Why the EV Charging Business Is Booming

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0:34Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Tuesday, October 13th. I'm Danny Lewis for The Wall Street Journal. The electric vehicle industry is sputtering. Sales in the U.S. are down by half compared to last year. The Trump administration has axed tax credits and fuel economy regulations aimed at moving Americans away from gas-powered cars. And U.S. automakers have backed away from most of their ambitious electric vehicle goals. But EV charging? That's growing like gangbusters. The companies installing EV charging stations are on track to set up about as many public plugs this year as they did in 2025 when the industry hit a record high.

1:11So is this a glimmer of hope for the struggling EV industry? Here now to discuss is The Wall Street Journal's Detroit Bureau Chief, Patrick George. Patrick, how much is the EV charging industry growing? It is growing very quickly and at a higher rate than most people realize. Based on the data we've seen, the U.S. has added about 11 ,000 plugs through August, and we're probably going to match what we had last year or even exceed it. And that's not even the best part for EV owners or the EV interested out there. It's that the charging stations are getting better, too, in a lot of ways. Yeah, how so?

1:47What kinds of chargers are these companies installing and where are they going? For a long time, the public charging experience was really suboptimal and was kind of infamous for having slower plugs in really inconvenient locations, you know, like somewhere behind a big box store out by the garbage. And now these charging providers and property owners are installing these stations in more convenient locations with amenities, restaurants, restrooms, things nearby. They're making the speeds better, too, so that these things can replenish an EV more quickly. And they're adding more plugs per site more frequently, meaning that there's more places to go than just like back when you would only have like maybe two plugs in one location.

2:29And if they were both taken, that meant you were driving down the road somewhere else. The EV industry was a relatively small part of the U.S. market even before it started declining. Why is the charger buildout so strong right now? Yeah, this is what's really fascinating. The charging industry, by and large, is building for what it anticipates to be future growth, a day where more and more Americans are switching to electric vehicles, you know, when there's more options out there and more affordable prices, maybe without the shortcomings that really bedeviled the industry early on. But they're also building to current demand.

3:02I've talked to a lot of executives who have said there just aren't a lot of EV chargers out there for people who are driving those cars right now, that just more is always better. There's also been a big influx in used EV owners, and a lot of those people aren't necessarily homeowners. They're apartment dwellers who need a place to refuel to. Lastly, the autonomous vehicle space is overwhelmingly electric, and so they're kind of building in anticipation of more and more rideshare fleets and AVs that are going to need power sources somewhere. Are the charging companies making enough money right now to justify this?

3:34Yeah, this is a tough business to be in. The capital costs are enormously high. Kind of the best they can do, even when they're having great quarters, is like narrowing losses year over year. I think probably the biggest exception has been Tesla, which really pioneered how a modern EV charging network should work. And got in really early on and built out a nationwide, then a global network. They're still the leader in overall ease of use, uptime and reliability. So that's become a very lucrative business for Tesla as well. Would having more roadside chargers make you more interested in buying an EV?

4:07If you're a listener on Spotify, sound off in the comments. Coming up, charging companies are betting a new EV boom is in the future. What needs to happen for drivers to give electric vehicles another look? That's after the break.

4:28AI adoption is growing worldwide. AI is redefining what's possible. future is AI. We've all heard it. And somehow your AI still isn't delivering. No context for how your business actually runs. Broken integrations, stalled pilots, enough. Enterprises deserve AI that works. Not someday, not theoretically, today. Real outcomes. Already running in real enterprises. Publis is sapient. AI that's built to deliver.

5:03Welcome back. We've been talking about the recent boom in building roadside chargers for electric vehicles. Patrick, as you mentioned before the break, one of the big complaints for years from EV drivers and the EV curious was the lack of a comprehensive charging infrastructure compared to traditional gas stations. Could this build out set the stage for a renewed EV boom? It's possible that this could catch drivers at the right moment. We've been watching sales data very closely this year, especially with gas prices rising amid the war in Iran. Based on what we've seen so far, that hasn't really happened yet.

5:36But we tend to think that perhaps as the war goes on, as people get more and more fed up with these high gas prices, they might be giving electric vehicles another look. And if they do, they might see a better charging network out there and more powerful one, more reliable one than probably they knew about a few years ago. It's so unclear what's going to end up happening with the war and inflation and prices and gas costs. And that is all fairly volatile stuff. So what would need to happen to make that interest in EVs stick? Boy, that's a question I think the auto industry asks itself a lot. I think more and more what you're seeing is a shift towards more affordable electric vehicles, companies like Ford and Rivian and a newcomer called Slate.

6:20They've got some better priced options coming out. We're going to see prices go down. The products are getting better in covering this industry. I tend to think that these vehicles, if they win out, they're going to win out because they're a better product, because they have a better experience overall than you get from gas cars. Not because they're swaying buyers out of environmental guilt or even gas price concerns. But the technology is still advancing in a lot of ways, and it may just rise up to meet the current moment. So kind of on the flip side, what happens to the EV charging industry if EV demand doesn't bounce back or if it takes a lot longer than they expect?

6:58That's the thing. Again, it is ultimately building to demand that it hopes will materialize. And what's interesting is a lot of this is a real estate play, too. It's grab the sites now that are in the best locations, the most convenient spots, the ones that are most accessible for road trippers. So if this does blow up someday, you're not building something in some remote site that nobody's ever going to. So they're really settling in and trying to play the long game here and stay optimistic. And whether it pans out over time very much remains to be seen. I think that this whole industry knows that EV adoption is never going to take place if infrastructure isn't where it needs to be.

7:36And over the last few years, even with EV growth was at its peak, that infrastructure definitely wasn't what it needed to be yet. What are you hearing from the people running these EV charging companies? I had a great interview with Rick Wilmer, who is the chief executive of ChargePoint, one of the industry leaders. And he had a great line. He says, I think that people are still breathing into paper bags. He was talking about the charging industry and just how a lot of them are seeing way less growth in the cars than they projected a few years ago. You know, many of these companies came about in the late 2010s and the early 2020s when EV adoption was really seen as the next big thing.

8:12and when U.S. policy was really pushing the auto market in that direction. And that's not the case anymore. So now it's like, OK, breathe into that paper bag, calm down, and let's settle in for the long haul that we believe is going to exist someday. That was WSJ Detroit Bureau Chief Patrick George. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. If you're a listener on Spotify, be sure to leave us a comment. Today's show was produced by me with supervising producer Katie Ferguson. I'm Danny Lewis for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back tomorrow with a new episode. Thanks for listening.