The European EV charging market comprises businesses engaged in the development, production, installation and/or operation of hardware and software for electric vehicle charging. We segmented the market along the value chain into: (i) charger producers, (ii) charge point operators and (iii) smart charging platforms.

The European landscape has a fragmented nature across subsegments, typically characterised by national leaders, large utility and oil companies with specialist EV divisions as well as a long tail of regional specialists. Industry executives (interviews by Gain.pro) foresee consolidation to pick up in the coming years. New regulations will require significant software investments (e.g. to improve cybersecurity), increasing entry barriers, whereas smaller incumbents might be pushed out of the market in case sufficient funding cannot be secured until a commercially viable scale has been reached.

PE-led interest has been strong with ~80% of identified assets being sponsor-backed (August 2023). As the broader EV charging market matures, players can capitalise on (i) increasingly predictable and stable cash flows, (ii) soaring utilisation rates, (iii) shorter payback periods and (iv) favourable regulations to boost EV adoption in line with the EU’s sustainability goals.

ESG topics in the EV charging market primarily relate to environmental and social issues. From an environmental perspective, players are increasingly committing to (solely) using renewables as the main energy source. Another area of attention relates to emissions stemming from the manufacturing and transportation of charging hardware. On the social side, incumbents must continuously invest in cybersecurity, as digital breaches could lead to system blackouts, damages to the entire electrical grid as well as consumer identity theft.