Remarks by EVgo CEO, Cathy Zoi, on First Day Being Publicly Listed on Nasdaq
EVgo is thrilled to be publicly listed and trading on the Nasdaq under the (quite intuitive) ticker symbol “EVGO”. Today is a big day for the EVgo family and for the EV industry writ large.
About a decade ago, EVgo was founded to help early adopters of EVs have the freedom to drive with confidence. And by more than a coincidence, the person that created EVgo back then, David Crane, is CEO of CRIS, EVgo’s SPAC partner helping bring EVgo to the public markets. Thank you, David, for your early vision on transportation and for your current support as we scale.
EVgo has evolved from being a first mover in providing charging to drivers of the very earliest generations of electric vehicles to today’s leader in deployment of metropolitan fast charging, in providing charging solutions for fleets that share our vision of electrification, and in developing innovative software that delivers delightful, customized charging experiences to our customers.
None of that would have been possible without the collective efforts of everyone in the EVgo family. That includes our top-notch team of completely dedicated employees; our board members from LS Power; our OEM, site host, utility, and government partners; and the more than 250,000 EV drivers who rely on the EVgo charging network to ‘fuel up’ at convenient locations across the U.S.
Let me say something specifically to the EVgo team: you are awesome. You are creating the economic and environmental future we want our children to have. You are running the most reliable and innovative fast-charging network in America. You are establishing ground-breaking partnerships with an entire ecosystem of U.S. industry participants who share our interest in electrification and our commitment to sustainability. And you are doing so with agility, verve, and good humor. Thank you.
As of 2020, there were a little over a million battery electric vehicles on the road in the U.S. Energy sector research suggests that by 2030 that number will approach 25 million and by 2040 be over 100 million. Those millions and millions of EVs require a reliable and convenient charging infrastructure, and EVgo will be there to deliver those solutions to the market, as we have for over a decade.
The capital provided through this public market listing will allow EVgo to accelerate our infrastructure build plans while delivering long-term value for our shareholders. EVgo will retain our relentless financial discipline as we deploy capital. We’ll engage with policy makers to help realize our vision of enabling electric for all drivers more quickly. And EVgo will continue to punch above our weight class in efforts to address climate change.
As my favorite mathematician Bertrand Russell once said, "it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted." The world long assumed that internal combustion engines were how civilization would be moving people and goods from place to place in perpetuity. But that has changed. Technology innovation has provided a better way for civilization to drive: EVs. Engineers love EV’s efficiency and design elegance. Public officials love EVs’ zero-emissions profile. Fleet managers love their lower total cost of ownership. And drivers of all stripes just love their ride.
EVs are here. Their time has come. The question really is no longer IF transportation will electrify, but just how quickly it will happen. And EVgo is here to do our part to ensure that access to charging infrastructure is not an inhibitor to that market transformation, but rather an enabler. With your support, we’re creating a flywheel for charger deployment.
I would like to thank you all for your commitment and dedication to EVgo and its mission. It takes more than a village to modernize a whole sector. It takes all of us. Every day I feel pride in the distance that EVgo has traveled so quickly; and equally excited about the progress we are about to make in extending our public network, electrifying whole new sectors, and inspiring tens of millions more people to choose an EV.
We’re energized and looking forward to a strong rest of 2021—and beyond. Thank you for being part of the journey.