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An electric-vehicle charging supplier backed by EDF and Legal & General has warned that weak retail demand for EVs in the UK will hit annual revenues, sending shares down almost 40 per cent on Monday morning.
Pod Point, which is majority-owned by EDF and whose shareholders include Legal & General, Schroders and Hargreaves Lansdown, said on Monday that a “challenging backdrop”, including “near-term uncertainty” in the UK EV market, was to blame for annual results that it predicted would come in below current market expectations.
The company said a government consultation launched at the end of last year on the UK’s targets for EV sales had increased that uncertainty. The consultation followed complaints from carmakers that electric vehicle sales were not rising fast enough to hit the quotas.
The UK’s EV quota scheme, also launched last year, requires 80 per cent of car sales to be zero-emission vehicles by the end of the decade, with the percentage rising from 22 per cent in 2024.
Registration of new EVs jumped by 21 per cent to a record 382,000 last year, with the UK narrowly overtaking Germany as Europe’s largest battery-run car market for the first time.
However, discounts on EVs to attract customers reluctant to switch away from petrol vehicles cost carmakers billions of pounds. Also, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) trade group has warned that demand has not grown “in line with expectations”.
The SMMT has flagged relatively weak sales among private buyers compared with businesses, with only one in 10 private buyers in the UK choosing an EV in 2024 according to its analysis.
Pod Point said on Monday that “ongoing weakness in the private new car segment of the EV market” was affecting trading. As a result, the group said it was expecting revenues of £53mn for its most recent financial year, lower than previous guidance of about £60mn.
It added that its net cash had declined to £5.3mn as of the end of December, well below its previous guidance of about £15mn.
Melanie Lane, Pod Point’s chief executive, who previously worked for Shell, said the company had “made good progress on our costs” in 2024, “but the weaker than expected private EV market has negatively impacted revenues”. It is due to report full-year results in April.
Shares fell more than 38 per cent in early trading to 10.30p. The company listed in London in November 2021.
Pod Point sells charging devices for homes and workplaces. In its latest results covering the six months to the end of June, the group reported sales of £28.1mn and said it had 242,000 devices installed around the UK.
Motorists’ concerns around lack of charge-points and the higher upfront costs for many EV models are among the factors holding back the transition in the UK, experts say.
In the statement this morning, Pod Point added that EDF remained a “very supportive shareholder”.
Additional reporting by Kana Inagaki
