Charge point
And I think we’re there.īut auto manufacturers have had to pick up production capacity. Do you drive a pickup, a compact car, a luxury sedan or an SUV? How much did it cost? When we have electric choices that cover not all but most of what consumers drive, then we will have a prayer of penetrating the mass market. A long time ago, we defined the EV tipping point as the threshold where we have electric choices as consumers, regardless of what kind of car we drive.
What's actually happening is a demand shock, not a supply shock. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.ĭo you think we’re approaching a tipping point when it comes to EV adoption? In light of the report’s launch on Tuesday, Romano sat down with Protocol for an interview about his expectations for the coming years, including whether charging networks will grow quickly enough to accommodate the surge of demand that he anticipates. It also predicts that the search for somewhere to fuel (read: charge) will soon be a digital experience governed largely by apps, and that home charging will take off.
That’s set to change this decade, though.ĬhargePoint’s new report on the future of electric mobility predicts that we are approaching a tipping point for EV adoption, one that utility policy and rate designs will evolve to accommodate. While that increase in EV demand has mostly come to pass, building out the charging network is still in beta mode. When Romano took the helm at ChargePoint over a decade ago, he believed in his bones that demand for a charging network would continue to build, even at a time when EVs were a rarity on the road. The company’s chargers form the largest online network of independently owned stations in the U.S., and it has expanded internationally as well.
And supply chain hiccups aside, the two are likely to keep pace, according to ChargePoint CEO Pasquale Romano.ĬhargePoint makes and sells EV charging infrastructure to independent businesses, then adds them to an online network that shows customers where they are. Electric vehicles will never be mainstream without a charging network that grows in tandem.