(Bloomberg) – General Motors Co.’s decision to adapt its electric vehicles to use Tesla Inc.’s network of superchargers has sent shares of other electric vehicle charging station makers teetering.
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EVgo Inc. sank as much as 17% on Friday, its worst day in nearly a month. ChargePoint Holdings, Inc. lost up to 14% and Blink Charging Co. lost up to 10%, its worst intraday loss since February. Beam Global, which designs clean energy systems for charging electric vehicles, lost as much as 5.3%.
GM is the second major automaker to announce it will use Tesla’s charging network. Ford Motor Co. announced a similar move in May. Tesla rose on the news, extending a $200 billion rally into an 11th day. GM was up to 6.5% higher in intraday trading on Friday.
As the pact weighs heavily on other electric vehicle charging companies, the market could overreact, some on Wall Street say.
“We believe the news is overblown, although we recognize that the news calls into question what GM is planning for the long term with EVgo, which has been one of its key charging partners,” wrote analyst Bill Peterson. JPMorgan, in a note.
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JPMorgan continues to view the overweight ChargePoint as well positioned to benefit from areas where Tesla does not compete, such as work, multifamily and fleet. They are less clear on EVgo’s long-term direction, but said the company continues to have important partnerships with other EV makers, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Subaru Corp. It’s likely that even given the news with Tesla, GM could take a multi-faceted approach going forward. JPMorgan has a neutral rating on EVgo.
Bank of America agrees the news is more uncertain for EVgo, for which it has an underperforming rating, even though GM has identified continued commitment to its eXtend business.
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“We anticipate investors will be uncomfortable with the competition as he now has another major partner,” BofA analyst Alex Vrabel said in a note. “In a more direct sense, being the host of the site, EVgo will now be in more direct competition for use with TSLA’s highly reliable network serving more of the future fleet of electric vehicles.”
That’s not a problem for hardware provider ChargePoint, as its network is largely fleet-focused, according to BofA, which reiterated its buy rating on the company.
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