31
March
2020
|
07:45
Europe/Amsterdam

Fastned grows charging revenues by 178% in 2019

Fast charging company publishes 2019 annual report

Summary

Fastned, the fast charging company that is building a European network of fast charging stations, continued to grow rapidly in 2019. Revenues related to charging increased by 178% to 4.5 million euro. Total revenues, including revenues from station construction as part of service concessions, amounted to 6.4 million euro. Because of the rapid revenue growth, Fastned’s network produced a positive annual Operational EBITDA (underlying company EBITDA excluding expansion costs) for the first time. Operational EBITDA amounted to 0.5 million euro in 2019 (compared to -1.2 million euro in 2018). 

Fastned continued to work towards its mission: to give freedom to electric drivers and accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility. Fastned expanded its fast charging network by opening 29 new stations - bringing it up to 114 stations in total. The capacity of the network further increased by installing new and faster chargers at existing stations. Fastned acquired 47 new locations, bringing this up to a total of 259 acquired locations (including existing stations). As a result of continued investment into the expansion of the network, underlying company EBITDA (including expansion costs) was - as planned - still negative, at -3.3 million euro over 2019 (2018: -3.8 million euro).

The Corona virus outbreak significantly impacts the global economy and Fastned is no exception. As a result of social distancing policies road traffic is currently much reduced. This has resulted in around 70% lower daily sales since mid March, compared to February daily sales. Moreover, Fastned is experiencing delays in the construction of new stations and the upgrading of existing ones. A third effect is that due to temporary car factory shut-downs, the delivery of electric vehicles to the market is likely to be slowed down. It is currently uncertain how long this situation will last. 

Fastned had €19 million in cash and cash equivalents per year end 2019. Fastned cancelled part of its planned capital expenditures to be able to maintain an (increased) minimum cash buffer well into 2021, based on current projections. Note that any projections carry a high degree of uncertainty currently, as it is unclear how long the pandemic will last and what the full impact will be. 

We have taken all relevant measures to guarantee the uptime of our network. Most of the Fastned team now works from home and maintenance is organised in split teams. These measures ensure that the network will continue to operate as usual.

2019 Key Results:

  • Revenue related to charging: 4.5 million euro (+178% vs. 2018)
  • Volume: 8 GWh of renewable energy (+175% vs. 2018)
  • Active customers Q4 2019: 43K (+139% vs. Q4 2018)
  • 6.2 million kg of CO2 avoided
  • 39.8 million electric kilometers enabled
  • Over 0.5 million charging sessions
“One of the most important things that we did this year was prove that charging is a viable business. In 2019 our network started to generate positive operational EBITDA. This happened with less than 1% of cars in our markets being electric and a network utilisation of under 10%. Given that Fastned is in a fixed cost business, just imagine what will happen when 10% of cars are electric as is the case in Norway today. Or 50%.”
Michiel Langezaal, CEO Fastned

Other highlights: 

  • Growth of Fastned’s revenue related to charging of 178% from 2018 to 2019 significantly outpaced growth in Full Electric Vehicles (FEVs) on the road in the Netherlands (+139%) and Germany (+72%).
  • Q4 2019 time based utilisation of our network reached 9.9%, leaving ample room to accommodate further FEV growth with limited additional investments.
  • Station level economics have turned positive, proving the business case. Even at a still very low FEV adoption (c. 1% in Q4 2019), the average station showed a 6.6% Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) based on Q4 2019 annualised revenues (up from -2.8% based on Q4 2018 annualised revenues). We expect this to continue to improve with continued growth in FEV adoption.
  • Fastned successfully launched its proprietary software platform and charging app in January 2020.
  • Network expansion costs increased from 2.6 million euro to 3.8 million euro due to the increased activity in station construction, upgrading existing stations, new location acquisition and software development.
  • A number of exceptional items (as used in calculating non-IFRS measures) were recorded in 2019 resulting in a significant exceptional loss: 1.6 million euro in employee options (non-cash), 1 million euro related to the Euronext listing and 0.5 million euro related to station construction.
  • Fastned reported an underlying net loss (excluding exceptional items) of 9.0 million euro versus 6.9 million euro in 2018. Fastned reported a total net loss of 12.0 million euro versus 6.5 million euro in 2018.

Fastned will publish its Q1 2020 trading update on 9 April. This will be followed by a webcast with a presentation on the same day. Dial in details will be available on Fastned’s website.

 

Download the fully Fastned annual report 2019 here. For the infographic click here. 

 

This press release contains information which qualifies as inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (Market Abuse Regulation).

About Fastned

Fastned is a charging company that is building a European network of fast charging stations. The stations are located at high traffic locations along highways and in cities, where electric cars can add up to 200 km range in 15 minutes. Fastned's mission is to give freedom to electric drivers and accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility. As of today, Fastned has 114 stations operational in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom, and is working on expanding its fast charging network to the rest of Europe. Fastned is currently simultaneously building fast charging stations in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom, and preparing for building its first stations in other countries, with a focus on Belgium, Switzerland and France. Fastned is listed on Euronext Amsterdam (ticker AMS:FAST). More information: fastnedcharging.com.