Electric automobiles long ago shed their image as flimsy, slow, and possibly slightly humiliating. Priorities of the public have shifted. Many people, particularly members of the younger generation, consider environmental stewardship as more important than speeding down the interstate in a beautiful muscle vehicle. Even if that’s not always true, newer electric vehicles have a turn of speed that would leave many muscle cars flailing in their exhaust fumes.
The world’s highways are projected to have more than a billion automobiles. According to the International Energy Agency, around 2 to 3 million of them are pure battery-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. By 2040, the International Energy Agency projects that there will be 300-400 million EVs on the road, out of approximately 2 billion vehicles. According to Nanalyze, the United States alone requires approximately 2 million EV charging stations to accommodate the 40 or more electric car types that are projected to be on the road in large numbers. The following is a list of the top ten electric vehicle charging firms.
1.ChargePoint
ChargePoint – formerly Coulomb Technologies – claims to operate the world’s largest network of public charging stations for electric vehicles. In 2017, it acquired 10,000 charging stations from General Electric, bringing its total to 35,000. According to recent data, the corporation employs approximately 60,000 people in total.
ChargePoint’s public and private charging stations are located throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and other countries, according to the company.
The company, which was founded 12 years ago, raised $240 million last year to fund its expansion aspirations and presently generates approximately $42 million in yearly revenue.
2.ABB
ABB is one of the world’s largest makers of industrial robots. However, a significantly higher portion of ABB’s revenue comes from power generation equipment. As a result, it’s almost certain that ABB will become a key supplier of “downstream” power equipment, and the company has announced a range of charging options for buses and vehicles.
However, it is not yet a market leader in the EV charging station market, despite its recent agreement with Porsche to build EV chargers.
3.BP
Through its ChargeMaster company, which BP acquired for £130 million last year, BP claims to be the largest provider of charging points in the UK, with around 7,000 units. Following the acquisition, it invested £25 million on fast-charging technologies.
BP recently invested in PowerShare, a Chinese developer of electric vehicle charging platforms. Among the other projects is a $5 million investment in FreeWire, a company that manufactures mobile charging stations.
4.Shell
Shell claims to invest $200 million annually in alternative energy solutions and plans to grow that investment to $1 billion by 2020. According to Green Tech Media, it bought EV charging specialist NewMotion in 2017, which has more than 30,000 points across Europe and access to an additional 50,000.
Shell has invested in Ample, a business that claims to provide an alternative to conventional charging via the use of patented autonomous robot technology.
5.Webasto
Moving momentarily away from commercial or public charging points, or at the very least from big oil, Webasto is a diverse technology firm that offers a mix of home and on-the-road charging solutions.
The corporation spent $35 million acquiring Aerotech’s “efficient energy systems” division, another diversified technology company that sells EV systems as well.
Webasto, which claims to be one of the automotive industry’s top 100 suppliers, has an online store where EV charging points can be purchased for roughly €700.
6.Hyundai
Hyundai has joined with another automaker, Kia, to develop a wireless charging technology for electric vehicles. It looks to be a component of the two businesses’ comprehensive autonomous vehicle solution, which they intend to commercialize in the coming years.
For the time being, they have demonstrated an autonomous electric vehicle parking itself in front of an EV charging station.
Other firms are also investigating wireless charging. Daimler Mercedes-Benz is one of them.
7.RWE
RWE is a European energy behemoth with numerous businesses. RWE Effizienz is the company that is constructing the EV charging infrastructure. RWE asserts that it is the only firm in Europe capable of manufacturing various types of charging stations in-house, installing them in both public and private locations, operating them using a proprietary software solution, and supplying them with eco-electricity.
RWE is an excellent example of an energy or utility firm foraying into the electric vehicle sector.
8.Daimler Benz Mercedes-Benz
Along with its relationship with RWE, which will result in Daimler effectively owning or having access to 500 EV charging stations, Daimler is cooperating with other companies. Among them is another European energy company, EnBW, which is cooperating with Daimler to install 700 electric vehicle charging stations in south-western Germany.
Daimler has also entered into an arrangement with NewMotion — the business previously owned by Shell – to explore charging options for fleet customers. Daimler is already establishing an ecology conducive to their growth.
9.Siemens
Europe’s largest engineering corporation has been providing free charging for its employees’ electric vehicles for some years via its own charging stations. Siemens has presented a variety of charging systems for home and public highways, including regular and fast charging.
Several years ago, the company invested in ChargePoint and has already deployed hundreds of charging points throughout Europe.
Siemens asserts that it has developed a leadership position in this rapidly increasing sector by focusing on fast-charging solutions and extensive technical support.
10.EVgo
EVgo asserts that it operates the nation’s largest network of public electric vehicle fast-charging stations. It recently teamed with ABB to open Fremont, California’s first “high-power” fast-charging station.
The difference looks to be an improvement from 150 kW to 350 kW. Simply put, EVgo’s systems work as follows:
• Level 1 charging provides up to 2 miles of range in 30 minutes
• Level 2 charging provides up to 10 miles of range in 30 minutes; and
• Direct current rapid charging provides up to 75 miles of range in 30 minutes.
EVgo reports that it has placed 1,050 chargers in more than 66 urban areas across the United States.
Conclusion
It has taken a very long time for electric vehicles to obtain public or customer approval, and much of that is likely due to the industry’s unwillingness to construct the infrastructure. Additionally, governments may have been unduly reliant on big oil in the past. However, it appears as though the entire globe is waking up to electric vehicles, and their expansion will likely parallel that of automated vehicles, which have mostly supplanted manual vehicles in many nations.
The majority of these firms are mentioned in research by Research and Markets, which estimates that the market for electric vehicle charging stations would expand from $5.3 billion in 2018 to over $30 billion in 2023.