior-year comparison.Actual light vehicle production in our key markets of North America, Europe, China, Japan and Korea increased 13% year-over-year. It is worth noting that our regional revenue mix is different from the actual production market. Adjusting for our regional revenue mix, primarily as a result of our smaller percentage of revenue from China, our revenue growth would have outperformed production growth by approximately 150 basis points.We saw growth in the majority of our product lines, and more specifically, our steering wheel heaters revenue increased by 22% compared to the prior year period due to higher demand of our hands-on detection-enabled steering wheel heaters with VW and Buick. Automotive cables revenue increased by 15% due to higher volume with Bosch and Samsung. EPS revenue increased 11% due to higher volume with Mercedes primarily delayed timing from the third quarter as well as higher price recoveries.CCS revenues increased by 6% due to higher volume with Hyundai, Kia, BMW and the start of production at one of the largest global EV manufacturers. Seat heater revenue increased by 5% due to the ramp-up on our electric vehicle for a global EV manufacturer in Europe and the ramp-up of the MLA platform with GLR. Lumbar and massage revenue increased by 3% due to the start of production on vehicles with BMW and VW in Europe as well as higher volumes with Ford. Valve systems revenue increased by 1% due to the higher sales in Europe. Electronics revenue decreased 9% due to the phaseout of non-automotive electronics. And other automotive revenue decreased by 8%, primarily due to the material inflation recoveries received in the prior year period.Turning to the medical business. Medical revenues increased 15%, primarily as a result of the higher Blanketrol sales in the U.S.Moving to adjusted EBITDA. Adjusted EBITDA in the quarter was $49 million, up from $41 million in the prior year period. The adjusted EBITDA rate for the fourth quarter was 13.4%, the highest profitability rate in 8 quarters. This compares to 11.9% in the year-ago period. The 150 basis point year-over-year improvement was driven by lower freight cost, fixed cost leverage on higher sales volume, productivity at the manufacturing facilities and supplier cost reductions. These were partially offset by wage inflation and lower price recoveries relative to the prior year period. It is worth noting that sequentially, adjusted EBITDA margin rate rose 40 basis points, driven by higher manufacturing productivity and supplier cost reductions.Operating expenses were $64.6 million in the quarter compared to $66.2 million in the prior year period. If we adjust for acquisition, integration and restructuring costs as well as non-cash stock compensation expenses in both periods, operating expenses were $59.5 million, up from $52.8 million in the fourth quarter of last year. The year-over-year increase of approximately $7 million was primarily driven by higher incentive compensation, partially offset by higher R&D reimbursement.Finally, adjusted diluted earnings per share in the quarter were $0.90 per share compared to $0.47 per share in the fourth quarter of last year. Our effective tax rate for the year, adjusted by the impact of the medical goodwill impairment recorded in the second quarter, was approximately 23%. This amount is lower than the guided range of 28% to 32% due to the one-time benefit as a result of a tax entity restructuring in Europe that was implemented in the fourth quarter of the year.Moving to the balance sheet on Slide 11. Our cash position at the end of the quarter was approximately $150 million, and our net debt stood at $73 million. Net debt increased sequentially by $20 million due to the $61 million share repurchases executed in the fourth quarter, partially offset by cash generated from operating activities. Our net leverage ratio was 0.4x at the end of the fourth quarter, well below our target of 1.5x. Based on the trailing 12-month consolidated adjusted EBITDA ended December 31, we had $278 million of remaining availability on our line of credit, and the total available liquidity as of year end 2023 was $428 million.Now before I discuss the 2024 guidance, I would like to thank the global Gentherm team for the disciplined financial management in 2023 that allowed us to deliver a 200 basis point improvement in adjusted EBITDA margin rate year-over-year on a pro forma basis, despite significant inflationary headwind. In addition, I'm proud of the team for the strong free cash flow generation, which enabled us to return approximately $90 million to our shareholders through share repurchases.Now let me turn to Slide 12 for our 2024 guidance. We are expecting revenue to be in the range of $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion, assuming a euro to U.S. dollar exchange rate of 1.1 and light vehicle production in our relevant markets decreasing at a low single-digit rate in 2024 versus 2023. Adjusting for approximately 50 basis points of FX benefit year-over-year, the midpoint of our guidance implies an organic revenue growth rate of 5%. It is worth noting that if we exclude BPS, automotive cables and valve systems, our climate and comfort revenues are expected to grow more than 8%, excluding foreign exchange.Our guidance assumes higher revenue in the second half compared to the first half as a result of the timing of new program launches. Adjusted EBITDA margin rate is expected to improve to 12.5% to 13.5%. Our guidance assumes a 50 basis point headwind associated with the startup costs at our new plant in Morocco and Mexico and product engineering and launch costs associated with our record new awards.Due to the revenue cadence I mentioned earlier and the impact of contractual price downs, which will be offset in the second half of the year by supplier cost improvements and productivity actions, we expect the adjusted EBITDA margin rate in the first quarter to be below our full year guidance range and for the rate to steadily improve throughout the year. As a result of above mentioned items and one-time costs associated with our new plants, we expect adjusted EBITDA margin rate in the first quarter of 2024 to be slightly lower than the first quarter of 2023.Our full year effective tax rate is expected to be in the range of 26% to 29% and capital expenditures to be in the range of $65 million to $75 million. 2024 CapEx will be higher than prior years due to increased investments for the ramp-up of new capacity, including the 2 new clients to support our record new awards.Due to our decision to pause the pursuit of BPS cell connecting board opportunities that Phil mentioned earlier, combined with the decline in vehicle production forecast in our largest region of North America, as well as the uncertainty on the timing of ramp-up of electric vehicles, we are revising our 2026 outlook that we provided in our strategy discussion in February of last year. We now expect 2026 revenue to be between $1.9 billion to $2 billion. And as a result of the reduction in the revenue outlook, adjusted EBITDA margin rate is now expected to be approximately 16% in 2026.We continue to execute on our Fit-for-Growth initiatives, and specifically, we are targeting $80 million net savings by 2026 across workstreams, including SG&A, sourcing excellence, value engineering, manufacturing footprint, automation and product profitability. In 2023, the team delivered over $10 million of savings, and we are currently implementing additional projects that will yield another $45 million of savings by 2026. These actions are expected to deliver nearly 70% of our $80 million goal. And in addition, we have a pipeline of projects that positions us to achieve the remaining 30%. As we continue to identify and implement additional Fit-for-Growth actions, we gain momentum on our path to a high teens adjusted EBITDA margin rate over time.And with that, I'll turn the call back to Phil for some closing remarks.
Thanks, Matteo. Now let me summarize on Slide 13. I want to thank the global Gentherm team for continued strong execution in 2023, delivering record new business wins, record revenues and record adjusted EBITDA. In 2024, our climate and comfort business is expected to grow more than 8% with expanding margins.In order to accomplish this and our long-term growth, we're laser focused on 3 priorities in 2024. First, we're confident in our ability to continue the strong momentum of winning new automotive business awards and maintaining our industry-leading market share, given our large pipeline of opportunities. We will also execute on our unprecedented award backlog to ensure a successful ramp-up with our key customers. Second, as Matteo just mentioned, we will execute on Fit-for-Growth initiatives to expand margins in the near term and position the company to achieve high teens adjusted EBITDA margin rate over time. And third, we will aggressively bring to market and expand our industry-leading and proprietary next-generation solutions such as ClimateSense, WellSense, Pulse A massage and ComfortScale.Now let me wrap up with Gentherm's unique investment thesis on Slide 14. First, we're a pure play leader in thermal and pneumatic comfort. It's also important to highlight the benefit of being independent. We can work with any OEM and any seat manufacturer to create scores of innovative and unique configuration and solve for all of their applications. Second, the global automotive market is large, and more importantly, the thermal and pneumatic comfort market is growing at a much faster pace than the automotive market. We expect to see a much higher rate of adoption of our products into vehicles, and we're extremely well positioned to capitalize on this opportunity. Third, we provide unique, innovative and energy-efficient solutions that are key to the vehicles of the future. Our technology is best-in-class and often a generation ahead of our competition. Finally, our track record of execution against our strategy along with our robust financial discipline will enable us to deliver high-return growth outpacing the market.Now with that, I'll turn the call back to the operator to start the Q&A.
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Matt Koranda with ROTH MKM.
I want to start off with the awards. So just wanted to start out with the award environment and the $900 million in awards that you reported for the fourth quarter. Looks like a pretty big uptick sequentially and year-over-year. Just wanted to get a sense for how much of that was combined thermal and pneumatic technology in the awards. And then also on the GM award, just wanted to clarify what exactly you mean by the term architecture. Not to dumb it down too much, but do you just mean GM vehicles that incorporate multiple Gentherm products like steering wheel heat and CCS, et cetera? Just a bit more on that software solution and sort of what it does for your growth for the next few years would be helpful.
Thanks, Matt. I'll start with the first question on the awards mix. It's probably better to put it in terms of the full year than just a specific quarter. But as we pointed out, our pneumatic business is growing at a faster rate than we expected. Consumer pull, especially from our traditional Gentherm long-standing customers to replace other competitors and to grow in those customers has been tremendous. And definitely, as I pointed out with some of the examples, we're seeing this gradual shift to combined solutions for multiple reasons. The efficiency of supply and supply chain plus improved performance being the primary drivers. But if you look at the total awards for the year, we would have had a record on the thermal products alone, and then of course, add on top of that the growing pneumatics and combined awards, really a tremendous year. And the pipeline is still strong going forward.So shifting to -- let me shift to the ClimateSense question with General Motors. Essentially, what this means is that our ClimateSense software will be embedded in nearly all vehicles of the GM future architecture in the future. And that's really the way they're designing their vehicle around allowing these kinds of features to be more prevalent. So we're really excited about it. It really unlocks the ability to orchestrate any thermal seating or steering wheel application and really fits into our scalable view of how we're implementing ClimateSense so that really ClimateSense is going to be the fundamental control of these microclimate devices. And that will help us to scale the content from, I would say, today's kind of normal CCS all the way up to that full content of ClimateSense over time with that customer. Hope that helps.
Yes. Very helpful. And then maybe just one for Matteo. The fourth quarter, it looks like you made some adjustments or you provided sort of a hypothetical adjustment for what automotive revenues would have been without UAW strike and then the non-automotive electronics phaseout. Maybe just wanted you to provide a little bit more color on how you got between sort of the plus 5% to the 10% adjusted revenue growth in automotive. And then for the outlook, it does look like you guys are including some decent outperformance versus production, which would be a return to sort of the normal state for Gentherm. Can you just talk about how that phases through the year? Just curious about -- I think you had mentioned more launches towards the latter half of the year. So any sense you could give us for relative growth rate versus production in the first half versus the second would be great.
Sure. So maybe let me start with the first one. Actually, in the press release, we outlined a little bit with a table. You really have a couple of things happening. The impact of the strike in the quarter was about almost $9.5 million, which was clearly lower than what we had anticipated in the last earnings call. And then when we are re-adding back the non-automotive electronics revenue, which was about $2.7 million, and then we had about $3.5 million of one-time customer recoveries, meaning that we're not expecting those to repeat and then the foreign currency impact. So when you break it down, that's how you get to the reported number of growth to be about 10% that we outlined in the press release and the comments.On the cadence, I think was your second question, we're expecting revenue for sure, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, to be lower in the first quarter, and then we'll continue to grow progressively throughout the year. So it's difficult to project and pinpoint what the outgrow will be in every quarter. But overall, the reason why the second half revenue will be higher than the first half is primarily driven by timing of new launches, which are coming out in the later part of the year.
Okay. That makes sense. And then just last one for me and I'll turn it over. But the 2026 guidance change that you guys made looks like a change of about $250 million at the midpoint relative to your earlier guidance that you provided. I think the Battery Performance Solutions growth was supposed to be about $150 million of that. So just wanted to understand sort of where are we taking out incremental revenue. It sounded like you guys mentioned just a little more reticence on the part of OEMs on EV production. Any other items to call out in terms of the change there for 2026?
Sure, sure. Yes. I mean, clearly, the BPS, you called out the right number at the midpoint was $150 million growth of BPS. We're actually going to see a decline of BPS. So not just a loss of the growth, but actually a decline from now until that time period. So that's going to be the biggest driver of the reduction. And then we'll be, as you pointed out -- and we expect to see a delayed ramp-up of some of the EVs that we are targeted on just based on feedback from our customers and what we're seeing in the market expectations. The second -- the next factor is related to North America vehicle production in 2026. We're actually seeing a decline in a few of our large North America OEMs outlook for 2026 based on the S&P Global outlook, which kind of makes sense to us. So that's going to be a factor as well.
Our next question comes from the line of Glenn Chin with Seaport Research Partners.
Congrats on all the wins and the win rate. Very encouraging. Just sort of following on Matt's line of questioning. There's been a lot of delays, deferrals in EV launches, production, et cetera. I assume that's already reflected in or there's nothing further to be reflected in the awards that you just booked the $900 million in this quarter. But is it possible to dimension, Phil, what sort of revisions might have to be made to prior bookings? Notwithstanding the fact that you're talking about it for 2026, but any way you could dimension for us, for example, what percent was EV related perhaps?
Well, we don't -- it's tough for us to break down the percent EV in the awards because some of the awards -- in fact, many of the awards are cross platform. Just to give you an example, the BMW X Series win that I called out is on both the ICE and the EV. So that's more of a combined number. But I would say we -- to the best of our ability, we've built that into our plan for 2024 and then 2026 as well. I mean, we clearly still believe in EVs as a driver for future growth. As that becomes more clear in those out years beyond 2026, obviously we'll start to build that into our outlook.
Okay. Very good. And then just a follow-up on the GM architecture question. Can you give us a sense of the timing there? When do these launch?
It will take a couple years before that new architecture goes in.
Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Sigdahl with Craig-Hallum Capital Group.
Just staying on GM and ClimateSense. Is that award -- or the architecture for ClimateSense, is that included in the Q4 awards? And then also, is that include -- any of that included in the 2026 targets, given it'll take a couple years?
Yes, it's included in both.
Got it. And then on content, you historically have talked about 2x to 4x higher content for ClimateSense. Is that a good rule of thumb for this award?
I think it scales, given the fact that this software will orchestrate any level of climate seating and steering wheel. It could span all the way from, let's call it, an entry vehicle that has low content all the way up to the higher content. So we'll have to see how that plays out across their portfolio over time. But we definitely are seeing a movement towards higher content as we have ClimateSense control in a car.
Got it. And then just on the BPS cell connecting product. You guys launched a very large award with BMW just a few quarters ago there. I guess is the assumption that that sunsets after this platform?
Yes, it is.
[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Brinkman with J.P. Morgan.
Just another one on the recent win with GM. I understand your share of GM seat comfort business will rise. But is there something about this award that also makes you think that maybe the penetration of seat comfort products within GM could materially increase, either because the vehicles -- it's offered in more vehicles, more trim levels or maybe because it's designed right into the electrical architecture? Or maybe because the synergies and the economies of scale that both you and GM might realize by commonizing and expanding the offering could afford a lower price point to GM or hopefully the consumer helping to drive the penetration? Just trying to understand if this is more about increasing your share versus competitors of these products or maybe about driving the penetration of the products? Which would you say is the bigger opportunity?
Yes. I think it's probably some of all of those points. I think those are very astute points. But I think the biggest thing to kind of break it down, on EVs, we definitely expect to see a higher penetration rate and content on EVs. And certainly, that could apply to any kind of electrified vehicle, by the way, whether it's a full EV or a plug-in hybrid. And mainly because, obviously you get the comfort benefit, but you also get the range extension. And that remains a clear important feature for our customers. And then if you look at the ICEs, I mean we're really excited that ClimateSense is going to orchestrate climate seating in ICEs. And the reason is a very compelling value proposition for consumer comfort because it really becomes seamless. In essence, what you're doing is you're focusing on the passenger or driver relative comfort level at that microclimate location and not necessarily the entire cabin. And so this is really starting to pay off for us. So I think that's also going to help drive content and penetration on ICEs as well.
Okay. I wanted to ask a couple of questions, too, around the pause of the BPS cell connecting, starting with I remember you highlighting some of the strengths of your product like it was lighter weight and more environmentally friendly than some of the competitor solutions, and there's thought to be this growing need for cell connecting and battery health monitoring. So maybe you could just help us understand what maybe changed there in the market. I wonder if maybe the solution was incorporated into more comprehensive battery management systems technologies that other suppliers were offering? Or what would you say changed there?
Well, no, I don't think it has anything to do with the battery management system architecture. That I think is basically the same. To be frank with you, the fundamental shift that we're seeing is related to our competition, especially chemical etch competition. That space is loaded with capacity. And I believe personally that the level of accepted pricing because of that excess capacity is putting us in a very difficult position when it comes to pricing competition. And there's no doubt, our consumers have -- or our customers have confirmed to us that our product provides extremely beneficial sustainability benefits and technical benefits, which revolves around the material selection, and as you pointed out, the light weight. But frankly, the drive towards lower cost batteries is winning today, and that chem etches is kind of taking it there. So we're in a position that if that pipeline is not going to be in front of us in the near term, it makes more sense for us to defer our resources and investments and focus into the areas that are seeing accelerated growth, which is our climate and comfort products, thermal and pneumatic.
Okay. That's helpful. Then the second question there also on the BPS is that product, the cell connecting was once thought to maybe pick up the slack left by an earlier product, which was the thermoelectric temperature regulation. Not of the big batteries, of course. You've got air cooling. But of these smaller batteries that might be applicable for 48-volt or micro-hybrid type vehicles, and that was with some European OEMs or maybe some luxury OEMs, and some of that was rolling off. And that was understood to be I think because 48-volt didn't really pan out like the industry once thought. But it just seems like in the very recent past here, just kind of in the fourth quarter, there's been some more scuttlebutt about it, including with the cyber truck having officially launched and Elon Musk saying on X that he was mailing to Jim Farley and Mary Barra a packet with all the technical details explaining why they need to double down as well, which will decrease the cost for everybody. And Jim Farley responded positively on Twitter to that saying that maybe they need to push again. And just curious if there's any potential for that market to come back to life? Or is there some other competitive dynamic going on there, too, where maybe the thermoelectric regulation isn't as attractive as was once thought? Or is it just the market's smaller? What are your thoughts for 48-volt is going and what you might potentially be able to provide there?
Yes, I'm not optimistic on the thermoelectric BPS product for 48-volt. And the primary reason is the architecture for 48-volt systems is a little different when you look at what you mentioned on EVs, especially. This is -- the 48-volt that in the past has been used has been really used as a drivetrain boost. And to do that, it required a lot of utilization of those batteries, creating a lot of heat. And that's where our cooling product really became pretty important. We do see some opportunities on 48-volt with air cooling. We are winning some business, and we called that out in the last couple of quarters with different customers. Hyundai Kia as an example, we're going to be cooling all of their 48-volt batteries using our air cooling devices. So there's some of that built into our outlook. Certainly, the 48-volt BASIS POINTS, thermoelectric BPS with Mercedes will gradually decline over time. It's not going to be a digital decline, but it will steadily decline. So if you net all that out -- and we do have some built-in wins with our MSP-based battery heating as well using the same technology as the CCB. But netting all that out, we're seeing a net decline in revenue of BPS through 2026.
Our next question comes from the line of Luke Junk with Baird.
Apologies for the background noise here. Phil, I was hoping we could start with the ClimateSense award with GM. And what I'm really hoping to tease out is just the software opportunity alone versus scaling in hardware over time. I really just want to better understand the materiality both of the software piece that you announced today and then the underlying compute to controller, understanding that you can add hardware to that overtime.
Yes. Yes, I mean I wouldn't call it a material revenue driver for us. It is very high margin. But it's more about what it enables than the specific driver of revenue growth for the software. It does open up more opportunity for us on ECUs. And we've called out I think 1 or 2 quarters ago the win on a multifunction ECU for General Motors. So that -- we think this helps us to drive content on our electronics as well. But we've specifically made our software really a software product that can be used on any hardware. Our goal is to find ways to get ClimateSense embedded to show the value that ClimateSense generates, thus driving much higher content and penetration. And we believe ClimateSense has the power to do that. So that's kind of what's behind it. I would look at this as really firming up our long-standing strategy of driving software-enabled hardware through our portfolio.
Okay. That's really helpful. And then I appreciate you might not be able to give us too much here because it's pretty recent, but just curious, any feedback following CES on WellSense specifically? Just in terms of customer engagement, maybe any kind of preliminary engineering engagements or just other indicators and interest in that platform?
I would say tremendous interest by our customers. It matches exactly what many of our customers have as their vision for differentiating their offerings. And I really want to highlight the impact this product could have on the software-defined vehicle architectures. We believe this provides a feature that consumers will continually pay for after the purchase of the vehicle. And I think if you look at a lot of the announced software-defined vehicle features that folks have talked about to help them drive revenue, you won't find any that are more compelling than the one we're offering. So I think it really is gaining a lot of traction. Obviously, it'll take us some time to gather some awards and build that in, but I'm really encouraged by the response.
And then my last question probably for Matteo. Just hoping you could bridge the midpoint of the EBITDA range of 13% versus where 2023 shook out. I'm really hoping to unpack just the big buckets in terms of what you expect incrementally from Fit-for-Growth. You mentioned some supplier cost reductions in the back half of the year. And then just underlying leverage and productivity, how should we bucket those at a high level.
Sure, look. So volume is driving about 160 basis points of margin expansion. The Fit-for-Growth actions, primarily supplier cost reductions, value engineering, so taking costs that were out of our bill of material is driving about 130 basis points of margin expansion. Productivity at the factory growth is about 90 bps. So these are the positives. And then on the negative side, we have -- we're not expecting to have the same amount of price recoveries from the customers in 2024 as we did in 2023. Actually, the environment on that front is getting more and more challenging. So we are expecting a drag of about 160 basis points on price. And then wage inflation, we continue to see elevated labor inflation, particularly in Mexico and Eastern Europe. So it's about almost 100 basis points. And then the investment in the new plants that I mentioned earlier and the R&D to fulfill the awards that we won, it's another 50 basis points drag. So that's, at a high level, the walk for the year. Sure.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our Q&A session and this concludes our call today. We thank you for your interest and participation. You may now disconnect your lines.