The state of the EV market today

Kyle says that on the product side, electric vehicles are finally great. For a long time, EVs, maybe aside from Tesla, were kind of “eat-your-vegetable” products. They were very good at virtue signaling, butut they weren’t necessarily good at curb appeal. Today, Kyle explains that they’re better than gas-powered cars in every way whether you’re into driving performance, off-roading, or everyday use. They’re quieter, and they’re finally big. A bunch of pickup trucks and big three-row SUVs are on the market, and this all happened very recently. There are about 30 full EV models for sale in the US right now. About half of those hit the market in the past 12 months. Maybe not surprisingly, demand is really high and higher than a lot of car executives expected. Kyle suggests that when these cars showed up in forms and shapes and sizes and capabilities that people really cared for in this country, the American public was there for it. 

The market share in the US is somewhere around 6% right now; globally, it’s about 10 to 15%. Kyle points out that if you look at surveys in the US still with that low adoption, roughly a third to half of US drivers say they want one of these cars. So that’s seven to nine million people a year. The demand is high and it’s outpacing expectations. The interesting thing is, it’s looking like supply is going to be the problem. In the first half of the year, US automakers only made 4% of their products where EVs are, in factories based out of North America. As a lot of these companies or startups are spooling up their factories for the first time, they’re hitting a couple of issues. There’s the chip problem, which continues. With the larger incumbent players, they’re still building the supply chain for these cars, and the unit economics, in ways, is not fully fleshed out yet. So it’s possible that demand is going to be ahead of supply for EVs in this country for years now, but demand does not appear to be a problem or an issue. People are here for it. 

Cathy adds that when she started at EVgo in 2017, there were essentially two non-Tesla EVs to choose from versus the many available today. What’s even more exciting is in the next 18 months, there are supposed to be 130 models available in the US. She says if you want to drive a little car, a pickup truck, and everything in between, you’ve got an electric choice. There’s a huge amount of anticipation and EVs are selling out the minute they hit show rooms and websites.

What is EVgo & the problem they’re aiming to solve

EVgo has been around for a little more than a decade as the most expansive public, fast-charging network in the country. They are in 60 metropolitan markets via 30 states, and have close to 3,000 charging stalls available for fast charging. Cathy says it’s really important for people to consider what the charging infrastructure ecosystem looks like. You can actually plug your EV into the same outlet you plug your electric toothbrush into, but it takes a long time to charge the battery. This is called trickle charging because the electrons are trickling into your battery, but you can do it. You can also have a 240-volt outlet installed in your garage by your electrician, and then you’ll be able to do overnight charges at home if you’ve got a garage. Now 30% of Americans don’t have access to home charging – they either don’t have a garage, live in an apartment, etc. So that’s where companies like EVgo come in. They build fast chargers, where people are going to be anyway – at grocery store parking lots, next to the gym, retail shopping centers, near the softball park where your kids play sports, where people are going to go for 15 minutes to an hour and you can actually go and get a fast charge. 

Now, what’s the definition of a fast charge? Cathy mentions that when she joined EVgo in 2017, it was 50 kilowatts. Now, what they’re deploying as a fast charging company is a typical installation of six 350-kilowatt charging stalls. While there’s no EV on the market yet that can take 350-kilowatts, EVgo is staying ahead of the puck because they know that batteries are getting more and more powerful, which means that the charging is going to be able to happen more and more quickly.

Resources Mentioned

• Bloomberg Green
• EVgo
• S&P Global Mobility
• National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program
• Tesla
• Ford Electric
• GMC Hummer Electric
• Hyundai Electric
• Kia EV6
• Toyota Electric
• Chevy Electric
• Subaru Electric
• Volkswagen Electric
• Uber Electric
• Lyft Electric

Connect with Kyle Stock & Cathy Zoi

• Connect with Kyle on LinkedIn
• Connect with Cathy on LinkedIn

Connect with Jason Rissman

• InvestedInClimate.com 
• On LinkedIn
• On Twitter

Subscribe to Invested In Climate