EVgo, Inc. (NASDAQ:EVGO) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Cathy Zoi: Craig. I’m a – maybe you restate the question. I’m a little confused about is the oblique nature of the question. Just fill out. So I’m happy to answer whatever it is if I understand what the question is.

Craig Irwin : So, there was an assertion mate that Tesla would get the lion’s share of the available EV subsidies or speedly charging infrastructure subsidies and by a couple different analysts and you know you had I think in your press release was that 75% share in different markets. Can you please respond directly to competitive procurement of subsidies? And how EVgo is tracking across the country?

Cathy Zoi: Sure. Okay. I got it. Thank you. So, the – as you know, there are 50 different state programs for NEVI and each one has its own application process. So we happen to be – and we’re delighted. We’re very, very successful in Ohio. I think we know what we’re doing and we write good grant applications because we got a lot of experience with it. We’ve been doing grant applications in successfully procuring all kinds of state and local funding supports to help offset CapEx for 10 years. So, that but again Ohio was the first big announcement on NEVI. We’ve got – we’re waiting to hear from Pennsylvania and Colorado and then we’re in the process of applying for a bunch of other states. And we view every single application in its own, right, because the program designs are quite different.

So there is a it’s not as if not like the common App for college. I mean, every single application has to be done with great sort of care and scrutiny and they have different criteria for selection. So, obviously, Ohio liked what they saw with EVgo and look, we’re hoping is we’re carefully selecting where we want to apply, where the projects will pencil well for our shareholders, that we’re hoping that we can make that same case in other places.

Craig Irwin : Okay. Excellent. Well, thank you for that update. I appreciate it.

Cathy Zoi: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Andres Sheppard from Cantor. Please go ahead.

Andres Sheppard: Hey, good afternoon, everyone. Congrats on the quarter. Thanks for taking our question. And Cathy, I echo everyone’s thoughts. Congrats on a great run and you’ll surely be missed some big shoes to fill.

Cathy Zoi: Thanks, Andres.

Andres Sheppard: A lot of our questions have been addressed. Maybe just to piggyback off the last one, there’s been a lot of conversations lately about OEMs fortifying their own charging networks. We saw Tesla opening up their network, I think Rivian and Ford are among some of those as well. I realize, your chargers have always been compatible with all the equals and had always been able to connect with Tesla’s vehicles. I’m just curious, what are your thoughts on this competition from OEMs? Is that something to be mindful of as these new OEMs continue to introduce vehicles. So I’m just curious kind of your thoughts on if that additional competition is something that we should be focusing on closely? And maybe just to add to that is, may be additional commentary on the NEVI fundings. We saw you got the Ohio Grants, which is great. Just curious, what are the potential next bits or states that you think might make sense in the short term? Thank you.

Cathy Zoi: Yeah, yeah. So on the competition front, look, at the end of the day, the OEMs core business is selling cars. So they need to do what they need to do to sell cars. Sometimes they need to open dealerships sometimes, they need to do Super Bowl ads and then sometimes they need to figure out that they need to make investments in charging, so that they can sell those cars. This most recent announcement is that third category. And we are really well positioned as you know an operator that offers both build-on operate services and operate for other services through EVgo eXtend to help them do that. It’s a difference business. I mean, and I think if you ask GM about it, our collaboration with GM has been just that where we are working really closely together where they’re making the cars and we’re making – we’re figuring out how to do the chargers that are going to work with those cars.

We work together in our lab to make sure that it’s a seamless experience and we’re going to continue to do that. We expect that our experience at being able to charge all EVs, and to basically work on this one and done metric that you heard Dennis talk about in the prepared remarks, we’re going to be continued to be at the cutting edge of creating that seamless charging experience for EVs of all types. And that will help all the OEMs. So, I’d say we’re excited about the opportunity for more folks getting excited about making investments in charging infrastructure and we will be part of that equation we’re sure.