Laying the foundation: How CPOs can adapt, optimise and build trust in EV Charging
As the EV market faces challenges from inflation, interest rates, and volatile regulations, CPOs must adapt to changing dynamics. This article explores the key market trends, consumer concerns, and strategic actions necessary for preparing your business for the eventual rebound in demand. I share my thoughts how to build trust, maintain financial health, improve your performance and position your company for long-term success in the evolving landscape of electrification.
Why Should You Care?
As rising interest rates and inflation pressure European purchasing power, combined with volatile regulations, the growth of EV sales has slowed down. For many CPOs, EV volumes play a critical role in the business cases. This slowdown may have directly impacted your ability to deliver on promises. Understanding how to navigate this shift is crucial—and this is why you should care.
What to Expect from the Market
Climate change continues to accelerate, and CO2 levels are still rising. With transportation contributing roughly 25% to global emissions, electrification remains one of the most direct and effective ways to mitigate climate change.
Mobility is a basic need, and cars inevitably need to be renewed. Failing to do so leads to declining value and convenience, rising costs, and missed emission targets. However, as long as financial concerns dominate, consumers are delaying their renewals. This creates a “renewal debt” and pent-up demand, which, when economic conditions improve, will likely lead to a surge in purchases — what’s often called the “ketchup-bottle effect.”
How Can You Prepare to Serve This Returning Demand?
The primary concerns preventing consumers from choosing EVs are:
- The high cost of ownership
- Range anxiety
- A lack of abundant and reliable charging infrastructure
These concerns, especially the third, must be addressed by CPOs. Trust in the charging network is critical to building consumer confidence in EVs.
How Can You Prepare and Build Trust?
Your success will hinge on your ability to demonstrate clear paths to profitability. Why paths? Because no one can predict the future. You need a plan for your expected scenario and a backup plan for high- and low-demand scenarios. Running a business isn’t about foreseeing the future, but about preparing for different possibilities.
Here’s what you can do:
1. Keep Building: We are still in the early stages of EV adoption. Only a small percentage of the global fleet is electrified, and this holds true for most local markets as well. There’s still significant work to be done, and the winning players will continue to grow, both organically and inorganically. Despite the current slowdown, the larger picture remains unchanged: climate change must be mitigated, and there is no other technology as credible as electric drivetrains in the transportation sector.
“I don’t build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build.”
– Ayn Rand
2. Keep Developing: Know your position in the market. How do you compare to your peers when it comes to financial health, operational excellence, customer satisfaction, business sustainability, and rollout efficiency? Understanding your performance relative to the market is essential. If you can gain reliable information on how other players perform in your markets, you can better position your business performance. This will help you identify areas for improvement and opportunities for acceleration in areas where you are already leading. It’s a strategic decision on where to invest your efforts.
Once you have this understanding, focus and prioritize. Set realistic development targets, track your progress, and communicate your achievements effectively. Being transparent about your validated progress can build trust with stakeholders.
3. Ensure Financial Health: The infrastructure you’ve built and the customers you’ve acquired need to be based on solid financial principles. If your core operations are financially sound, you’ll have the flexibility to reduce investment in growth when necessary and still maintain a stable, possibly even profitable, business. This will also put you in a strong position to make strategic decisions—whether to consider selling, or to be ready to accelerate growth when the market rebounds.
Lessons from experience
As someone who has participated in the build-up of around ten different corporate ventures — some of which have failed while others have succeeded beautifully — a few key principles have stayed with me:
- If you’re in the game, you need to play.
- Trust your team, it’s your greatest asset.
- Spend what you must, not what you can.
- A number is meaningless unless you can compare it.
- Winners often arise from crises.
What Do You Think?
What have you changed in the current market conditions? How are you preparing for the next wave? How do you know what is considered good performance, and how do you set realistic objectives? Reach out and let’s talk!