EVgo Makes Its Wall Street Debut as Electric Charging Companies Prepare For Surge

Zac Estrada

Zac Estrada is a reporter covering transportation, technology and policy. A former reporter for The Verge and Jalopnik, his work has also appeared in Automobile Magazine, Autoweek, Pacific Standard, Boston.com and BLAC Detroit. A native of Southern California, he is a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston. You can find him on Twitter at @zacestrada.

EVgo Makes Its Wall Street Debut as Electric Charging Companies Prepare For Surge

One of the nation's largest EV charging firms, EVgo made its Wall Street debut on Friday but investors seemed underwhelmed. The stock closed slightly up, .67% higher.

El Segundo-based EVgo announced in January that it would join other EV companies going public via SPAC with a $2.6 billion valuation. It merged on July 1 with Climate Change Crisis Real Impact I Acquisition Corp.(CLII) to officially become EVgo Inc.


Trading on the Nasdaq under the "EVGO" ticker, shares opened at $15 and closed at $15.10.

The company has tied up several deals with businesses and major automakers amid a push to rapidly expand the United States charging network. EVgo is banking on forecasts of 100 million battery electric vehicles on US roads by 2040, up from a little more than a million in 2020.

"EVs are here, the time has come," said EVgo CEO Cathy Zoi ahead of the opening bell Friday. "The question is no longer if transportation will electrify, but how quickly. EVgo is here to do our part to ensure access to charging infrastructure is not an inhibitor of that market transformation but rather an enabler."

Zoi and the rest of EVgo's former leadership will continue in their posts with the newly merged company. David Nanus will serve as chair of the EVgo Inc. board.

It comes as the U.S. is racing toward electrification.

In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a mandate for most new vehicles sold in the state to be electric by 2035. Since then, automakers such as General Motors, Ford, Volvo and Honda have announced all-electric goals in a similar timeframe.

And EV charging companies like EVGo are poised to benefit from the proposed $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure plan backed by President Joe Biden last week.

"EVgo's evolved from being a first mover in providing charging for the earliest generation of EVs, to today's market leader in deployment of metropolitan mass transit, in providing charging for fleets which share our vision for electrification, and in developing software that delivers delightful customized charging experiences for our customers," Zoi said.

Founded in 2010 and acquired by New York-based LS Power in 2019, EVgo is one of several charging companies trying to grow its U.S. presence and team up with various automakers with EVs on sale or soon to go on sale.

Those EV charging companies include L.A.-based rival EVConnect, Electrify America, and the publicly traded ChargePoint and Blink! All of these firms have also connected with car companies to support home charging or free and subsidized free public charging.

In April, EVgo was named as a partner for GM's Ultium Charge 360 grouping of charging companies which will support its current models like the Chevy Bolt EV and upcoming plug-in electrics from Cadillac and GMC. The move is seen as a way for GM to arrange a nationwide charging infrastructure for its customers without having to build and operate its own stations like the Tesla Supercharger network.

EVgo says it operates more than 800 DC fast chargers across the country, currently in 34 states and with more than 250,000 customers. It signed a deal last year with GM to add more than 2,700 fast-charging stations across the US, while an agreement with Nissan will add an additional 200. It also has existing deals with grocery chains such as Kroger and Whole Foods to install chargers at certain U.S. locations.

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How the 'Thrift Haul' Boosted Secondhand Ecommerce Platforms

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
How the 'Thrift Haul' Boosted Secondhand Ecommerce Platforms
Evan Xie

If you can believe it, it’s been more than a decade since rapper Macklemore extolled the virtues of thrift shopping in a viral music video. But while scouring the ranks of vintage clothing stores looking for the ultimate come-up may have waned in popularity since 2012, the online version of this activity is apparently thriving.

According to a new trend story from CNBC, interest in “reselling” platforms like Etsy-owned Depop and Poshmark has exploded in the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. In an article that spends a frankly surprising amount of time focused on sellers receiving death threats before concluding that they’re “not the norm,” the network cites the usual belt-tightening ecommerce suspects – housebound individuals doing more of their shopping online coupled with inflation woes and recession fears – as the causes behind the uptick.

As for data, there’s a survey from Depop themselves, finding that 53% of respondents in the UK are more inclined to shop secondhand as living costs continue to rise. Additional research from Advance Market Analytics confirms the trend, citing not just increased demand for cheap clothes but the pressing need for a sustainable alternative to recycling clothing materials at its core.

The major popularity of “thrift haul” videos across social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok has also boosted the visibility of vintage clothes shopping and hunting for buried treasures. Teenage TikToker Jacklyn Wells scores millions of views on her thrift haul videos, only to get routinely mass-accused of greed for ratching up the Depop resell prices for her coolest finds and discoveries. Nonetheless, viral clips like Wells’ have helped to embed secondhand shopping apps more generally within online fashion culture. Fashion and beauty magazine Hunger now features a regular list of the hottest items on the re-sale market, with a focus on how to use them to recreate hot runway looks.

As with a lot of consumer and technology trends, the sudden surge of interest in second-hand clothing retailers was only partly organic. According to The Drum, ecommerce apps Vinted, eBay, and Depop have collectively spent around $120 million on advertising throughout the last few years, promoting the recent vintage shopping boom and helping to normalize second-hand shopping. This includes conventional advertising, of course, but also deals with online influencers to post content like “thrift haul” videos, along with shoutouts for where to track down the best finds.

Reselling platforms have naturally responded to the increase in visibility with new features (as well as a predictable hike in transaction fees). Poshmark recently introduced livestreamed “Posh Shows” during which sellers can host auctions or provide deeper insight into their inventory. Depop, meanwhile, has introduced a “Make Offer” option to fully integrate the bartering and negotiation process into the app, rather than forcing buyers and sellers to text or Direct Message one another elsewhere. (The platform formerly had a comments section on product pages, but shut this option down after finding that it led to arguments, and wasn’t particularly helpful in making purchase decisions.)

Now that it’s clear there’s money to be made in online thrift stores, larger and more established brands and retailers are also pushing their way into the space. H&M and Target have both partnered with online thrift store ThredUp on featured collections of previously-worn clothing. A new “curated” resale collection from Tommy Hilfiger – featuring minorly damaged items that were returned to its retail stores – was developed and promoted through a partnership with Depop, which has also teamed with Kellogg’s on a line of Pop-Tarts-inspired wear. J.Crew is even bringing back its classic ‘80s Rollneck Sweater in a nod to the renewed interest in all things vintage.

Still, with any surge of popularity and visibility, there must also come an accompanying backlash. In a sharp editorial this week for Arizona University’s Daily Wildcat, thrift shopping enthusiast Luke Lawson makes the case that sites like Depop are “gentrifying fashion,” stripping communities of local thrift stores that provide a valuable public service, particularly for members of low-income communities. As well, UK tabloids are routinely filled with secondhand shopping horror stories these days, another evidence point as to their increased visibility among British consumers specifically, not to mention the general dangers of buying personal items from strangers you met over the internet.

How to Startup: Mission Acquisition

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

How to Startup: Mission Acquisition

Numbers don’t lie, but often they don’t tell the whole story. If you look at the facts and figures alone, launching a startup seems like a daunting enterprise. It seems like a miracle anyone makes it out the other side.

  • 90% of startups around the world fail.
  • On average, it takes startups 2-3 years to turn a profit. (Venture funded startups take far longer.)
  • Post-seed round, fewer than 10% of startups go on to successfully raise a Series A investment.
  • Less than 1% of startups go public.
  • A startup only has a .00006% chance of becoming a unicorn.

Ouch.

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From The Vault: VC Legend Bill Gurley On Startups, Venture Capital and Scaling

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

Bill Gurley in a blue suit
Bill Gurley

This interview was originally published on December of 2020, and was recorded at the inaugural dot.LA Summit held October 27th & 28th.

One of my longtime favorite episodes of Office Hours was a few years ago when famed venture capitalist Bill Gurley and I talked about marketplace-based companies, how work-from-home will continue to accelerate business opportunities and his thoughts on big tech and antitrust.

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