EV parking only... They're a familiar sight in parking lots, especially if you live in CA. ChargePoint is one of the world's oldest and largest electric vehicle charging networks. It operates 115K orange charging ports, mostly in North America. Its customers include Best Western, LinkedIn, UCSD, and the city of Long Beach (of course). Good news for clean energy fans...
- Chargepoint is going public at a $2.4B valuation. It's getting acquired by a SPAC, a company that goes public for the sole purpose of acquiring a private company.
- Congrats, Switchback Energy: Your SPAC-y purpose in life has (almost) been achieved. The deal is expected to close at the end of the year.
America runs on Dunkin'... but EVs run on charging stations. One of the main barriers to EV adoption (besides price), is fear that your car will run out of battery with nowhere to charge it: aka Range Anxiety. Gas stations are always 0.3 miles away, but charging stations aren't always so close.
- ChargePoint can use the money it raises from going public to further scale. It's aiming to hit 2.5M ports by 2025 — aka: 2.49M more than it currently has.
- More ChargePoints = more EV adoption = more sales for EV carmakers. That's why electric hopefuls like BMW and Mercedes-owner Daimler are also investors.
The 1st-mover advantage is clutch... especially when it comes to EV infrastructure. Yesterday, California announced that it'll ban the sale of new gas-powered cars and trucks starting in 2035. The world is moving toward EVs, and the ones who scale charging networks first will have the biggest advantage. Charging infrastructure investment will hit $190B by 2030, according to ChargePoint's CEO.