Wallbox (WBX) Q3 2026 earnings review
Wallbox cuts operating costs, but cash drops and sales miss
Wallbox, the Spanish maker of electric-vehicle chargers, cut its operating costs again while its sales stayed stuck and cash dwindled. Third-quarter revenue dropped 32% from a year ago to €24 million, missing the company's plan by 19% at the middle of the range by our math. Chief executive Enric Asunción blamed supplier bottlenecks that left €17 million of customer orders sitting in backlog.
| Revenue | €24.2M -31.8% from a year ago |
|---|---|
| Gross margin | 36.5% missed 38–40% outlook |
| Cash and financial investments | €10.4M down from €25.1M last quarter |
| Q4 revenue outlook | €29–31M middle of the range: +24% from Q3 |
⚖️ Verdict: 🔴 Bearish
The story got worse because May's court-approved debt restructuring did not fix the company's cash drain or its shipping problems. Cash and financial investments dropped by more than half in three months to €10 million, forcing Wallbox to borrow €4 million from existing shareholders after the quarter ended. One bright spot: a 34% cut in staff and overhead costs kept operating losses inside the plan.
The question now is whether the new working-capital loans can unlock the supply chain before cash runs low again. Either the €4 million loan pays suppliers and turns the backlog into fourth-quarter revenue, or component holds persist and force another cash raise. Fourth-quarter deliveries and the year-end cash balance will tell.
🐂 Bull Case
Cost Cuts Narrowed the Operating Loss
Wallbox has spent the past year cutting staff and overhead to shrink its losses while sales remain weak. Adjusted EBITDA, which measures operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and one-off items, stayed inside the company's target range this quarter even though revenue fell short.
- Employee benefits (staff pay): €8.2 million, down 0.4 percentage points of revenue from a year ago by our math
- Other operating expenses (overhead): €6.8 million, down 2.1 percentage points of revenue
- Amortization and depreciation: €5.0 million, down 6.2 percentage points of revenue
- Adjusted EBITDA loss: €5.3 million, narrowing 24% from a year ago and 32% from last quarter
Combined labor and overhead expenses dropped 34% from a year ago to €15.0 million, which lifted operating margin by 3.0 percentage points despite a lower gross margin. What to watch: fourth-quarter employee benefits and overhead expenses. Another sequential drop would show the Spanish group still has room to lower its break-even point if shipments stay slow.
Order Backlog Reached €16.9 Million
Order backlog is the value of customer orders Wallbox has received but not yet shipped. Chief executive Enric Asunción said order intake stayed solid during the third quarter and pushed the backlog up to €16.9 million at the end of September. That unfilled demand equals 70% of the revenue the electric-vehicle charger maker recorded in the entire third quarter.
Because those orders are already on the books, management expects fourth-quarter sales to rise 24% from the third quarter, to €30 million at the middle of the range. What to watch: the backlog balance at the end of December alongside fourth-quarter deliveries. A shrinking backlog paired with €30 million of sales would show the company is finally clearing its shipping bottleneck.
🐻 Bear Case
Cash Dropped by More Than Half
Wallbox completed a court-approved debt restructuring in May that raised fresh money and pushed most loan maturities out to 2030. That overhaul lifted cash and financial investments to €25.1 million at the end of June and was meant to stabilize the balance sheet.
One quarter later, most of that cushion is gone. Cash and financial investments fell by €14.7 million in the third quarter to €10.4 million. After the quarter closed, the charger maker had to borrow €4 million from existing shareholders through a convertible loan, which is debt that can turn into shares. Asunción said the company is focused on "securing sufficient working capital to support this growth with the €4 million of existing shareholders as the first example".
Burning €14.7 million in three months when the Adjusted EBITDA loss was €5.3 million shows that interest payments and supplier bills are draining cash fast. What to watch: year-end cash and any additional shareholder loans in the fourth-quarter report. Another double-digit cash drain would outstrip the €10.4 million on hand plus the €4 million loan.
Supplier Bottlenecks Caused Another Revenue Miss
At the start of the year, management blamed weak sales on customer hesitation around its debt refinancing and said completing the deal would unlock growth. The Spanish court approved the restructuring in May, yet third-quarter revenue still fell 31.8% from a year ago to €24.2 million and missed the €29 million to €31 million plan.
Now the problem is getting parts to build the chargers. Asunción said "supply chain constraints continue to limit our ability to convert orders into deliveries on schedule" and added that the team will "expect to resolve these constraints during the next quarters". Wallbox has missed its quarterly revenue outlook four times in a row, by an average of 18.5% at the middle of the range by our math.
Because the company is raising working capital just to fund deliveries, supplier payment terms appear to be holding back production. What to watch: fourth-quarter revenue against the repeated €29 million to €31 million target. A fifth straight miss would show that the €4 million shareholder loan was not enough to unlock the supply chain.
Product Mix Pushed Gross Margin Down
For four straight quarters, Wallbox targeted a gross margin between 38% and 40%. In the third quarter, gross margin fell to 36.5%, down 1.5 percentage points from the second quarter and 3.4 percentage points from a year ago, as raw materials and inventory costs rose to 63.5% of revenue.
The company said only that the margin was "impacted by product mix", without giving its usual breakdown of alternating-current (AC) home chargers, direct-current (DC) fast chargers, and software. In earlier quarters, lower sales of high-margin DC chargers hurt the mix. Management also cut its fourth-quarter gross margin outlook to between 36% and 38%, which tells investors the weaker mix will persist through year-end.
What to watch: whether fourth-quarter gross margin holds the 36% floor and whether the company restores product-line disclosures. A drop below 36% would force deeper staff cuts to hit the profit target.
👓 Other Themes
Next-Generation Pulsar Max Rollout in Europe
Wallbox rolled out a new version of its Pulsar Max home charger across European markets during the third quarter. The updated unit includes "ISO 15118-ready hardware, built-in RFID, and Ethernet connectivity for enhanced charging performance", which lets electric cars communicate directly with the charger and verify users by card. The release did not state how many units shipped or how the launch affected revenue.
💲 Other KPIs
Total debt rose 4.2% from €179.1 million a year ago, but fell 2.4% from €191.3 million in the second quarter. Following the court-approved debt restructuring in May, short-term debt due within one year dropped to €37.5 million, or 20.1% of the total, down from €111.8 million a year ago.
Interest and financing costs jumped 49.9% from €4.8 million a year ago, though they eased from €9.5 million in the second quarter. At 30.0% of quarterly revenue by our math, debt servicing remains a heavy drag on net income even after the May refinancing extended maturity dates.
Spending on factory equipment and software rose from €0.30 million a year ago and €0.01 million in the second quarter, reaching 1.9% of revenue by our math. Through the first nine months of 2026, capital spending totaled €0.80 million against the company's full-year plan of €1.0 million.
🔮 Guidance
New. The plan calls for €30 million at the middle of the range, which is 24.0% above the third quarter but still down 11.0% from a year ago by our math. Management set the exact same €29 million to €31 million target for the third quarter and missed it by 19.3% because of supply chain bottlenecks.
New. The middle of the range is 37.0%, up half a percentage point from the third quarter's 36.5% result. However, the new target steps down by 2 percentage points from the 38.0% to 40.0% range the charger maker set for each of the previous four quarters.
New. At the middle of the range, the planned €4.5 million loss improves 14.4% from the third quarter's €5.3 million loss and 38.0% from the €7.3 million loss a year ago by our math. Hitting the target depends on converting the order backlog into shipments while keeping staff and overhead costs down.
❓ Key Questions
What were sales by product line and geography?
In previous quarters, Wallbox reported revenue for AC chargers, DC fast chargers, and software, along with regional sales for Europe and North America. None of those figures appeared in the third-quarter release, leaving investors unable to see which products drove the 32% revenue drop.
Where did the €14.7 million of cash go?
Cash and financial investments fell from €25.1 million in June to €10.4 million in September, far exceeding the €5.3 million Adjusted EBITDA loss. Because the release omits a cash flow statement, management needs to detail how much cash went to suppliers, inventory, and interest.
How much more working capital does Wallbox need?
Chief executive Enric Asunción called the €4 million shareholder loan "the first example" of its working-capital financing efforts. Investors need to know the total funding required to clear the €16.9 million order backlog and what terms new lenders are demanding.
Which components or supplier terms are blocking deliveries?
Management said it expects to resolve supply chain constraints "during the next quarters", yet its fourth-quarter outlook requires a 24% jump in revenue immediately. Specifying whether the bottleneck is part shortages or supplier credit holds would show if the fourth-quarter plan is realistic.