ChargePoint CEO Pasquale Romano said today in an interview with Forbes that he expects the Biden Administration to help make electric vehicle fleet charging stations more public and commercial. Indeed, the company began trading today on the New York Stock (NYSE) as part of a wave of electric vehicle startups and established automakers.
Possibly of your interest: McDermott advances energy transition drive with US green hydrogen deal
ChargePoint CEO on more EV push
Today, ChargePoint CEO Pasquale Romano said to Forbes that he believes the Biden Administration will help make electric vehicle fleet charging stations more public and commercial. Moreover, the company began trading this week on the NYSE as part of a wave of electric vehicle startups and established automakers.
Indeed, as Forbes reported, there are already dozens of battery-powered cars and truck models that will need a lot more public and commercial fleet charging stations.
According to Romano, the Biden Administration is likely to help make that happen through a broad push involving multiple federal departments and incentives.
Therefore, details of how that’s going to happen are still in the works. However, “my expectation is this is going to be very cross-departmental,” Romano said.
“We see some headlines about how the administration thinks clean technology. Besides, this transition to addressing climate change through transportation, energy, etcetera is n economic policy. Thus, I believe that’s the case.”
The EV market future under the Biden Administration
Shares of ChargePoint; which says it’s the world’s first publicly traded global EV charging network; fell about 1% in New York on Monday to close at $30.58. Simultaneously, the listing was the result of a SPAC merger with Switchback Energy Acquisition Corp.
Therefore, ChargePoint and competitors, including EVgo, which support Tesla drivers, see a significant opportunity to expand the electric car market. For instance, its network includes more than 115,000 charging ports in North America and Europe, not counting household units. Furthermore, more than 2,000 of those are DC fast-chargers.
In this regard, President Joe Biden discussed adding at least 500,000 public chargers; this, to help wean drivers off of gasoline during his presidential campaign. Besides, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg highlighted that goal in his Senate confirmation hearing last month.
Therefore, both the Transportation and Energy Departments will likely play significant roles. Romano expects; “some general federal policy put in place to help influence utility commissions in different states to try to get some uniformity. But general economic, commerce and labor (issues) come into this.”
New US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm; is also likely to have well-formed views on the topic because she has been a member of both ChargePoint’s board. Besides, Granholm is a former two-term governor of Michigan and familiar with automotive industry matters.
