Aug 13, 2026 earnings call — DOE-backed lithium plant and record quarter
EnerSys secured a DOE grant of approximately $150 million toward a $650 million Greenville lithium plant, and reported record Q1 results with $936 million in net sales.
Revenue $0.9B (est $0.9B) · EPS $3.66 (est $2.83) · Next-quarter revenue outlook $1.0B
Key quotes
"The revised DOE grant provides approximately $150 million towards the facility's estimated $650 million cost."
"Our Q1 '27 gross margin of 33.5% was up 510 basis points."
"We progressed the commercialization of our DataSafe Noir lithium offering, which has been met with strong customer enthusiasm since the official launch in June"
Analyst Q&A 4
Data center orders and lithium orders
Q (Noah Kaye · Oppenheimer): Analyst asked for context on the large 80% order growth and whether the new lithium-ion products already have orders or visibility to become revenue next year.
A: Management said many data-center lead orders extend well into the future and have staying power. They said they already have early lithium activity, with the first 100 systems on the water and about 100 orders in place, but Noir lithium revenue is not expected until fiscal '28.
"A lot of these orders extend out 12 to 36 months." — Andrea Funk (CFO)
Margin expansion and service business details
Q (Trevor Sahr · William Blair): Analyst asked why EPS is growing faster than revenue and for more detail on the service business size, growth and margin improvement.
A: Management said early in the fiscal year earnings growth will come mainly from margin expansion driven by recoveries, cost actions and facility closures. They said Network Information Systems services are improving, with NIS revenue up around 20% year-on-year and services margin up about 100 bps, helped by tighter management and project discipline.
"As we talked about both on our last call as well as on Investor Day, we see that early in this fiscal year, a lot of our earnings growth is going to be driven more by margin expansion." — Andrea Funk (CFO)
Motive-power cycle and data center UL/margins
Q (Jeffrey Osborne · TD Cowen): Analyst asked how management sees the motive-power cycle and whether lithium conversion is accelerating, and also asked about UL timing and margin expectations for the data center products.
A: Management said they track leading indicators like truck orders and customer conversations and those signals give them a high degree of confidence the motive-power market is recovering. They said conversion rates to lithium are steady. On data centers, they said UL and validations are on track and they expect margins in line with TPPL and higher-margin offerings than lead.
"I would tell you that we are right on track with our plans for UL and our validations." — Shawn O'Connell (CEO)
Defense (A&D) opportunity and data centers
Q (Gregory Lewis · BTIG): Analyst asked how to think about the A&D (defense) opportunity, including international/NATO demand, and whether data center architecture shifts (like 800 volt) change revenue per site.
A: Management said EnerSys has a strong position with defense customers and trusted relationships with governments, and they are seeing international demand from allied countries. On data centers, they said higher-voltage and centralized systems can mean selling more cells, and the Greenville cell plant could enable future opportunities in rack/BBU applications.
"But our position with the defense apparatus is strong." — Shawn O'Connell (CEO)