WEBVTT - EV Demand Supported by ABM Infrastructure

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<v Speaker 1>This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg

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<v Speaker 1>Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio this weekend. I

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<v Speaker 1>was taking my son for a bike ride at a playground.

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<v Speaker 1>It's right across from the Tesla showroom here in Brooklyn,

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<v Speaker 1>and there was this sandwich board outside the Tesla showroom,

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<v Speaker 1>and I believe it was handwritten. It said, this is

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<v Speaker 1>not a place to charge your Tesla. And I thought

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<v Speaker 1>to myself, interesting, people must be driving their Tesla's here

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<v Speaker 1>thinking that they can get some juice. Well, someone who

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<v Speaker 1>knows something about juice is Mark Hockinson, president of the

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<v Speaker 1>Technical Solutions Group at A b M Industries, joining us

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<v Speaker 1>on the phone from California. A b M Industries it's

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<v Speaker 1>a three billion dollar company. It's one of the largest

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<v Speaker 1>providers of e V charging stations here in the US. Mark,

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<v Speaker 1>how are you. I'm great, Tim, how are you doing well? Thanks?

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for joining us. I want to get into the

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<v Speaker 1>economics of this in a minute, but but first I

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<v Speaker 1>just want to get an idea from you about how

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<v Speaker 1>much demand for power has increased from your charging stations.

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<v Speaker 1>As we've seen gas prices go up and these traditional

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<v Speaker 1>automakers invest billion, tens of billions of dollars in order

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<v Speaker 1>to catch up to Tesla. Yeah, that's that's a great question.

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<v Speaker 1>And you know, I think the demand for e V

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<v Speaker 1>has been there the last couple of years, and I

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<v Speaker 1>think what's exasperating and now obviously our our our high

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<v Speaker 1>gas prices. Um. You know, we've been a fortunate to

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<v Speaker 1>be a pretty integral part in developing the EV infrastructure

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<v Speaker 1>here in North America, having installed around twenty thousand d

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<v Speaker 1>C fast chargers across North America. And I think, you

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<v Speaker 1>know what's going to continue to happen is you know,

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<v Speaker 1>larger deployments. I think there's gonna be probably even increased

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<v Speaker 1>demand for electric vehicles, knowing that gas prices are four

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<v Speaker 1>or five and six dollars a gallon. Uh, And I

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<v Speaker 1>think some of the challenges we're seeing now really are

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<v Speaker 1>tied to supply chain, right, you hear everything that's going on,

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<v Speaker 1>But I think that's a blip in the radar, and

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<v Speaker 1>that the the electric vehicle is certainly something that's here

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<v Speaker 1>to stay. We kind of draw akin to what happened

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<v Speaker 1>when air condition became more prevalent in the fifties and sixties,

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<v Speaker 1>and the demand that's going to put on our utility

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<v Speaker 1>infrastructure for the need for power and uh, I think

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<v Speaker 1>that's gonna be something that's gonna play itself out here

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<v Speaker 1>over the next several years pretty quickly. We'll take into

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<v Speaker 1>the supply chain part of it, because I feel like

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<v Speaker 1>we talked about supply chains all the time, but I'm

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<v Speaker 1>not familiar with what you actually need to build an

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<v Speaker 1>e V charging station. Can you walk us through the

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<v Speaker 1>shortcomings on that front? Yeah, so you know, we had

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<v Speaker 1>a b M here. We don't actually build the e

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<v Speaker 1>V charging units. We we contract with over forty o

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<v Speaker 1>e M s across the globe, So our focus tends

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<v Speaker 1>to be more on the actual infrastructure play from the

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<v Speaker 1>design of you know, the power solution that's actually needed

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<v Speaker 1>to get to the charger, and also to ensure that

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<v Speaker 1>our clients have the proper utility to support whatever their

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<v Speaker 1>e V deployment might be to help future proof. What

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<v Speaker 1>do you mean, the proper more than the laser seeing

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<v Speaker 1>right now tend to be on the microchip side, So

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<v Speaker 1>the actual intelligence that you see within these chargers tends

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<v Speaker 1>to be the things slowing things down. Hey, Mark, what

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<v Speaker 1>do you mean when you say, the proper utility. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>so you know what we've found. You know, since EV

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<v Speaker 1>has been around for a while, right, and I think

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<v Speaker 1>it was somewhat, um, you know, fashionable to to go

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<v Speaker 1>ahead and install like one charger at a commercial property,

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<v Speaker 1>whether it's an office building, a retail, or a parking lot. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>But as the demand and increase for EV vehicles will

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<v Speaker 1>grow at a over over the next several years, um,

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of owners, whether you're a mall or a

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<v Speaker 1>uh an employer, are going to have to rethink their

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<v Speaker 1>infrastructure as it relates to their parking. And it's really

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<v Speaker 1>important for anyone that's deciding to deploy an e V

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<v Speaker 1>strategy is to really understand what those demands are going

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<v Speaker 1>to be over the next several years. Otherwise you can

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<v Speaker 1>see yourself paying millions of millions more than you really

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<v Speaker 1>needed to without having the proper design and engineering done

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<v Speaker 1>up front. I feel like when I hear EV infrastructure,

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<v Speaker 1>immediately think of President Biden making a lot of speeches

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<v Speaker 1>about trying to build out this infrastructure and make the

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<v Speaker 1>Unitstates a little bit more energy independent. But I'm curious

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<v Speaker 1>what the relationship is in terms of building out this

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<v Speaker 1>infrastructure and how much support you and your colleagues are

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<v Speaker 1>getting from the fiscal government. Yeah, I think you know,

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of that is going to be funneling through

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<v Speaker 1>the Department of Energy and down through the States. Regarding

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<v Speaker 1>that five billion dollar infrastructure bill that you that you mentioned, Um,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, we're we're really playing well with you know,

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<v Speaker 1>analyzing where those dollars are actually being deployed. But you're

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<v Speaker 1>also seeing a lot of private enterprise going ahead and

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<v Speaker 1>making these investments. Um, they're significant carbon tax offsets that

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<v Speaker 1>can be gained out of deployment of large EV infrastructure. Uh.

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<v Speaker 1>And it's something that is also the right thing to

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<v Speaker 1>do for the environment. Um, how does this end up

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<v Speaker 1>looking ten twenty years from now? And I know that

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<v Speaker 1>you're not the ones you're working on the infrastructure behind these,

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<v Speaker 1>but you know, the corollary that I have is gas stations.

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<v Speaker 1>Do we see gas stations get replaced by e V

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<v Speaker 1>charging stations or or is the is such that the

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<v Speaker 1>way that people drive, they're charging at home, so we

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<v Speaker 1>won't necessarily see a one to one mix here ultimately, Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>and I don't I don't think you know, fossil fuels

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<v Speaker 1>aren't going to go away anytime soon. Right there. We

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<v Speaker 1>learn that this year and heart exactly right. So I

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<v Speaker 1>think you're gonna see you have companies like Electric Fi

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<v Speaker 1>America which are actually building and developing dedicated e V

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<v Speaker 1>stations right where you can have a retail component, you

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<v Speaker 1>can go in and have a great experience as a consumer.

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<v Speaker 1>But you're gonna also see a lot of the larger

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<v Speaker 1>fueling stations across the country pivot and become more of

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<v Speaker 1>a hybrid model, right because they're gonna have to meet

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<v Speaker 1>the demand for the fossil food vehicles that will still

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<v Speaker 1>be around. But then you're gonna see another thirty million

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<v Speaker 1>e V vehicles they're gonna be put on the road

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<v Speaker 1>over the next five years. So um, they're gonna have

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<v Speaker 1>to be able to adapt. And I think the biggest

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<v Speaker 1>question that we've been seeing and hearing a lot from

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<v Speaker 1>our large clients is really the reliability and resiliency of

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<v Speaker 1>our electrical infrastructure and our power good. Right, So now

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<v Speaker 1>we're talking about alternative solutions relative to maintaining that infrastructure

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<v Speaker 1>so that it's when you go to plug in your vehicle,

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<v Speaker 1>it's actually providing you a charge. That's where like micro

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<v Speaker 1>rids and things are becoming more hot time. Yeah, Mark,

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<v Speaker 1>you're joining us from California, my home state, where people

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<v Speaker 1>who live there are familiar with rolling blackouts when it's

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<v Speaker 1>hot as a result of grid management. So you know

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<v Speaker 1>more than anyone all about that. Mark Hawkinson, president of

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<v Speaker 1>the Technical Solutions Group at a b M Industry, is

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<v Speaker 1>joining us via zoom from California. You're listening to Bloomberg

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<v Speaker 1>Business Week on Bloomberg Radio. This is Bloomberg