Carmakers Kept the App. Someone Else Can Own the Asphalt.

The global view

The number of the week is 374. That is how many fast-charging points Mercedes-Benz is handing to Electra: all 47 of its European hubs, three years after it promised 10,000 worldwide by 2030. Mercedes keeps MB.CHARGE, the tariffs and the reservations, so it sold the asphalt and kept the customer.

It had company. Volkswagen's Elli walked away from charging hardware to concentrate on roaming and software, and LS Power, which already controls about 56% of EVgo's votes, offered $2 a share for the rest. For a month this column has asked who pays for the hours chargers sit idle, and the carmakers have now given their own answer: someone else.

Germany's energy industry association counts 13% average simultaneous utilisation on public chargers, which is the reason in one number. As our M&A scorecard showed on Tuesday, Mercedes and BP walked out this autumn, and the utilities we had cast as sellers made six of the 12 acquisitions. China, meanwhile, promised 40 million charging facilities by 2030, the kind of target only a state can set without first asking who pays for the idle hours.

Europe

Electra's German network grows from 50 to 81 hubs, six Austrian sites come along with it, and the French operator plans to spend another €200 million in 2027. The price was not disclosed, but Edison reports that the network was booked at around €99 million, with €21 million of debt. On our arithmetic that is roughly €265,000 of book value per charge point.

Mercedes keeps the driver. Electra joins Ionity as a Premium Partner in MB.CHARGE Public, with preferred tariffs across more than 800 sites in ten countries. It fits the thesis of our Consolidation Game deep dive that property control becomes the moat: Electra now holds the sites, and Mercedes holds the login.

Volkswagen's Elli made the same call from the other side. It is leaving wallboxes, corporate installations and special charging stations to keep a roaming network of more than one million points, fleet charging and vehicle-grid integration. Elli lost €54 million on €174 million of revenue in 2024, and cuts among its roughly 400 staff could be significant.

Germany's BDEW monitor shows the cars are coming. More than 604,000 new BEVs have been registered this year, over a third of the market, and even roaming fast charging works out at the equivalent of €1.56 a litre against €2.35 for petrol, yet the 220,000 public points still average 13% utilisation. In Brussels, Parliament's environment committee discussed cutting the 2035 CO2 target from 100% to 95%; three weeks after Paris and Berlin agreed to soften 2035, the softening now has numbers.

North America

LS Power already controls about 56% of EVgo's voting power, and now it wants the rest. The board confirmed an unsolicited, non-binding proposal of $2.00 a share for the Class A shares it does not own, and a committee of independent directors is weighing it. EVgo traded at $1.84 near the close, about 47% up on the day and still short of the offer.

The timing is awkward for the bears. When we reported Paren's numbers in October, US fast-charging sessions were up 26%, and our Europe-versus-America deep dive counted 72 EVs per American fast-charging port against Europe's 31. Busy chargers turn out not to be the same thing as a stock the public market wants, and the majority holder has stopped waiting for the market to change its mind.

China

China's National Energy Administration says the country will have more than 40 million charging facilities by 2030, enough for over 110 million electric vehicles. NEVs already took 53.6% of sales in the first three quarters, and the network is planned as areas in cities, lines along highways and points in rural areas. The NEA did not say how many of them will be public, and with public chargers running at 6.51%, as we reported last week, that split is the whole question.

Where routes are fixed, chargers get used. Yunnan's electric heavy trucks drew 1.854 billion kWh from January to September, up 502% and nearly half of all charging in the province, from a fleet of more than 20,000, six times its size at the end of 2024. The scheme made the NDRC's list of 136 flagship scenarios, and it is the lesson our truck charging map drew for Europe: freight stops where the schedule says it will.

India

India's answer to the cost of land is the village council. The Ministry of Panchayati Raj signed an MoU with state-owned CESL to build charging and battery-swap stations on panchayat land, including along state and national highways. Panchayats get rent of Rs 3,000-10,000 a month plus Re 1 for every unit billed, worth up to about Rs 1.2 lakh a year at a large site.

Because part of the rent is paid per kWh, the landlord has a reason to care whether anyone charges, which is more than most public-land schemes manage. Delhi reached 14,225 points after adding 5,312 in nine months, is targeting 32,062 by December 2029, and won ₹8.9 crore for 10 electric-truck stations with 20 chargers of 360 kW.

Exicom narrowed its quarterly loss to Rs 56.78 crore, with EBITDA marginally positive. Revenue rose 38% on the previous quarter to Rs 388 crore, and standalone EV charging revenue topped Rs 100 crore in a quarter for the first time. Exicom says selling Tritium lets it put its capital into India and export markets.

Rest of Asia

BYD's flash charger went to Malaysia. Gentari and BYD Malaysia signed an MoU to deploy 1.5 MW units with battery storage, starting at Denza showrooms before moving on to Petronas stations and highways. As in Europe, only the Denza Z9 GT can draw full power, the MoU has no timeline or budget, and we still think the minutes a megawatt saves are overrated.

Vietnam, which in early October ordered public chargers opened to all compatible cars from July 2027, is finding out that open means little where no chargers have been built. Of 36 rest stops on the North-South Eastern Expressway, only two have chargers, and the Road Administration has ordered the 21 under construction to finish theirs in 2026.

The bottleneck is grid capacity for 180-480 kW chargers, along with contract delays at VEC-managed stops. Petrolimex is building nine sites, and Xuân Khiêm and V-Green plan up to 400 bays in a "super charging station" format.

Oceania

Three weeks ago we reported that about 14,000 kerbside chargers were headed for Australian household power bills. This week the ABC found that chargers without a dedicated EV bay are routinely blocked by petrol and diesel cars and get only 5-10% of the use of those with one. Installers under the A$40 million federal program don't have to negotiate bays with councils, and one Sydney site was used four times in a year.

Industry figures warn that up to 90% of the new chargers will lack a dedicated bay, which could leave the program's 9.8 million tonne CO2 estimate wrong by a factor of 10. Households may end up paying for chargers that a parked diesel car is blocking.

Tritium is changing hands again: Exicom's board approved a non-binding term sheet to sell it at an indicative US$85 million, keeping a perpetual licence to TRI-FLEX. BP Pulse opened 24 solar-powered bays at Melbourne Airport. An Australian owner reports that Tesla's latest software cuts third-party vehicle-to-home discharge within minutes, while North American owners got Powershare.

Africa

Ethiopia banned petrol and diesel car imports in January 2024, and its state utility is now building the network to match. It opened 11 fast-charging stations in six cities, together able to charge 96 vehicles at once, taking its network to 14 sites. It plans a fivefold increase within a year and more than 2,200 sites by 2030.

The bigger bet is freight. EEU signed with Huawei, Beijing Forever Technology and China Road and Bridge for a six-month feasibility study of megawatt truck charging on the Djibouti corridor. Our map of Chinese charging moves found Chinese firms usually bring hardware rather than buy companies, and the Djibouti corridor fits that pattern.

Malawi launched its first e-mobility regulatory framework, and Sky Energy Africa announced a K15 billion ecosystem: 100 Geely EX2 taxis from 1 December and about 40 DC stations in five cities, pitched as an answer to chronic fuel shortages. In Zimbabwe, the postal operator plans to turn post offices into charging and swap hubs, with 50 battery-swap units on routes linking Harare, Gweru and Victoria Falls.