ChargePoint Snags $127 Million To Boost EV Stations For Battery-Powered Fleets

ChargePoint, a Silicon Valley operator of charging stations for battery-electric vehicles that’s backed by oil companies, utilities and venture firms, says it raised an additional $127 million to expand its network to meet new demand from business and commercial fleets and as a wave of electric vehicle models heads to market. 

The equity financing is an “incremental” addition to its Series H round and boosts total funding to $667 million, the Campbell, California-based company said. Previous investors including Chevron
CVX
’s tech investment arm, American Electric Power
AEP
, Clearvision Ventures and Quantum Energy Partners, all put in additional funds, ChargePoint said. 

“The shift to electric drive is intensifying for mainstream businesses and fleet operators and is poised to be one of the most significant transformations in modern history,” said Pasquale Romano, ChargePoint’s president and CEO. “The additional $127 million in funding provides capital to expand investment on pace with the market.”

Despite a weakening of federal emissions and fuel-economy rules by the Trump Administration, the global auto industry is moving to boost the range of electric vehicles for consumers and businesses to help mitigate carbon emissions and improve air quality. For fleet operators, EVs also hold the promise of lower fuel and maintenance costs than carbon-powered vehicles. In California, ChargePoint’s home state, regulators are setting new guidelines to require and incentivize the use of medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles. 

To ensure that companies and people actually buy those vehicles, however, there’s a continuing need for more charging stations to be more ubiquitous. The success of Elon Musk’s Tesla
TSLA
, the benchmark for the global electric vehicle industry, owes much to its creation of its own charging network starting in 2012 to ensure that customers always had an option to repower their vehicles.

Along with new types of electric delivery vans and trucks, 2021 may mark the biggest jump yet in battery vehicles for the consumer market, including the arrival of Rivian’s R1T pickup and R1S SUV, GMC’s electric Hummer, Ford’s Mach-E crossover, Nissan’s ARIYA SUV, the Audi Q4 e-tron and VW’s ID.4 electric crossover, among others. 

ChargePoint says its global network tops 114,000 places to charge, with drivers plugging into one about every two seconds. Its funding news comes after charging rival EVGo said it was teaming up with General Motors
GM
to deploy 2,700 additional DC fast chargers.