Engie: heavy losses from the management of charging stations in France and Belgium
EV Box, the electric vehicle charging business of French utility giant Engie, reported another loss for the first quarter of this year, following a loss for the full year 2023, and is expected to post a loss also in 2025, according to what was communicated by the managers on Friday.
Engie on Friday reported a decline in group pre-tax profits for the first quarter, due to falling natural gas prices and consumption. Excluding nuclear, Engie's earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) fell 3.7% in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2023.
Q1 2024 was warmer than Q1 2023 and significantly warmer than average, the company said. Compared to last year, this resulted in a decline in volumes for the gas distribution business in France and for the supply business in France, Engie noted. So the problem of global warming would be that Engie earns less.
EV Box, the division that deals with electric mobility, reported a loss of 24 million dollars (22 million euros) for the 1st quarter, after a loss of 1140 million euros for 2023, the chief financial officer said by Engie Pierre-Francois Riolacci, as reported by Reuters . EV Box is also expected to post a loss next year, the executive said.
Engie has struggled to find a buyer for the loss-making EV charging business, which it acquired in 2017.
“Due to EV Box's losses, as well as the lack of success so far of our measures to identify a potential buyer for this company, the Group is actively examining all options that could lead to disengagement, in accordance with local regulations,” he said. Engie stated in its first quarter earnings release today.
Electric vehicle markets in developed economies have struggled in recent months, due to slower-than-expected EV adoption. The charging infrastructure is evidently too large compared to the market and in any case the maintenance and management of the charging stations costs too much compared to the applied price of electricity. The solution would be simple: increase the costs of electric charging, but this would further slow down the introduction of EV mobility.
While the International Energy Agency (IEA) continues to maintain a very positive outlook on the global electric vehicle market, the automotive industry is concerned about slowing EV sales as subsidies phase out in key markets and for consumers who are not yet convinced of the affordability and autonomy.
Sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the US fell in the first quarter, losing market share, while new car sales in Europe fell in March for the first time this year, dragged by a decline in registrations of electric vehicles and the coincidence with the Easter holidays.
Thanks to our Telegram channel you can stay updated on the publication of new Economic Scenarios articles.
The article Engie: heavy losses from the management of charging stations in France and Belgium comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/engie-pesanti-perdite-dalla-gestione-delle-colonnine-di-ricarica-in-francia-e-belgio/ on Sat, 18 May 2024 08:00:59 +0000.