Car Charging Companies and Investing in Real Estate.

Strange as it sounds in the post real estate fiasco of 2007-2208, a few companies I read about are doing just that. No they are not investing in warehouses, apartments, or houses. What they are interested in is a small piece of real estate the size of your parking spot. In fact, it is you parking spot they are looking for.

What was once a “Chicken or the Egg” debate with Electric cars has been decided for the most part by US government policy. The US is providing many incentives for the development and manufacturing Electric vehicles and its infrastructure. A company such as Tesla Motors would not have been where it is today, or where it will be tomorrow without the benefit of such governmental policies. Other companies the see the writing on the wall,or in this case the cord in the wall, are Car Charging Group Inc. and Better Place. They both have embarked albeit different models to build the US EV infrastructure. Better Place seems to focus on the complete value chain in EV process - from selling their own car for their own charging network (your parking spot), their own chargers and technology.

Their model is complex with little room for flexibility to market reactions. We saw this once before when both Apple Computer and Microsoft first came on to the scene. Apple's approach was similar to Better Place and they never until recently had any serious growth. Microsoft on the other hand used a different model where they licensed their technology to everyone. They went on grow onto a colossus. Car Charging Group Inc., CCGI is taking a similar fundamental approach – the real estate. The more spaces, the more charges the more use. CCGI models allows for agility in the use of multiple technologies. This leaves them with the core business of getting the real estate for the infrastructure (your parking spot). Look at it this way. Many municipalities are holding tenders to purchase EV charges for their cities and CCGI offers them the machines for $0.0 with a revenue share. You do the math.