There are many electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers operating today making a growing number of exciting and impressive looking cars, trucks and SUVs. However, what’s desperately needed to make electric vehicles a reality around the world is the infrastructure to support them. This means more powerful batteries and charging stations that can recharge drained batteries efficiently and affordably. While EV manufacturers have rightfully been receiving attention, electric vehicle charging stocks are often forgotten in the mania. Don’t forget there’s two parts of the equation.
For electric vehicles to eventually replace vehicles powered by fossil fuels, charging stations will eventually have to become as commonplace as gas stations today. This is the reason why electric vehicles are one of the central tenants of President Joseph Biden’s nearly $2 trillion infrastructure bill. It’s a huge market opportunity. The electric vehicle charging infrastructure market worldwide is forecast to be worth $56.9 billion by 2026, according to Polaris Market Research.
Getting there won’t be easy, but several companies are leading the way when it comes to electric vehicle infrastructure. Here are seven stocks equipped to handle America’s electric vehicle charging needs.
- ChargePoint (NYSE:CHPT)
- Blink Charging (NASDAQ:BLNK)
- Plug Power (NASDAQ:PLUG)
- Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)
- Siemens AG (OTCMKTS:SIEGY)
- British Petroleum (NYSE:BP)
- Nio (NYSE:NIO)
Electric Vehicle Charging Stocks: ChargePoint (CHPT)
We’ll kick things off with the biggest electric vehicle charging station company in the world, Campbell, California-based ChargePoint. Currently, ChargePoint, which went public in March of this year via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), operates the world’s largest network of electric vehicle charging stations. It has the largest EV charging network in both the U.S. and Europe. The company operates more than 2,000 fast charging stations, including for commercial use and also within residential homes.
ChargePoint is committed to helping build the infrastructure needed to make electric vehicles ubiquitous on roads and highways all around the world. The company has forecast that its electric vehicle charging network will grow to 2.5 million stations globally by 2025 from 115,000 at the end of last year. That growth should help CHPT stock rise out of its current funk.
Hurt by a move away from electric vehicle stocks and negative sentiment towards SPAC companies, CHPT stock is down 22% since its market debut and now trades at $23.55 a share.
Blink Charging (BLNK)
Another leading electric vehicle charging station company, and rival to ChargePoint, is Blink Charging. The Miami Beach, Florida-based company is considerably smaller than ChargePoint and more of a start-up, but it is growing at a decent clip. Blink Charging currently has a market capitalization of about $1.3 billion and has installed about 15,000 charging stations throughout the U.S. The company has set itself the goal of installing an additional 5,000 charging stations by year’s end.
Blink Charging reported first-quarter earnings on May 13th, and they showed that the company’s revenue rose 72% compared to the first quarter of 2020 to $2.2 million. Blink Charging reported a net loss of $7.4 million or $0.18 per share compared to net loss of $3.0 million or $0.11 a share in the first quarter of 2020. This year’s first-quarter loss was attributed to higher operating expenses that resulted from hiring new personnel in its technology, sales and operations departments.
Year-to-date, BLNK stock is down 24% at $32.30 a share. The decline is due to the same factors that have hurt CHPT stock and other electric vehicle securities.
Electric Vehicle Charging Stocks: Plug Power (PLUG)
Latham, New York-based Plug Power is an interesting player in the electric vehicle space. The company is unique in that it is focused on developing hydrogen fuel cell systems that could replace the current batteries that power electric vehicles.
Hydrogen fuel systems are hailed as the greenest option for vehicles. This is because fuel cell electric vehicles are powered by hydrogen. This means that they emit none of the emissions found in internal combustion engines and are even greener than current batteries used in electric vehicles. Hydrogen powered cars only emit water vapor and warm air.
PLUG stock has had a rough ride of late, down 57% since the end of January at $27.39 a share. The steep drop has been due to the company restating three years’ worth of financial statements. That issue appears to have been fixed, and Plug Power has announced some promising revised results. The company now says that its 2020 net revenue was $7.2 million, which compares to a previously reported net loss of more than $100 million.
If the company can stay on track, it has some very promising technology that could revolutionize the electric vehicle sector.
Tesla (TSLA)
Tesla is not only the world’s leading electric vehicle company, it is also a major manufacturer of batteries. The company is always looking for ways to lower charging times and increase the range of the batteries used in its electric sedans and sport utility vehicles (SUVs). Cost is also a focus. Tesla, led by Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, recently announced that it is in talks with Chinese company EVE Energy, a manufacturer of low-cost lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. LFP batteries are about 20% cheaper to make as they use iron instead of more expensive nickel and cobalt.
Of course, Tesla continues to be at the forefront of most aspects of the electric vehicle sector. The company is also the only automaker focused exclusively on electric vehicles that is currently profitable. In this year’s first quarter, Tesla reported record net income of $438 million, as well as earnings of 93 cents per share on $10.39 billion of revenue.
On tap, the company plans to start deliveries of its new Model S sedan this spring and its Model X electric vehicle this fall. TSLA stock is on sale right now, down 25% in the past month at $553.81.
Electric Vehicle Charging Stocks: Siemens AG (SIE)
Looking abroad, we come to Germany’s Siemens AG, which is the biggest engineering company in Europe. The Munich-based company has an army of engineers working to develop standard and fast charging stations. The company was an early investor in ChargePoint and has worked with the American company to install hundreds of fast charging points throughout Europe. Siemens even offers its employees free battery charges at its work sites as a means of encouraging people to adopt more environmentally friendly electric vehicles.
Siemens is now branching out beyond Europe, having recently inked a deal with New Zealand energy company YHI Energy to distribute its electric vehicle charging infrastructure across the nation.
SIE stock has been a strong performer this year, up 14% since January at $81.70. In the past 52-weeks, the share price has risen 70%. The stock got a recent boost after Siemens reported better-than-expected earnings from its diversified business units, which include medical diagnostics equipment and railway vehicles.
British Petroleum (BP)
British Petroleum, commonly known as BP, is the rare oil and gas company that is pivoting sharply towards the infrastructure needed to power electric vehicles. The company is today the largest provider of electric vehicle charging stations in the United Kingdom. The company’s ChargeMaster subsidiary operates nearly 7,000 charging stations and is one of the fastest growing parts of BP’s business.
Additionally, BP has made a strategic investment in Chinese electric vehicle charging platform provider PowerShare, and has put $5 million into a start-up called FreeWire Technologies that is developing mobile charging stations.
Clearly, BP is embracing the direction that the global automotive industry is moving in and is working to transition itself for the future. Like other energy companies, BP’s stock has done well so far in 2021, up 28% year-to-date at $26.35.
Electric Vehicle Charging Stocks: Nio (NIO)
China’s Nio is the biggest electric vehicle company in the world’s biggest market. And, like Tesla, Nio is helping to guide and shape the industry. One of the Shanghai automaker’s more unique features is the company’s “battery as a service” program. Also known as a “battery swapping” service, Nio enables its customers to rapidly exchange their depleted electric vehicle battery for a fully charged one at specially-equipped service stations for a subscription fee. The service is similar to the way consumers swap empty propane tanks for full ones.
Nio has partnered with state-run oil group Sinopec (NYSE:SHI) in order to fulfill its plan to more than double its network of battery swapping stations to 500 across China. Analysts say that if it proves successful, batteries as a service could become widely used by other electric vehicle companies and in other countries moving forward. In the meantime, Nio continues to lead China’s electric vehicle market with monthly deliveries in April of 7,102, up 125% from the same month of 2020. NIO stock is another one that’s on sale presently with the share price down 47% since February at $33.10.
On the date of publication, Joel Baglole held long positions in CHPT and NIO. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
Joel Baglole has been a business journalist for 20 years. He spent five years as a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal, and has also written for The Washington Post and Toronto Star newspapers, as well as financial websites such as The Motley Fool and Investopedia.
