“Find a need and fill it,” is perhaps the bedrock principle of capitalism. How to fill it, though, is often a matter of some debate. In 2012, there were about 11 EV chargers in America. Elon Musk and his band of merry pranksters looked out from the confines of Silicon Valley and decided the best way to support their dream of an electric car in every driveway was to build their own charging network. Voila! There are now 1,342 Supercharger locations worldwide with a total of 11,013 charging stations in all.
Image courtesy: ChargePoint
“That’s nice,” said the leaders of all those other car companies. “But why should we invest our money into something that is probably just a passing fancy? Let the taxpayers do it!” That dismissive attitude created a need. Companies like ChargePoint, EVGo, and others rushed in fill it.
ChargePoint has now become the largest EV charging company in North America. Last year, it began expanding into Europe. At the moment, its network is comprised of 53,000 charging stations. Pretty good, you might say. But CEO Pasquale Romano foresees an explosion in the number of electric cars in the years to come and believes 53,000 chargers won’t be nearly enough to fill the needs of tomorrow’s motorists.
In his mind, 2.5 million seems like a better number. At the global climate conference in San Francisco last week, ChargePoint announced it intends to add 50 times more chargers to its network within the next 7 years — a truly monumental task.
“Our commitment to deploy 2.5 million charging spots by 2025 comes as the company embarks on the most significant period of growth in our history and in the midst of a revolution in transportation,” says Romano. “The time for transformative change is now and broadly distributed, substantial, and immediate investments in charging infrastructure are necessary to usher in the future of e-mobility.
“One hundred percent of what we do is focused on developing technology that enables cleaner transportation, and ChargePoint is proud to play a critical role in facilitating the transition to electric mobility, and supporting the Summit’s mission to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.”
“ChargePoint’s commitment underscores the company’s mission to enable an electric mobility future, which will include passenger cars, buses, trucks, fleets, and beyond,” the company says on its website. “The transition to e-mobility on a global scale will result in an immense reduction in harmful greenhouse gas emissions that are crippling communities and threatening the health of millions around the world.” It claims the expansion of its network will help remove over 2 billion tons of carbon emissions from the atmosphere each year.
Most of the new EV chargers will be installed in Europe and North America, with a lesser number in Australia and New Zealand, according to TechCrunch. With more than 20 million electric vehicles expected to be on the road by 2025, the need is definitely there. ChargePoint intends to be firstest with the mostest when it comes to filling that need.
Featured image credit: Kyle Field | CleanTechnica
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