EV charger companies switch tactics in search for elusive profits

Charging companies are still working out how to position themselves in the market as they struggle to achieve profitability.

“It’s very hard to make money in the business of providing plugs,” said Andy Palmer, the former Aston Martin CEO now leading PodPoint.

PodPoint – which is majority owned by France’s EDF Energy – recently made the decision to move away from fast chargers in public locations to concentrate on home and workplace charging.

It’s now targeting positive free cashflow (one measure of financial health) by 2027 as it works out how to successfully exist in a market that sits at the often chaotic intersection of lumpy EV demand, sporadic government support, planning red tape, restricted grid access and volatile energy pricing.