ChargePoint Holdings, Inc. (CHPT.N) has been awarded USD 4.25 million by the California Energy Commission’s REACH program with 75% of the charging points reserved for low-income communities, aiming to build hundreds of EV chargers at apartment buildings. [1]
EVgo, Inc. (EVGO.OQ) announced the EVgo eXtend project that will deploy high-power fast chargers in the US. It will partner with Pilot and Flying J and GM to add more than 2000 DC fast charging stalls, particularly along American highways in more than 40 states.[2] At the same time, EVgo has partnered with the City of Philadelphia to support electrification of the municipal fleet of 6,400 vehicles. The fleet will have access to charging on EVgo's network through a discounted charging plan. [3]
Blink Charging, Co. (BLNK.OQ) has been awarded a purchasing agreement with the government of Illinois to provide ca. 700 charging stations.[4] It also was selected as a purchasing program vendor by Florida Sheriffs Association. [5]
Beam Global, Inc. (BEEM.OQ) has started a cooperation with Volvo Electric Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) to offer off-grid EV charging systems. Volvo CE will offer these systems in bundles together with their electric construction equipment offering. Through solar panels, the Beam EV ARC charger is fully autonomous and can be easily transported, set up, and deployed. [6]
Wallbox N.V. (WBX.N) has recently partnered with Svea Solar in Europe to integrate home solar panel installation and EV charging. [7]
Tritium DCFC, Ltd. (DCFC.OQ) is partnering with EVCS, one of the largest fast-charging network operators on the US West Coast, to deploy 300 new chargers. [8]
Based on the second-quarter 2022 report, Tesla, Inc. has now almost 4,000 Superchargers stations.[9] Rumour has it that the V4 Superchargers will be launched,[10] and the charging speed will be upgraded to 300kW. [11]
A robotic charging concierge, Ziggy, can offer charging service next to any spot in the parking lot. EV Safe Charge, Inc., the start-up that has previewed the product, has announced that the production of the robot is planned to start in 2023. [12]
Please remember that past performance is not indicative of future performance.
Macro Outlook
The market of EV continues to expand rapidly in 2022. Until the end of June 2022, the global light vehicle unit sales has declined by -12%, according to IHS Markit.[13] However, this negative number is mainly due to the declined sales of conventional internal combustion engine cars (-18.4%). The sales of hybryd cars has a slight growth of 3.2%, plug-in hybrid sales has increased 26.1%, and battery EV sales has surged 71.6%, regardless of the current semiconductor shortage situation.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, released on July 27th in the US senate, plans to invest USD 379 billion into energy and climate change programs. If the bill passes congress, it will have several effects. On the one hand, there are indirect effects as buying electric vehicles will become heavily subsidized. This will further increase the demand and adoption of electric vehicles and boost investments into charging networks. On the other hand, by introducing tax credits the bill will also create direct incentives to invest in the corresponding charging infrastructure. Overall the Inflation Reduction Act is a really positive signal from the US government to actively drive the development of the EV industry and will significantly help to push the growth of the EV charging infrastructure. [14]
Based on a study from Porch Research, roughly only 0.5% of all real estate listings inside America’s biggest 500 cities featured an EV home charger. California is the state with highest EV charger installation rate, thanks to local tax incentives and rebates for EV buyers, and government-backed development of charging infrastructure.[15] Several other states are finalizing their EV infrastructure plans for receiving funds from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program. [16]
Los Angeles considers a ban on new gas stations constructions, following four other towns in California that have implemented the restriction.[17] In this way they can fade out fossil fuel stations and create incentives for building more electric charging stations.
The largest fast-charging station in Europe, Energy Superhub Oxford, was launched in Oxford.[18] Fastned BV (FASTN.AS) has joined the project together with Tesla, Pivot Power, and Wenea, to provide a total of 400 EVs simultaneous access to charging. The charging hub is entirely powered by renewable energy, and it has the world’s largest hybrid energy battery storage system to ensure power availability throughout the day. This program is one of the three demonstrator projects part-funded by the UK government via “Prospering from the Energy Revolution”.[19] The UK government creates a total investment of over 200 million GBP and will demonstrate how local power, transport, and heat networks can be consolidated into one local system.
Queensland, Australia has started to build more EV charging stations along the Flinders Highway heading west.[20] It is exciting to see that Australia is trying to provide an EV friendly environment, even in a vast state like Queensland. EV sales in Australia has nearly tripled in 2021,[21] and if Australia keeps investing in similar EV infrastructure projects, it will catch up with other leading countries in EV transition very fast and create more investment opportunities.
We have observed that there is an increasing number of new projects from governments aiming to build stronger local charging infrastructures. What is more, there are more collaborations and partnerships within the EV ecosystem. EV charging station manufacturers have collaborations with not only EV manufacturers, but also EV charging network operators and renewable energy companies. We are glad to see that the EV ecosystem is integrating, and it would be beneficial for the end users and bring us closer to achieve the zero-emission goal.
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