The Electric Vehicle Charging Station Infrastructure!

Electric Vehicle Charging Station

The Electric Vehicle market will continue to expand around the world for decades to come. But one of the limitations with Electric Vehicles is their range of distance on a single charge.

In order to facilitate the growth of Electric Vehicle purchase and use there needs to be a dramatic expansion of the Electric Vehicle charging station infrastructure.

It won’t be enough to just charge your vehicle at home. There will need to be an expansive network of charging stations and options across any and every country.

Where Can You Charge Your Electric Vehicle?

One of the very first considerations you would need to resolve before you buy an electric vehicle is how far you will typically need to drive your vehicle on a single charge, and where you will be able to charge that vehicle.

For some people it will be sufficient to charge their vehicle at home as they drive only short distances and never far from home. But for most people their driving demands are less predictable, and they will need to know where alternate charging stations are, and whether they are close enough to enable them to drive those distances.

Typically there will be several options for vehicle charging:

Find Charging Options for Your Electric Vehicle

Home

You will install whatever charging equipment is necessary to support your personal needs for how long it takes to charge your vehicle, and charge your vehicle at home using EV home chargers.

These stations offer unparalleled convenience, allowing you to charge your EV overnight or during downtime at home. Integrating a home EV charging station not only simplifies your daily routine but also increases your home’s functionality, making it a smart, future-proof investment.

Public

Charging stations will be installed at gas stations, malls, restaurants, parking lots, and workplaces. Whenever you are out and about there is a growing recognition by companies that having these charging stations everywhere will attract customers.

Businesses

Businesses and institutions that operate vehicle fleets will need to have their own charging station infrastructure at their operating locations. This does not preclude the need for off-site charging of these vehicles, particularly if they are travelling long distances, but it does provide a home point for this charging to take place.

How Big is the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Market?

There seems to be a very wide range of views on how big this market is. One point of consensus is that this market is big, it is growing at a large compound annual growth rate (CAGR), and it will only become bigger.

PR Newswire states that the Electric Vehicle Charging market is $3B in 2020 and will grow to over $32B (a 33% CAGR) by 2028. Research Dive states that the global EV charging infstracture market will reach 18B by 2026 at a 34.9% CAGR. Allied Market Research says that the market will increase from $3.8B in 2019 to over $25B in 2027, a 26.8% CAGR.

Grand View Research believes the global EV charging infrastructure market will reach $145B by 2028 at a 33.4% CAGR. Finally, Meticulous Research says the market will reach $104B by 2028 at a 26.4% CAGR.

Clearly there are different definitions of what is or is not included in the Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure market. Regardless of how it is defined or what is in scope, the market is huge, the growth rate is phenomenal, and the opportunities are enormous.

Who are the Manufacturers?

The market size, growth and opportunity is so extraordinary that everyone is going to want to get into this market. In researching this article we found that there are clearly a number of more well known brand names that are going to be manufacturing and supporting products and services for the Electric Vehicle Charging station market.

Companies like Tesla, Siemens AG, ABB, Schneider Electric, Eaton Corporation and perhaps ChargePoint will be more familiar names.

Interestingly though, there are innumerable lesser known, and smaller companies, who will be a part of this market. Whether they provide components or elements of a charging station, providing the entire charging station, or even offering aftermarket support, there seems to be no end of companies who will get their foot in this space.

The list of smaller companies includes, but by no means is limited to: EVBox, blink, Volta, ClipperCreek, Webasto, Rivian Automotive, Electrify America, Beam Global, Tritium, US LED, Efacec, Atom Power, Beam Global, EV Connect, EV Gateway, OpConnect, and on and on and on.

What is in an Electric Vehicle Charging Station?

At its simplest you can charge your vehicle at home with a cable. At the other extreme there will be stand alone EV charging stations, again which you will find in many public and industrial locations.

The manufacturing and assembly of a typical EV charging station will require the use of metals (eg. copper, aluminum, steel, nickel, titanium), plastics and thermoplastics, batteries, enclosures, cables, connectors, electronics, electronic circuit boards, semiconductor chips, displays, sensors, meters, and software.

Meticulous Research provides an overview of the players in the EV Charging station market.

This infographic from Phoenix Contact shows an example of the types of components that they will be supplying for an EV charging station:

Conclusion

The advent of Electric Vehicles is clearly the dominant direction of the automotive industry. In order to enable this direction the same infrastructure will need to be in place for Electric Vehicles as exists for gasoline and diesel powered vehicles.

Uniquely an Electric Vehicle will be able to be charged at your home, at a restaurant, at a mall, where you work, or even at a “gas” station. This will mean an enormous opportunity exists to participate in the provision of products and services to support the installation of this new infrastructure and its ongoing operation.

The technological, manufacturing, and Supply Chain demands will be enormous. Anyone looking for an opportunity to grow, to help create a more sustainable future, and to make this future a reality, should jump into this market now.

Originally published on January 25, 2022.

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