Weak UK demand for electric vehicle charging sparks investor alarm

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An electric-vehicle charging supplier backed by EDF and Legal & General warned that weak retail demand for EVs in the UK would hit annual revenues, sending shares down nearly 40 percent on Monday morning.

Pod Point, which is majority-owned by EDF and whose shareholders include Legal & General, Schroders and Hargreaves Lansdowne, said on Monday that a “challenging backdrop” with “near-term uncertainty” in the UK EV market was responsible for it predicting that the annual Results will come in below current market expectations.

The company said a government consultation launched late last year on UK targets for EV sales had added to the uncertainty. The suggestion followed complaints from automakers that sales of electric vehicles were not growing fast enough to hit quotas.

The UK’s EV quota scheme, also introduced last year, requires 80 per cent of car sales to be zero-emission vehicles by the end of the decade, rising from 22 per cent in 2024.

Registrations of new EVs rose 21 per cent to a record 382,000 last year, with the UK overtaking Germany as Europe’s biggest battery-powered car market for the first time.

However, to attract discounts on EVs Customers are reluctant Moving away from petrol cars cost carmakers billions of pounds. Also, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) trade group warned that demand had not grown “as expected”.

SMMT flagged relatively weak sales among private buyers compared to businesses, with one in 10 private buyers in the UK opting for 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 expects revenues of £53mn for its most recent financial year, down from previous guidance of around £60mn.

It added that its net cash for the year to the end of December fell to £5.3m, down from its previous guidance of around £15m.

Pod Point chief executive Melanie Lane, who previously worked for Shell, said the company “made good progress on our costs” in 2024, “but was negatively impacted by a weaker-than-expected private EV market”. It is due to report full-year results in April.

Shares fell more than 38 per cent in early trading at 10.30p. Companies listed in London in November 2021.

Pod Point sells charging devices for home and work. In its latest results for the six months to the end of June, the group reported sales of £28.1mn and said it had installed 242,000 devices around the UK.

Motorists’ concerns about a lack of charge-points and higher upfront costs for many EV models are among the factors holding back the transition in the UK, experts say.

In a statement this morning, Pod Point added that EDF remains a “very supportive shareholder”.

Additional reporting by Kana Inagaki