QS Narrows 2025 Loss Outlook: What's Driving the Improvement?

Solid-state EV battery developer QuantumScape Corp. QS narrowed its full-year 2025 adjusted EBITDA loss forecast in its last quarterly update. The loss guidance was revised to $245-$260 million from the previous range of $250-$270 million. The shift reflects tighter cost control and smoother execution. QuantumScape’s capital-light licensing model is also aiding the company to move toward commercialization without the heavy burden of multibillion-dollar manufacturing investments.

QuantumScape generated more than $12 million in customer billings, marking its first real step into monetization after years of R&D-heavy operations.

Costs are moving in the right direction. Operating expenses in Q3’25 fell to $115 million from $130 million a year ago, while capital expenditures remained low at $9.6 million. Management further tightened its full-year capex outlook to $30 million-$40 million from the previous forecast of $45-$65 million, helped by efficiency improvements and the timing of certain equipment orders.

Much of this progress ties back to the company’s new high-throughput Cobra separator process, which has now been baselined and is supporting shipments of Cobra-based QSE-5 cells. Hitting this operational milestone was one of the company’s key goals for the year.

Liquidity isn’t a pressing concern either. With $1 billion in cash on hand, QuantumScape now believes its runway extends through 2029 — a year longer than previously projected. That extended visibility, combined with its expanded partnership with Volkswagen’s PowerCo subsidiary, offers a more capital-efficient path as it works toward scaling its production.

For investors, the narrowed loss guidance shows that the company is becoming more disciplined and getting closer to proving that its capital-light model can actually scale. QuantumScape still has a long commercialization journey ahead, but the progress is encouraging.

Competitive Context

While QuantumScape is showing tighter execution, peers like Solid Power SLDP and SES AI SES are also making progress on cost control and early commercialization.

Solid Power’s third-quarter operating expenses reduced to $29 million from $33.4 million in the prior quarter, which helped narrow its operating loss to $24.4 million. Its nine-month loss also improved modestly compared to last year. Solid Power lowered its 2025 cash investment plan to $85-$95 million, reflecting a sharper focus on advancing its solid-state platform while keeping expenses in check.

SES AI raised its full-year 2025 revenue outlook to $20-25 million following the completion of its UZ Energy acquisition, which contributed to third-quarter revenues. The company’s cost structure is improving as well. Third-quarter operating expenses fell to $22.3 million from $34.2 million a year earlier, helping narrow its operating loss to $18.6 million. Over the first nine months of the year, losses also shrank meaningfully. SES AI closed the quarter with $214 million in liquidity.

The Zacks Rundown on QuantumScape

Shares of QS have jumped around 145% year to date against the industry’s decline of 2%.

QuantumScape currently has an average brokerage recommendation (ABR) of 3.64 on a scale of 1 to 5 (Strong Buy to Strong Sell), calculated based on the actual recommendations (Buy, Hold, Sell, etc.) made by 11 brokerage firms.

See how the Zacks Consensus Estimate for QS’ earnings has been revised over the past 90 days.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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