Cruise CFO Works to Finalize Cost Structure for Robotaxi Venture

“When we think about commercialization, we’re really excited about where we’re at,” Mr. Nash said, pointing to the company’s plans to roll out its autonomous-vehicle service across California before looking at markets in other U.S. states.

This month, Cruise unlocked $1.35 billion in funding from SoftBank Corp.’s Vision Fund, which became a minority investor in 2018. Those funds, together with the $3.1 billion in cash and marketable securities on its balance sheet, will go toward building out its fleet of driverless taxis, its network and charging infrastructure, Mr. Nash said.

The company also has a $5 billion credit line from General Motors Co. , which owns a roughly 70% stake.

“We’ll be looking at tens of thousands of vehicles that will be used to roll out the fleet and launch the overall service,” Mr. Nash said. In 2021, Cruise booked a net loss of $1.61 billion, widening from a $675 million loss in 2020.

Cruise, which currently operates retrofitted driverless cars and offers free rides in San Francisco between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., will from next year use purpose-built, self-driving vehicles manufactured by GM. Called Origin, the shuttles have been designed to have a million-mile lifespan, which will help the company amortize the cost over a longer period and reduce annual expenditure, according to Mr. Nash.

A GM spokesman said Cruise will get “a fair deal on those purchases” but declined to provide specifics.

Competitors Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. usually charge about $5 a mile in San Francisco and take roughly 20% of that as a fee, leaving the rest for the driver. Cutting out the driver, Cruise wants to keep its costs to $1 to $1.50 a mile, leaving more profit for the company, Mr. Nash said.

“That margin between the $5 and the $1.50 gives us a lot more flexibility about pricing and allows us to still get a healthy margin,” Mr. Nash said.

Unlike Uber and Lyft, which leave the fueling and charging to their self-employed drivers, Cruise will need charging infrastructure as well as parking for its vehicles. The company is partnering with others and also building its own infrastructure, Mr. Nash said.

Cruise has a different cost structure than its rivals, but management is studying their business models, Mr. Nash said. “When you think about fixed versus marginal cost, we will have a much higher fixed cost base than they do,” he said. He declined to comment on whether Cruise would copy other elements, such as surcharges or higher fares at times of higher demand, from its rivals.

The business doesn’t have immediate financing needs, Mr. Nash said, responding to questions on whether Cruise would seek an initial public offering any time soon. Dan Ammann, who previously led Cruise as chief executive, left the company abruptly in December, which some analysts attributed to disagreements with GM on strategy. Over time, GM will likely expect Cruise to share technology with its parent company, Credit Suisse Group AG noted in a recent report.

Cruise, which has about 2,000 employees—less than 50 of them in finance, accounting and purchasing—is working closely with GM in areas such as accounting, tax and treasury, Mr. Nash said. He previously served as vice president finance and head of finance and accounting at Cruise before taking on the CFO role in May 2020.

Asked whether the company would lose software engineers and technical talent to other, publicly traded ventures, Mr. Nash said Cruise continues to evaluate its compensation programs. “We know it’s a competitive market out there,” he said.

Cruise, which has a partnership with Walmart Inc. in Phoenix to deliver online orders, has ambitious goals: Last year, GM said it wants Cruise to generate $50 billion in annual revenue by 2030.

Analysts said Cruise has to demonstrate its ability to deploy its technology on a commercial basis.

“What investors are watching is the ability to scale this up and eventually start monitoring the financials,” said Emmanuel Rosner, an analyst at Deutsche Bank.

Write to Nina Trentmann at [email protected]