Berg Insight released new findings about the market for electric vehicle charging infrastructure in Europe and North America. The number of connected EV charging points in Europe and North America reached an estimated 1.6 million units in 2020.
Europe represents the largest share comprising around 1.3 million of these charging points, corresponding to a connectivity penetration rate of 53%. In North America, about 0.3 million of the total number of charging points were connected, equivalent to a connectivity penetration rate of 40%. Growing at a compound annual growth rate of 38%, the number of connected charging points in the two regions is expected to reach 7.9 million in 2025.
The connected EV charging station market is served by a variety of players. The type of companies offering back-office software platforms for charging stations include dedicated charging station management software providers, hardware providers as well as charge point operators (CPOs). The back-office platforms developed in-house by CPOs are in some cases also offered as white-label solutions to other CPOs.
In North America, ChargePoint is a clear leader in terms of connected charging points. Additional companies having a notable number of connected charging stations on their platform in the region include AddEnergie, SemaConnect, EV Connect, Blink Charging, Greenlots (Shell Group) and Tesla. ChargePoint and Enel X further account for the majority of the connected home chargers in the region.
Examples of vendors having a significant number of connected charging points in Europe include Etrel (Landis+Gyr), Easee, EVBox (Engie), NewMotion (Shell Group), Last Mile Solutions, Greenflux, Has-to-be, Virta Pod Point and Driivz. The Nordic hardware providers CTEK and Zaptec also have large numbers of connected charging points. Additional notable players in Europe include Vattenfall, Innogy, Allego and Fortum.
“The integration of communications equipment in EV charging stations can improve operations and the delivered service noticeably in several ways”, says Caspar Jansson, IoT Analyst, Berg Insight. Charging stations can be equipped with load balancing functions to reduce strain on local grids, while charge point operators can monitor and manage their charging stations remotely.
Electric vehicle drivers, in turn, can locate chargers, monitor charging availability, book chargers and manage payments using a smartphone app. “The number of connected charging points has grown significantly in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic. As long as the electric vehicle fleet continues to grow rapidly, the demand for connected charging stations will continue to grow as well”, continues Mr. Jansson.
He adds that most of the connected charging points in Europe and North America are either in public or semi-public applications. “The number of connected home charging stations is still relatively limited in both regions. The share of connected home charging points is expected to increase, however, as the general trend of our homes becoming smarter develops”, concludes Mr. Jansson.
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