EXCLUSIVE: EVgo CEO Cathy Zoi Talks Charging Station Growth Drivers, Major Auto Industry Partnerships

Cathy Zoi, CEO of EVgo, joined Benzinga’s "SPACs Attack" show Wednesday.

In January, charging station infrastructure company EVgo announced a SPAC merger with Climate Change Crisis Real Impact I Acquisition Corp CLII.

Electrification Opportunity: Zoi said that while there is certainly plenty of excitement around EVgo’s transition to the public market, she is primarily focused on the company’s business fundamentals.

“Hundreds of billions of dollars are going into the transition of the car sector. Vehicles are going from internal combustion engines to electric, and it is the very rare car company that’s not electrifying right now,” Zoi said.

In addition to auto companies investing in the future, Zoi said governments around the world are pushing clean energy transitions by investing in infrastructure and financially incentivizing the auto industry.

Zoi said the electrification of fleets is another major transportation transition.

“That’s everything from ride-hail/rideshare like Uber and Lyft to UPS and FedEx to the big trucks that are going to electrify as soon as those vehicles are available. The reason is economics. The total cost of ownership of an electric truck turns out to be better than an internal combustion engine,” she said.

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Consumer Demand: Perhaps most importantly, consumer demand for electric vehicles is booming.

“There are now so many choices of electric vehicles, I mean I think it’s going to be hundreds of models on the market in the next several years, which means there are price points for every single kind of consumer,” she said.

“We have the charging infrastructure. And we in particular focus on and are known for fast charging, which is where you can actually get 150 miles of driving range in 15 minutes," Zoi said.

"And the need for more and more fast chargers is intensifying because of more EVs, because of drivers who don’t have access to home charging, and because of the electrification of fleets. All of that is punching the market for fast chargers, which we have been experts in for 10 years,”

Major Partnerships: In 2020, EVgo announced a partnership with General Motors Company GM that involved EVgo tripling the size of its charger network over the next five years.

“GM is essentially paying a third of the cost of the infrastructure. Why are they doing that? They’re doing that because they’re going to have I think 20 new EV models by 2023, and their research says that if consumers are going to be excited about EVs then they need to see it at the grocery store, at the park, wherever they go they need to see fast charging and make sure that it’s convenient and reliable,” Zoi said.

EVgo is also the only third-party fast-charge station that has an adapter for charging Tesla Inc TSLA vehicles, which Zoi said is a testament to the success of Tesla in outgrowing its own charging network.

(Photo: EVgo)