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Per Morgan Stanley estimates, global electric-vehicle (EV) sales will grow 50% or more next year, while sales of internal combustion engine vehicles are expected to grow only 2% to 5%. Analysts also predicted that global EV penetration would top 4%, rising to 31% by 2030.
Along with potentially increasing tax credits, and other incentives for EV production, President-elect Joe Biden has a plan to install 500,000 electric vehicle charging cords by 2030. That would represent a five-fold increase in the nation’s EV infrastructure that could cost more than $5 billion. Per Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the infrastructure milestone would cover 57% of the charging that US vehicles will need by 2030 and could spark the sale of some 25 million electric cars and trucks.
Charging stations have long been the key to the proliferation of electric vehicles. A developed charging network assuages fears that you might run out of juice on a long-haul trip, or if you simply forget to fuel up at home one day. That’s not so much of a problem anymore with tens of thousands of stations across the US, but many regions are still in dire need of more robust infrastructure to support a growing electric fleet.
As of now, Bloomberg writes, there are about 90,000 public charging plugs at 28,000 US stations. However, one in five of those is exclusive to Tesla; of the remainder, only one in 10 tops a car up quickly enough to be useful on a road trip.
While numerous third-party charging companies are in operation today, including ChargePoint, Blink Charging, EVConnect, EVGo, Electrify America and Greenlots, some manufacturers are still focused on creating an in-house network, exclusive to their own vehicles, similar to Tesla’s superchargers.
Speaking of Tesla, whose market cap is now the largest in the world among automakers (more sizable than the next 9 largest automakers combined, in fact), sales personnel now have the green light to throw in free Supercharging for a year with the purchase of a new Model 3 or Model Y vehicle.
Blink Charging’s EV charging network now spans 23,000 stations worldwide. The company’s latest expansions include a deal to deploy 26 EV chargers at Burger King locations, as well as a five-year agreement with Illinois’ Blessing Health System to deploy 20 of its IQ 200 chargers at four health care facilities.
Rivian, an EV manufacturer focused on “adventure vehicles”, now plans on building out a charging network focused on outdoorsy, adventure locations. Per TechCrunch, these include remote areas across the US, usually devoid of charging stations, from mountain bike and hiking trails to kayaking spots and near popular climbing crags. Rivian, which is already backed by Amazon and raised $2.5 billion in its most recent round of funding, bringing its total raise to $6 billion.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ (FCA) Jeep is undertaking a similar project, installing a number of off-road, solar powered charging stations along trails in California and Utah for its Wrangler 4xe plug-in hybrid. The difference, however, is that these are slower Level 2 AC units. Rivian is focused on a quick charging experience in the wild outdoors.
Investor’s Business Daily notes that the deals come as rival ChargePoint, which has the largest charging network in the world (30,000 public stations), is poised to list on the NYSE by month end after closing a $2.4 billion merger with blank-check company Switchback Energy Acquisition Corp. Switchback is apart of the wave of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) that are sweeping up private companies in the renewable energy industry and taking them public without a traditional IPO. Back in 2018 ChargePoint pledged they’d be operating 2.5 million charging points by 2025. According to Nasdaq, company revenue is forecast to grow to $2 billion by 2026, up from $145 million in 2019.
EV charging leader EVBox, a unit of French utility Engie SA, is another charging company planning to go public via SPAC, after being acquired by TPG Pace Beneficial Finance. EVBox has the largest installed base of EV charging stations in Europe, but manages only a small presence in the US. The deal will create a combined entity, EVBox Group, with a valuation of about $1.4 billion.
Newborn Acquisition Corp, a Shanghai-based SPAC, has snagged its own unique reverse merger with San Diego-based electric charging company called Nuvve Corp, a leader in vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology. As Virta writes, V2G enables energy to be pushed back to the power grid from the battery of an electric car. With vehicle-to-grid technology, a car battery can be charged and discharged based on different signals ― such as energy production or consumption nearby, making the whole energy grid more efficient. V2G communication protocol also helps ensure EV battery protection.
In China, Nio, Inc is another major brand preparing to build out its own chargers. The company recently signed a cooperative framework agreement with State Grid Electric Vehicle Service Co, a wholly owned subsidiary of China’s state-owned electric utility State Grid, to jointly construct 100 battery charging and swapping stations nationwide in 2021.
Auto sales in China rose for the fifth straight month in November as new energy vehicles (NEVs), including electric autos, more than doubled to 169,000 units. Next year, passenger-vehicle sales excluding minivans will rise by 7%, led by NEV sales increasing about 35% to 1.7 million units, China’s Passenger Car Association (PCA) has forecast.
China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) is even more optimistic, projecting China’s EV sales to reach as high as 1.8 million units in 2021, up 40% on an annual basis. By 2025, S&P Global Platts calculates yearly sales could break out to 6 million, based on the new energy vehicle industry development plan for 2021-35 that expects sales of new energy vehicles to comprise 20% of total new car sales by 2025.
The country has even managed to penetrate the European market. This week, Guangzhou-based Xpeng Inc launched in Norway, exporting the first 100 of its G3 sport utility vehicles to the country for sale. Though the Nordic country’s auto market is a relatively small one, it is leading the way for EV deployment. Almost 80% of vehicles registered in the third quarter were plug-in cars.
European sales of EVs are also surging. As of November, all-electric vehicles have reached near 10% market share of the auto industry in Germany. Renault is currently leading the European EV market with 95,985 units sold year-to-date through last month. Compared to last year, this figure represents an 80% increase in registrations.
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