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The infrastructure bill includes $7.5 billion for electric car chargers. The CEO of one company poised to cash in wants Biden to focus on boosting EV sales instead.

ChargePoint
ChargePoint CEO Pasquale Romano says the company is more enthusiastic about auto incentives than the infrastructure bill's $7.5 billion dedicated to EV charging. ChargePoint

  • Biden's infrastructure deal sets aside $7.5 billion to build up the country's EV charging network.
  • ChargePoint would be a top contender for the funds, but isn't banking on seeing them anytime soon.
  • Here's why its CEO isn't relying on the bill — and what he says would really help his company.
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The $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill is steadily moving toward President Biden's desk, and with it $7.5 billion dedicated to building up the country's electric vehicle charging network. But for the companies that might be tapped to build out those plugs, the funding is just one piece of the puzzle.  

The largest of those companies is ChargePoint, a 14-year-old network provider operating more than 106,000 charging ports in the US. But Biden's money won't make or break the Campbell, California-based company's current business strategy. 

"We don't know the answer, and I don't think anyone does: How long is this going to take to turn into programs that actually can move the needle in a meaningful way?" ChargePoint CEO Pasquale Romano told Insider. "It can take a while for all of the money to basically find its way to the market." 

What Romano really needs, he said, is whatever will grow his customer base by driving EV sales. This is likely to be buoyed more by government incentives than by funding for infrastructure, he said. Right now, EV purchases only account for about 2% of new car sales in the US. Meanwhile, adoption of the vehicles is substantially higher in Europe and China, where incentives to go electric are more pervasive. 

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"We are more keenly enthusiastic about the auto incentives because that moves everybody's needle," Romano said. "We're completely dependent on EVs. That would really, really, really slow us down, if EVs stopped selling or weren't introduced at the rates that they were expected to be introduced."

For now, ChargePoint — which went public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company Switchback Energy Acquisition Corporation in February — will stay focused on residential and commercial fleet use cases and expanding in North America and Europe.

In recent months, ChargePoint has spent nearly $400 million acquiring has.to.be and ViriCiti, two large European charging companies.

ChargePoint still plans to bid for the funds when they become available. "We have very high hopes that this is going to really be helpful," Romano said. "It can't hurt."

Transportation Electric Vehicles Biden
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