The value of the global electric vehicle charging station market will grow from USD 17.6 billion in 2021 to USD 111.9 billion in 2028, representing an average annual growth rate of 30.3%, according to the latest report by Fortune Business Insights. This is currently the fastest-growing segment of the shared mobility industry, which creates enormous opportunities for potential investors, says Paulius Insoda, CEO at NFQ Technologies, an international IT company helping global brands create innovations, which recently opened its Polish branch in Krakow.
The term “shared mobility” covers transport solutions that allow different people to cover short distances using light vehicles, such as bicycles, e-scooters, scooters, or electric-powered cars. Existing sharing fleets count millions of vehicles globally, which can be rented via an app installed on a smartphone. More than 30% of vehicles made available in the shared mobility model are powered by electricity. If we add to this the constantly growing number of electric cars purchased by Poles, it is hard to be surprised that the charging station market is showing such high growth dynamics.
Electric vehicles on the rise
According to data from the end of July 2022, a total of 52,881 electric passenger and commercial vehicles were registered in Poland. In the first seven months of 2022, their number increased by 14,098 units, which means a 44% increase compared to the same period in 2021. All these cars are currently served by 2,293 publicly available charging stations, according to the Electromobility Meter, maintained by the Polish Automotive Industry Association and the Polish Alternative Fuels Association.
– This market is basically at an early stage of development. Let’s look at the state of California, which has a similar population to Poland but is at a much more advanced stage in terms of using electric cars and developing the related infrastructure. There are currently about 1.1 million electric vehicles registered there and about 80,000 public charging stations in operation. And this is still far too little to meet the needs, which are estimated at 1.2 million such stations by 2030. This shows the growth potential of the market in Poland as well – says Paulius Insoda, CEO at NFQ.
The representative of NFQ – a company that has two unicorns (KAYAK and HomeToGo) and several companies aspiring to this title, including in the area of shared mobility – sees huge potential for new investments in this industry. He argues that new solutions have great scalability potential outside of Poland, because practically every country is in a similar situation when it comes to developing electric vehicle charging solutions.
– In the electric vehicle charging market, we are currently observing the first consolidations, an example of which is the recent acquisition of the PlugSurfing solution, which we co-created, by Fleetcore Technologies. At the same time, however, there is still huge space for innovative business models and solutions based on which charging stations can operate, including, among others, the use of the electric vehicle charging as a service model or V2G technology. We are also increasingly observing investments in charging stations made by cities, as well as large companies – explains Paulius Insoda.
Plenty of room for innovation in other shared mobility segments as well
The NFQ representative points out that investors should also be interested in other segments in the shared mobility market, especially in the area of Demand Responsive Transit (DRT) and micromobility. The latter segment attracted as much as 3 billion dollars in investments from VC funds between 2019 and 2021, according to data from the ResearchAndMarkets report.
DRT solutions are being introduced by startups in cooperation with cities and are enjoying huge popularity all over the world. Their success stems from the fact that they respond to the challenges of modern cities, serve the public interest, and at the same time bring benefits to consumers and the wider transport system. Similar assumptions also underlie the operation of services in the area of micromobility, which include networks of bicycles, e-scooters, and other light vehicles. However, the focus in this segment is currently shifting towards solutions for companies.
– This applies in particular to last-mile delivery solutions, i.e., ensuring the delivery of goods to the recipient using various means of transport, including drones. According to forecasts, this market could be worth as much as 123 billion dollars by 2030, growing by an average of 13.2% per year. We are also observing a completely new wave of ideas for other solutions in the area of shared mobility, such as carsharing networks based on a fleet of vehicles from individual users, or extending beyond transport into areas such as real estate sharing. There are many attractive investment opportunities – explains Paulius Insoda.
According to the CEO of NFQ, the factor driving the development of the shared mobility industry is the development of technology, followed by progress in solutions such as GPS, mobile payments in applications, greater battery efficiency, or the growing popularity of smartphones. The search for new ways of transport is also influenced by the growing number of city dwellers, who, for example, in Poland already account for 60 percent of the population.
– In our portfolio, we currently have nearly 10 brands from the shared mobility market, such as CityBee, Plugsurfing, Rbike Mobility, or SIXT. Most NFQ clients are companies that come to us for a comprehensive service that also includes a vision for product development and the digital future of the market, experience, ideas, and solutions. Additionally, we ourselves invest through NFQ group companies in some startups with high potential, thus supporting development. Such a strategy is a big novelty on the Polish IT market – says Paulius Insoda, CEO at NFQ.